XP machine won't boot outside of safe mode

[band-aid]

This morning I started up my machine and my graphics card fan was making a funny noise. I figured there was some dust or debris so I powered off, took out the card and cleaned it. Its an X800XT PE. I plugged the card back in and rebooted after a thorough cleaning. XP acted like it was starting normally, it got through the XP startup screen then the monitor cut off and rebooted. I booted back to the "windows did not start normally, try one of these options" screens. I booted into safe mode just fine and did a system restore to two days ago. This didn't help. I booted back into safe mode with networking and tried to reinstall my ATI 7.1 catalyst drivers but it would not install them stating that it could not find a compatible driver for my adapter. Fortunately, most important stuff is stored on separate hard drives so if worse comes to worse I can just reformat. I was planning on doing so in a few days anyway.

I'm just hoping that the graphics card isn't toast.

Any suggestions?

 

[setishock]

If your system has onboard video switch over to that and see if it will boot up. If not borrow a vid card and swap out your current for that. See if it boots up.

 

[A True Folder]

I'm just hoping that the graphics card isn't toast.

Any suggestions?

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but I think you'll find this is indeed the case, can you test it in another pc?

 

[band-aid]

I'll see if I can work something out to try it on another machine. When I book the computer in safe mode, the monitor is plugged into the card and it boots just fine. Shouldn't I fail to get any kind of picture at all if the card is fried?

 

[DJ-CHRIS1]

I'll see if I can work something out to try it on another machine. When I book the computer in safe mode, the monitor is plugged into the card and it boots just fine. Shouldn't I fail to get any kind of picture at all if the card is fried?

A card can loose some of it's functionality but still work. To me this sounds like your card is fried, or you have a bad driver problem.

 

[A True Folder]

vga mode in safe mode doesn't run the card with drivers, it is "bare minimum mode" so it will run if the card is defective in safe mode but as soon as you load up drivers and push the card to perform it will crash.

The whole "I booted back into safe mode with networking and tried to reinstall my ATI 7.1 catalyst drivers but it would not install them stating that it could not find a compatible driver for my adapter." issue tells me that the card is not being recognised, ergo it is faulty.

 

[band-aid]

Fixed it, apparently it wasn't seated correctly or something. All I had to do was pop it out and back in again. Weird how it was not in correctly but still displayed correctly to the monitor. Oh well.