Yet another GeForce 5200FX problem

I browsed through about 15 pages before posting this just in case someone had the same problem (this is after an extensive Google search as well) and while it seems that a lot of people are having similar problems or parts of my problem, so far no remedies or suggestions have worked. So here's what I've got.

In short, I either get a loss of signal message (best case) or a critical stop/reboot (worst case) anytime I try to view video in any form. Occasionally, if the video is short or low-quality, I'll get by with just a bit of flickering of the screen, which quits when I go back to not viewing video. One of these three things will happen regardless of the video source or type.

These problems first became evident back in March when the screen randomly started flickering and dodging and then I lost my video signal and couldn't get it back. I managed to fix it then by starting in safe mode, updating some drivers and updating Windows. I chocked it up to either a driver problem or a driver conflict in some form with a recent update and went on my merry way.

Then around July or August, I began to have problems with my computer locking up when I watched live TV on my computer. I have a rather old Hauppage WinTV card (so old in fact that I'd have to dig out the manual to be able to tell you the precise model...though I think I got it about 5 years ago) so I just figured that there was some problem with it, maybe an undetected conflict or maybe just some driver troubles. I was lucky that Hauppage still uses about the same kind of chipset on their cards and that drivers for my card are still available in their updated driver packages. I updated the driver and installed a newer version of the software and things went well for awhile, until I started getting major freezes, blinking, dodging, and total video signal loss initially again from using my TV card and then later from any video viewing activity.

Since then, I have tried updating the drivers to just about anything on my system that might affect it, dusting out my case hardcore, reinstalling Windows (which I really needed to do anyway), using third-party drivers, using old drivers, using beta drivers, trying to play video after a restart, after a cold start, after a cold start in a 65 degree room with the side of the case off (brr, btw)...pretty much anything I can think of.

I should probably also note that I haven't been having any other problems with anything, so I've pretty well been able to narrow it down to the video card. It also doesn't hurt that when I get random restarts from stop errors that when Windows tells me that it has "recovered from a serious error" and I tell it to go ahead and report it, Microsoft comes back and tells me that it was a stop error in the video driver and they have no clue what went wrong. Of course, they rarely ever do.

Here are my specs:
P4 2.4 gHz HT
1.25 gb PC3200 RAM
2 HD (80 gb master, 200 gb slave; IDE connected)
Iwill P4SE series mobo
Windows XP sp2, up-to-date
Hauppage WinTV-GO tuner card
Soundblaster Audigy 2
nVidia GeForce 5200FX
450W power supply
NEC MultiSync LCD 1550M

If I left something out that you need to know, just ask. I could use a little help here.

 

Does no one have a suggestion?

 

Ok so you have had a pretty stressful time with this computer/videocard you seem to have tried most of the fixes,the card may be dead further stress may be overcome simply by buying a new card, you can pick one up really cheap theres no shame in accepting defeat

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121527

A few things you can try,have you installed the latest drivers for your motherboard?I have searched the IWill site but cant find anything that matches your board could you double check the model number it will be wrote on the motherboard in the middle,also is this a store bought computer?I know a few of the big companies like gateway have used Iwill boards so post the model number eg.dell dimension 2000

A bios update may also help,as would setting up the bios to be configured to your hardware,again for this you will have to post the exact name of the motherboard or search for the updated bios through the computer manufacturer

 

I'm going to throw this into the debate. I know it's a grey area...

Look for your AGP Aperture Size setting in the BIOS. Check that it is set to 64 or 128mb.

 

AGP aperture size...now *that's* something I'd have never thought of. I'll look into that next time I bother to reboot. At this point, I'll try just about anything.

In the end, I'll probably wind up getting a new video card anyway. I'm just so cheap, I don't want to pay for a new one, so *if* I can make this one work again (and there's no good reason why it should break down on me; I've been so good to it) my bank account would love me for it.

My precise motherboard model is an Iwill P4SE (865PE). Computer is not store bought - I built it about 2 1/2 years ago. Hmm...I guess it might be a good time to start some upgrades. I wonder who I can con into buying me parts...