Very Bizarre Problem

I've got a problem...

Friday
Installed CREATIVE AUDIGY 2 sound card Friday morning. Worked fine.

Friday evening I installed a 200GB 7200rpm SEAGATE HDD and replaced three 80mm CASE FANS (molex connectors) with 3 new 80mm CASE FANS with 3pin connectors connected to FAN CONTROLLER. Graphics quite literally ****ed - alternating black & white lines appear on screen, and then Windows restarts itself.

Removed fan controller. Added 3pin-molex converters to case fans. No change, graphics still ****ed.

Disconnected new HD. No change.

Reconnected new HD, disconnected old HD. Partitioned & installed Windows XP Home SP2. Installed motherboard drivers, restarted, installed graphics drivers, and got a 'ZERO DISPLAY SERVICE ERROR'. Restarted, same problem. Tried three different types of drivers, the latest ATI ones, the ones I was using before, and the OMEGA drivers. None worked.

Removed sound card and reinserted graphics card. No change.

Removed case fans. No change.

Tried a different monitor. No change.

Went to sleep.

Saturday & Sunday
Computer fairy did her magic (I don't have a ****ing clue -_-). Computer worked fine for the entire weekend with all my hardware connected (including the new HDD, case fans & sound card) and all drivers installed.

Monday
Worked fine Monday morning.

Got home from work Monday evening and was greeted by the same problem.

Removed video capture card. Problem gone. Fixed?

A few hours later, same problem.

Tweaked around with some nonessential BIOS settings (AGP fast write, aperture size, agp 8x toggle, HDD S.M.A.R.T, etc.). No change. Gave up.

Tuesday
Pretty much same as Monday. Worked in the morning, broken in the evening for about 30 minutes and then seemed to fix itself.

Wednesday
Worked fine in the morning and even worked fine in the evening. A few hours later, the computer hangs and I get the same problem again. Then for the rest of the evening Windows would manage to boot but then hang after a few minutes. The screen would freeze for a second or two and then go black. Strangely, the sound would still work (music still playing and even the media hotkeys worked) and I could even type things.

Thursday
Same problem for Thursday morning as Wednesday evening. Lasts about 5 minutes before hanging.


Notes
Booting Windows in Safe Mode always works.
KNOPPIX works.
CPU temperature varies on usage, but always above 40 and below about 50. Average 42ish. Case temperature 30ish. Graphics card temp 36ish (last time I checked).

Specs
AMD Athlon XP 3000 (default cooler)
MSI nForce 2 K7 (default 'safe' settings)
2x 512MB PC3200 (dual-channel disabled)
ATI Radeon 9600XT (AGP 8x & fast write enabled - cache video BIOS disabled - AGP aperture size 256MB)
Creative Audigy 2
Sony DVD+RW (connected to secondary master)
2x 7200RPM HDD (Seagate 200GB [primary master], Western Digital 120GB [primary slave])
1x 3.5" Floppy drive
3x 80mm case fans
1x HDD cooler (2x 50mm fans)

Conclusion
...

T_T

btw

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Supersonic1425/Other/mbm-dashboard.png

 

thats a long post!
anyways.. so its ur grahics card thats causing the problems right (black & lines)? do u get those lines in ur BIOS too, or only in windows? have u tried using another video card?

 

I just get the corrupted display when I try to boot Windows with the Radeon drivers installed. I don't get the corruption in BIOS, nor do I get them in Windows Safe Mode, or even when I boot Windows normally with no graphics drivers installed (as I am now). Also, Linux works too, but I expect that's also because the radeon graphics drivers aren't installed.

Basically, I only get this problem when I boot Windows with the Radeon drivers installed (doesn't matter which version of the drivers, I've tried several)

 

Doesn't Xp install the best drivers on the fly.Trying to insdtall off the CD could be the prob.

 

if u have graphics corruptions before windows is loaded (ie the drivers are loaded) it is very likely that ur video memory is faulty. but if its working in linux or safemode u should be fine.. so it must be a driver issue. i recommend u get a copy of Driver Cleaner, run it (read the instructions first!), and do a clean driver installation. Also make sure ur using the newest drivers for all your hardware, maybe it would also be good to update the mobo bios.

 

Since I got the exact same problem after a clean installation of Windows, I think I can be safe in assuming that the problem is not caused by residue being left by an old driver installation.

re: franklin. The default Windows XP drivers are NOT the best ones. No 3D & abysmal 2D performance are not what I expect from any computer, let alone mine.

 

true, but u can still have conflicting drivers... hence i recommended updating all the drivers.. by the way, reinstalling windows doesnt mean that there are no leftovers

 

All drivers were up to date when I tried it, in addition to the BIOS.

Also,
Delete partition.
Format as NTFS
Install Windows.

How the hell can you get leftovers after that?

 

I found this relating to the same problem as you, it may/maynot help but its worth a try?

You may consider using these settings in your BIOS to help troubleshoot your issue. If you are changing any of the options in your BIOS, please be sure to note what you are changing and what it was set to initially.

NOTE: These options may vary depending on the type/version of your system. You may or may not have all these options. Please consider changing the settings that correspond to those listed below.

- Video BIOS Shadow and Video BIOS Cacheable – DISABLED

- C8000-CBFFFF Shadow and CC000-CFFFF – DISABLED

- AGP Aperture size – 64 MB

- AGP Turbo – DISABLED

- VGA Frame Buffer and Primary Frame Buffer – DISABLED

- PnP OS installed – YES

- Assign IRQ for VGA – ENABLED

- Resource Control – AUTO

- AGP Bus Mastering – ENABLED

- VGA Palette Snooping – DISABLED

- Disable any UCSW or Write Combine options in the CMOS

- Disable any manual configuration of PCI by setting these options to AUTO

- System Bios Cacheable – DISABLED

- Video BIOS Mode Cache – UC

- Try lowering the AGP support (i.e. from AGP 8X/4X to AGP 2X).

If this resolves the issue, you may consider contacting the motherboard/chipset vendor for more information regarding the GART support available on the motherboard/chipset.


Also you have added a lot of hardware in there, do make sure your PSU is up to the job as this can sometimes cause random problems. a small fluctuation in power can cause a massive impact on memory and ati cards are notoriously power greedy when they "kick in" ie doing anything related to 2d and 3d. note bios only uses the GCard to get to the monitor it will not turn on any advanced functions of the card which is why bios and safe mode may seem to work but when "driven" things go wrong.

 

beats me...

 

in addition to my note below, i just realised my old Nvidia Card used to give me some problems if id had the pc on too long, when i upgraded to my ati 9800 pro i decided to just have a look at the old one, and how/why/when i do not know but one of the capacitors on the Gcard was slightly away from the board and was obviously in a state of "close to bursting" it was fat as pie undernieth it, i can only imagine this bugga had got too hot at some point and all my problems of crashing games and corrupt graphics were down to this one component situated very close and across the power lines of the GPU chip. if nothing seems to work for you at all, ( bios upgrade, reinstall, drivers gallor) then have a close look at all the components on the board, you never know. not everything gets shipped out in perfect condition and somethings can happen for no reason at all. worth a look. the origin of my quote is http://nils.jeppe.de/Article/391/
it mentions increasing the AGP voltage from default to 1.7 or 1.8, i did this with my 9800 to 1.6 after i had graphics problems and it worked for me.

 

I see your Specs are so many, how about your PSU capacity ?

 

To me it looks like the straw that broke the camels back,that extra hd may have pushed your psu too far,one spec you have left out is the name/brand of your psu,everything thats written on the side of it how long you'v had it,did it come with the case?

Olley a repartitioned,reformatted drive will have no drivers left on it at all,unless the fbi was tryna get you for tax evasion

 

400w

28A on +3.3V
40A on +5V
18A on +12V
1A on -5V
1A on -12V
3A on -5Vsb

Had for 6ish months.

ANYWAY, it works now.

I just replaced my CPU heatsink & fan, and now it works fine. Don't ask me why, I don't know -_- All I know is it's been working without a problem for the past 3 days with all the hardware installed & functional, and I'm not complaining >_>

Indeed, especially a brand new, newly partitioned & formatted hard drive