Solve : Video card problems..please help!?

1.	Solve : Video card problems..please help!?
Answer» When I start up my laptop, the BIOS screen and Windows LOADING screen are jumbled, and this leads to a blue screen page fault. However, I can start up in safe mode just fine, and after uninstalling all my video card drivers, I can start up in normal mode as well, but Vista automatically reinstalls them and the problem happens again. There's no WAY for me to cancel the reinstall. I've gotten the BIOS to start up with no jumbling a couple of times, but I'm not exactly sure why. In these cases, the jumbling appears about halfway into the Windows loading screen, which leads me to believe this issue is driver-related. However, I can't get any more recent drivers to install besides the ones giving me problems. If this was just my video card being shot, wouldn't I also get scrambling in Windows? Could it possibly be a RAM or software issue that I could fix without replacing my entire computer?First of all, you should probably stop using the acronym BIOS. A sincerely doubt you mean bios. EXACTLY what do you see when you boot and how far does the boot get? Second, if the driver is a 3rd party driver then Windows CANNOT automatically reinstall it if you actually uninstall it. 1) How are you uninstalling the video card driver? 2) Where did you get the driver? 3) What led up to this (what happened between the last time the system booted normally and the first time it didn't)? Quote from: Allan on August 09, 2010, 03:06:22 PM First of all, you should probably stop using the acronym BIOS. A sincerely doubt you mean bios. EXACTLY what do you see when you boot and how far does the boot get? Second, if the driver is a 3rd party driver then Windows CANNOT automatically reinstall it if you actually uninstall it. 1) How are you uninstalling the video card driver? 2) Where did you get the driver? 3) What led up to this (what happened between the last time the system booted normally and the first time it didn't)? I'm sure that I do mean BIOS, but okay. My BIOS splash screen is jumbled, and it's also jumbled when I enter the menu, but not so jumbled as to be unreadable. The Windows load screen is also jumbled, with only the loading bar visible. I get a blue screen after Vista finishes loading, and the computer shuts down. With my nVidia card disabled, it boots normally, but the jumbling is still there most of the time. 1. From Device Manager. I uninstall the nVidia drivers completely and attempt to install a different (updated) driver set after I reboot, but Vista automatically reinstalls and re-enables the device. 2. The current one was shipped with my computer. I can't update it, as I said, newer drivers from the nVidia site and Sony site simply refuse to install, saying they're incompatible, despite the fact that they were made for my exact model of PC and video card. 3. Absolutely nothing. I just got a blue screen out of nowhere today, and since then, I've had this problem. System restore to a month ago didn't help. Quote from: Compulsory on August 09, 2010, 03:32:05 PM I'm sure that I do mean BIOS, but okay. My BIOS splash screen is jumbled, Okay. What is a bios splash screen? And why are you entering the bios in the first place? and it's also jumbled when I enter the menu, but not so jumbled as to be unreadable. The Windows load screen is also jumbled, with only the loading bar visible. I get a blue screen after Vista finishes loading, and the computer shuts down. With my nVidia card disabled, it boots normally, but the jumbling is still there most of the time. 1. From Device Manager. I uninstall the nVidia drivers completely and attempt to install a different (updated) driver set after I reboot, but Vista automatically reinstalls and re-enables the device. That's not how you uninstall a driver. If it is third party driver you can boot to safe mode, go to ADD/REMOVE and uninstall the driver from there. THAT will uninstall the driver. If you never actually installed a third party driver, there will not be an entry in ADD/REMOVE 2. The current one was shipped with my computer. I can't update it, as I said, newer drivers from the nVidia site and Sony site simply refuse to install, saying they're incompatible, despite the fact that they were made for my exact model of PC and video card. Laptop drivers MUST be downloaded from the laptop manufacturer's website only. Drivers downloaded from nvida's site will not work. If the driver from the Sony site doesn't install you should probably contact Sony (assuming you are certain that you are trying to install the correct driver). 3. Absolutely nothing. I just got a blue screen out of nowhere today, and since then, I've had this problem. System restore to a month ago didn't help. What is the exact and total blue screen error message? I'm sorry, but you are obviously not qualified to help me with this problem. Just so you know, uninstalling the nVidia drivers from add/remove programs launches the exact same uninstaller as doing it from the device manager, and Vista reinstalls them automatically on restart anyway. However, I did manage to manually delete the folder with these drivers so this isn't happening anymore. I still cannot install any different drivers from the ones that come with my restore disc. The blue screen is a generic "Page Fault in Nonpaged Area", which could mean anything. You know. A page fault, like I said. The easy answer is to replace the laptop, but I've heard of people fixing these problems by reinstalling their drivers, so I am basically hoping somebody has an idea of how I can do this or why it's telling me they are incompatible. Sony will charge me $40 just to ASK. For the record, it's a Vaio with an nVidia GeForce8400M GT card. Quote from: Compulsory on August 09, 2010, 04:10:16 PM I'm sorry, but you are obviously not qualified to help me with this problem. Okay. if the video is jumbled at the BIOS splash screens or in their menus. by any amount at all, it's a hardware problem, not driver related. The REASON you are getting blue screens with the NVidia driver and the "normal" (generic, safemode, what it uses when you disable the Nvidia driver) driver works/sorta works is because the generic driver isn't trying anything specific; it's telling the video card to perform actions that almost all video cards will support. This also means no support for anything 3-d or fancy or anything. What is probably happening is the NVidia driver, as with any driver, tries to communicate with the card, and because of various hardware based faults it's getting unexpected responses to the IO commands to the point where it has a problem (tries to allocate too much memory, tries to access a null pointer, whatever) and blue screens. Normally, the "jumbled text" issue with text-based applications (such as the BIOS) are caused by problems with Graphics memory; these could be the cause of all your problems, in fact. Since, however, many laptops use a shared memory architecture, it could also be your system RAM. If your system is using shared Graphics memory, I'd go ahead and run memtest86 on it- first reduce any "shared graphics memory" option in the BIOS to as low as it will go (thus allowing more RAM to be tested by memtest86). Also, if you do have an option to use "dedicated Video RAM" (or SOMETHING to that affect) try disabling it (thus using system RAM) and see if that clears up your problem. Quote I'm sorry, but you are obviously not qualified to help me with this problem. Quote from: Allan on August 09, 2010, 04:14:46 PM Okay. Classic.... Next...

Answer»

When I start up my laptop, the BIOS screen and Windows LOADING screen are jumbled, and this leads to a blue screen page fault. However, I can start up in safe mode just fine, and after uninstalling all my video card drivers, I can start up in normal mode as well, but Vista automatically reinstalls them and the problem happens again. There's no WAY for me to cancel the reinstall.

I've gotten the BIOS to start up with no jumbling a couple of times, but I'm not exactly sure why. In these cases, the jumbling appears about halfway into the Windows loading screen, which leads me to believe this issue is driver-related. However, I can't get any more recent drivers to install besides the ones giving me problems.

If this was just my video card being shot, wouldn't I also get scrambling in Windows? Could it possibly be a RAM or software issue that I could fix without replacing my entire computer?First of all, you should probably stop using the acronym BIOS. A sincerely doubt you mean bios. EXACTLY what do you see when you boot and how far does the boot get? Second, if the driver is a 3rd party driver then Windows CANNOT automatically reinstall it if you actually uninstall it.

1) How are you uninstalling the video card driver?
2) Where did you get the driver?
3) What led up to this (what happened between the last time the system booted normally and the first time it didn't)? Quote from: Allan on August 09, 2010, 03:06:22 PM

First of all, you should probably stop using the acronym BIOS. A sincerely doubt you mean bios. EXACTLY what do you see when you boot and how far does the boot get? Second, if the driver is a 3rd party driver then Windows CANNOT automatically reinstall it if you actually uninstall it.

1) How are you uninstalling the video card driver?
2) Where did you get the driver?
3) What led up to this (what happened between the last time the system booted normally and the first time it didn't)?

I'm sure that I do mean BIOS, but okay. My BIOS splash screen is jumbled, and it's also jumbled when I enter the menu, but not so jumbled as to be unreadable. The Windows load screen is also jumbled, with only the loading bar visible. I get a blue screen after Vista finishes loading, and the computer shuts down. With my nVidia card disabled, it boots normally, but the jumbling is still there most of the time.

1. From Device Manager. I uninstall the nVidia drivers completely and attempt to install a different (updated) driver set after I reboot, but Vista automatically reinstalls and re-enables the device.
2. The current one was shipped with my computer. I can't update it, as I said, newer drivers from the nVidia site and Sony site simply refuse to install, saying they're incompatible, despite the fact that they were made for my exact model of PC and video card.
3. Absolutely nothing. I just got a blue screen out of nowhere today, and since then, I've had this problem. System restore to a month ago didn't help. Quote from: Compulsory on August 09, 2010, 03:32:05 PM

I'm sure that I do mean BIOS, but okay. My BIOS splash screen is jumbled,

Okay. What is a bios splash screen? And why are you entering the bios in the first place?

and it's also jumbled when I enter the menu, but not so jumbled as to be unreadable. The Windows load screen is also jumbled, with only the loading bar visible. I get a blue screen after Vista finishes loading, and the computer shuts down. With my nVidia card disabled, it boots normally, but the jumbling is still there most of the time.

1. From Device Manager. I uninstall the nVidia drivers completely and attempt to install a different (updated) driver set after I reboot, but Vista automatically reinstalls and re-enables the device.

That's not how you uninstall a driver. If it is third party driver you can boot to safe mode, go to ADD/REMOVE and uninstall the driver from there. THAT will uninstall the driver. If you never actually installed a third party driver, there will not be an entry in ADD/REMOVE

2. The current one was shipped with my computer. I can't update it, as I said, newer drivers from the nVidia site and Sony site simply refuse to install, saying they're incompatible, despite the fact that they were made for my exact model of PC and video card.

Laptop drivers MUST be downloaded from the laptop manufacturer's website only. Drivers downloaded from nvida's site will not work. If the driver from the Sony site doesn't install you should probably contact Sony (assuming you are certain that you are trying to install the correct driver).

3. Absolutely nothing. I just got a blue screen out of nowhere today, and since then, I've had this problem. System restore to a month ago didn't help.

What is the exact and total blue screen error message?

I'm sorry, but you are obviously not qualified to help me with this problem. Just so you know, uninstalling the nVidia drivers from add/remove programs launches the exact same uninstaller as doing it from the device manager, and Vista reinstalls them automatically on restart anyway. However, I did manage to manually delete the folder with these drivers so this isn't happening anymore. I still cannot install any different drivers from the ones that come with my restore disc.

The blue screen is a generic "Page Fault in Nonpaged Area", which could mean anything. You know. A page fault, like I said.

The easy answer is to replace the laptop, but I've heard of people fixing these problems by reinstalling their drivers, so I am basically hoping somebody has an idea of how I can do this or why it's telling me they are incompatible. Sony will charge me $40 just to ASK. For the record, it's a Vaio with an nVidia GeForce8400M GT card. Quote from: Compulsory on August 09, 2010, 04:10:16 PM

I'm sorry, but you are obviously not qualified to help me with this problem.

Okay. if the video is jumbled at the BIOS splash screens or in their menus. by any amount at all, it's a hardware problem, not driver related.

The REASON you are getting blue screens with the NVidia driver and the "normal" (generic, safemode, what it uses when you disable the Nvidia driver) driver works/sorta works is because the generic driver isn't trying anything specific; it's telling the video card to perform actions that almost all video cards will support. This also means no support for anything 3-d or fancy or anything.

What is probably happening is the NVidia driver, as with any driver, tries to communicate with the card, and because of various hardware based faults it's getting unexpected responses to the IO commands to the point where it has a problem (tries to allocate too much memory, tries to access a null pointer, whatever) and blue screens.
Normally, the "jumbled text" issue with text-based applications (such as the BIOS) are caused by problems with Graphics memory; these could be the cause of all your problems, in fact. Since, however, many laptops use a shared memory architecture, it could also be your system RAM. If your system is using shared Graphics memory, I'd go ahead and run memtest86 on it- first reduce any "shared graphics memory" option in the BIOS to as low as it will go (thus allowing more RAM to be tested by memtest86).

Also, if you do have an option to use "dedicated Video RAM" (or SOMETHING to that affect) try disabling it (thus using system RAM) and see if that clears up your problem. Quote

I'm sorry, but you are obviously not qualified to help me with this problem.

Quote from: Allan on August 09, 2010, 04:14:46 PM

Okay.

Classic....

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Solve : Video card problems..please help!?

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