Odd computer problem

[rackarn]

Most of you guys are good with computers so I thought I'd throw the question out here.

My computer's been working fine, I just got back from being gone a couple days and I turn it on, works fine up to the windows vista login screen. I punch in my password and it says welcome, thinks for a while, then screen goes black. I can see the HD light lit for a while then it stops. Nothing happens. Black screen. I can see my mouse however and move it around...

I reset after waiting like 10 min to see if it actually goes forward, which it didn't. So I'm given the option to startup in safe mode etc, I choose safe mode with networking. Everything starts up and I'm here typing this...

So I don't know what to do... what do I look at or get a new/older driver for?
I'm on a sony viao vgn-ar61m.

What should I be doing to troubleshoot everything?

Is there another forum or something I should take a look at or ask for help from?

 

[rackarn]

Ok, I totally uninstalled my geforce card in safemode and restarted.

Now I'm fully loaded into windows. I'm taking it though that it's not using my geforce card to show the display?

So I'm currently downloading display drivers for the card.
I'm guessing if it doesn't want to isntall and or screen messes up and goes black again etc that there must be a problem with the graphics card.

Hoping that everything goes smooth though... so odd it would just out of the blue not work...

 

[rackarn]

installed the geforce drivers and now I'm back to where i started....

So I take it my graphics card is blown...

Sigh.

 

[JimJohnson]

Sounds like it, those are typically things I associate with video card hardware failures.

 

[Krugerr]

If you uninstall the drivers and then it works ok, the Graphics card is fine, and its the drivers your using, I had a similar problem about 2 months ago, Booted my Laptop up one morning to find the drivers were corrupt and i had a resolution of about 200x300 and couldnt adjust it.

My suggestion, Try an older driver version. See if that solves it.

 

[rackarn]

i can always get to safe mode but i cant always get back to the "full" version...

i had uninstalled the graphics card and restarted, and it didnt work, although it worked the first time around.

Now i'm back in safe mode and unsure what to do.

Sometimes I can get all the way, sometimes I can't. But safemode always works. Dunno if that means the graphics card is functional and the drivers just aren't?

Oh well. Guess I should go in with it to some expert someplace.

 

[jesusweeni]

just wondering what geforce card it is, for everquest it keeps asking me for the new drivers to play but i tried them for my 6150 and half of my other games wouldnt work correctly, i got a driver from 2 months ago and works perfect....

System specs could help us determine any other problems maybe...

Do you use window vista theme>? if so it steals alot of video memory and might try to switch to windows classic

 

[hankdean]

??...

soo ur video card works fine in safe mode....meaning your video card works fine...

restart your computer normally and see if you can ctrl+alt+del during the black screen. if it brings up your task manager it means ur OS is loading and you may not be completely fubared. sounds like somethings not working correctly obviously...but it sounds like a software conflict during startup. again i think this because doesnt safe mode also not allow startup programs n such? also what r the specs on ur system....my nifty lil hp goes to the black screen sometimes during boot and i feel it takes forever for my desktop to pop up n start menu etc,,,not ten minute..but i have 2gigs of ram...i can very well believe that any less could possibly create such issues. regardless...post up....try the taskmanager route..see what process's r running that don't need to be during startup n disable them...if that doesn't work...i dunno.

EDIT::: check ur ram. i dunno how..but check it. check ur available video ram and see if all your ram is working. i actually googled it n several people had bad ram causing massive problems trying to efficiently boot vista.

 

[[40oz]]

Video card working in safe mode does not mean the video card is fine. It usually means the drivers are having issues, or something in Windows itself, but it does not guarantee your video card is good.

OP - Try this:

1. Boot to safe mode. (Press F8 just before the Vista splash screen to bring up that menu)
2. Uninstall your video card drivers through Control Panel -> Programs and Features (DO NOT REBOOT YET)
3. Continue looking in there; if you find anything about Monitor Drivers, uninstall those as well
4. Right click "Computer" and go to "Manage" (accept the UAC prompt, if prompted)
5. Go to the Device Manager
6. Right click and uninstall anything under Display Adapters that isn't "Generic xxx"
7. Right click and uninstall anything under Monitors
8. Reboot

At this point, I like to use manufacturer drivers, so I would grab the ones from nvidia for the appropriate model in your Vaio, and also grab drivers for your Monitor if they exist (if it's a laptop, check with sony's webpage for appropriate monitor drivers)

If putting on those don't work, follow the same procedure to clean up and try drivers from the computer manufacturer that they recommend and see if it works from there.

If that doesn't work, I'd reinstall Windows.

If that doesn't work, now you gotta spend money on hardware. Your video card is likely bad, but just for shits and giggles try a different monitor if you have one to be sure.

Edit: I always assume you have more time than money. If you have more money then time, send me the computer and I'll fix it and send it back with a bill =P Or you can just drop in a new video card and test with that (if it's not a laptop) but if Windows is hosed it may not work anyhow.