Graphics Card problems! Help URGENTLY Needed!

[lambada]

Well, seeing as I really don't think nVidia support are going to be much help.... despite my detailed opening support thread thing they only picked up on the screen flickering... the other problems (redraw and STOP error) haven't even been noted by the people giving me support there.

I currently have an nVidia GeForce 4 MX 440 (Yes, it's an old PC) on Win XP, and it is causing my PC to not redraw areas correctly, The screen blacks out every so often (as if there's no back-light) about once every three seconds while I type this :@ and I'm even getting a driver STOP error causing me to reboot (and this usually happens before it loads the nVidia Control Panel Icon.

I have the latest driver for my card and it has made no effect. Not even an uninstall of the driver (causing windows to revert back to it's 600 x 800 or whatever it is 16 bit mode, then performing a re-download and installation helps.

Also, it's not the monitor as the monitor works fine on any other PC and also works fine on my Linux installation on this machine. Hence a driver problem.

Any ideas as to what I could do guys... and a new card is out of the question. I just want to be able to type my god damn essay on it!

Any help?

Bye

[GamingX]

I think for the time being, you should just remove the graphics card until you get over the essay. Does the graphics card work on Linux?

[lambada]

Er... how am I meant to type the essay if I don't have a graphics card to plug the monitor into?

And it works fine on linux - hence the reason why I think it's a driver problem. Unfortunately all my college work is on the ntfs partition of my hard-drive. Something which Linux has trouble reading and writing to.

[Slothie]

You graphics card has probably reached its EOL.

Things to try:

Installing an OLD driver, the new ones aren't too compatible with the GF4 Series, you might want to try one from ngohq.com

Taking a rubber and rubbing it against the AGP / PCI connectors.

Cleaning the fan

Getting a new graphics card.

[Sharky]

I remember reading that when it goes to black it is checking for whether something's plugged in to the TV OUT port... Was looking in to it today as mine does it once at startup. Apparently it's also changing the resolution to 800x600 (standard TV-OUT res?).

What forceware release are you using? I have the 440 GO in my laptop and I'm using forceware 77.79 I think, with no problems. (I'm assuming the TV OUT isn't unique to the laptop version 440 'Go').

[lambada]

I never realised Graphics cards have an EoL. How long do they usually last? Mines about 5 or 6 years old if I'm counting correctly.

As for the drivers i'm using the one they just told me to install for troubleshooting - Forceware 84.21
I'll remember that ngohp.com site though - thanks for that!

The rubber suggestion is definitely interesting - I've never heard that suggested before. What exactly will it do?

I've already cleaned all the parts of my PC as that is one of my usually cleaning regime. I only cleaned them about 2 weeks ago, although this has been happening for longer, it's just almost unmanageable now.

There's nothing in the TV out port - I don't think mine even has one! :P

Sorry for all the questions, graphics cards aren't the area of my expertise.