Tech Support Guy banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

I need help ASAP

2K views 31 replies 5 participants last post by  tjamnz 
#1 ·
On monday I bought a s-joy adapter (to hook a playstation 2 controller up to a computer via usb). When I plugged it in, and put in the floppy disk to install the drivers...everything went to hell. I went to my computer - the floppy drive, then clicked the installation .exe and the computer froze. So I unplugged it then tried to turn it back on and it wouldn't boot all the way, would hang at the windows screen. Then finally I got it to boot in safe mode, but once it did it froze again. So I kept trying over and over. I got it to boot a couple times, but it would freeze after a few minutes. I did a system restore to see if that would fix anything, but it didn't. Then, I'd try booting it, then it would get to the windows screen, and my left monitor would turn off and my right one would say "no signal" or whatever it says.

Soooo, I'm thinking its the video card/video card drivers. Is there a way to find out? When I get it to boot, and just leave it alone for a while, the screen will get all kinds of messed up, random shaky lines everywhere, even a huge collage of different colors and symbols (actually pretty awesome looking, haha)

But yeah. There's the problem.... my classes are online this semester so I really need some help as soon as possible. Thanks guys.
 
#3 ·
reboot hit f8, safe mode, > right click my computer > manage > device (hardware) manager... you should be able to figure out things from there. There are also driver options as well under properties etc..

or if your monitors still wont work.. hit F2 upon reboot. Select verbose mode if you can in setup... so as you POST you can see whats going on with your hardware.
 
#6 ·
flyskimma said:
I've tried updating every driver possible. The computer turns on consistently now, but it runs for about 10 minutes then freezes.

AHHH this is driving me insane! Any ideas?
A common symptom for comuters locking up can be adware, viruses, the power supply can cause these issues too. "too little voltage etc", a bad cmos battery. I even had a hard drive with a bunch of bad sectors cause a similar type of problem (pc locking up after about 5 to 10 minutes). Your best best would be too take it to a notebook repair shop... that way they could at least identify the problem, with some software and or hardware related tools.

There are obviously other issues that could cause this, but the ones i mentioned are usually the most common in my exp..
 
#8 ·
flyskimma said:
I just changed the power supply, no change.

Anything else I could try before taking it somewhere?
Back up your files (with that 10 minutes you have before crash) and re-install windows.
If it doesnt work after that... You'll need a repair shop. Like i said you may need a new hard drive. Unfortunately there few other possibilities.

I would attempt a reinstall for sure. (if it fails... its hardware related issue)
 
#11 ·
You said: "random shaky lines everywhere, even a huge collage of different colors and symbols (actually pretty awesome looking, haha)"

Your computer had been hijacked by Alien forces from the planet Nepton, take a hammer and immediately smash it into a thousand pieces.
 
#12 ·
backing up your files is easy... all you need to do is get a usb flash drive (id recomment at least 1 gig, theyre inexpensive now) all's you have to do is create a folder (drag n drop), or right click > copy/paste - into your new folder, any files you want to save, (music files, microsoft office docs, etc...) (make a handwritten list of your programs to reistall later)

Then after youve got every file you want to save, right click the folder and send to your d: drive (cd/dvd burner (rw drive "same thing") and its all pretty straight forward after that. or you can send to any other drive like your flash drive (drive e) (every drive will have a letter assigned, but it depends on the order they were installed in the system)

Yeah... like bonk said... try seating the video card again. If you dont have a video card that means you have an onboard video card built into the motherboard.

BTW... what kind of computer do you have? notebook, desktop? make and model and what kind of gear etc?

thanks
 
#13 ·
hehe, i'd need 250 flash drives then! sooo much media, ugh.

I'm not sure about exact model numbers off the top of my head, but it's something like this;

(oh and its a desktop)
Gigabyte mobo
amd 3000+ @ 2.2ghz
72gb raptor hdd
250gb seagate hdd (i believe)
2 gigs of ram, all patriot i think
ati radeon 9800 pro
powmax 400w psu

I'll try taking out the ram/video card and putting them back in
 
#14 ·
borrow an inexpensive crt and/or lcd monitor from a buddy if possible, and let me know if it works out. Ive seen a few brand new lcd monitors do some crazy stuff out of the box a few times at the last company i worked for, within a short time, screen freaking out etc...(had to be sent back, replaced)
 
#21 ·
they just might replace it for free. wow!

tiger direct has many inexpensive cards that are pretty good. other that that... run to best buy and pick up a new card for 30 to 40 range. Youll be good to go. if your mobo has pci express slots get pci express, its provides the fastest bus speeds.

Regualr PCI (non-xpress) graphic cards are ok too. But, it looks like you have an AGP card shown above. (usally a bit more expensive)

i found a

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 / 256MB DDR / AGP 8x / DVI / VGA / TV-Out / Video Card
With the latest NVIDIA Technology, such as the CineFX Engine, and High-Precision Graphics, the e-GeForce FX 5500 offers a lot in a small package

Related Products in Category: 8x
Manufacturer: Diablo Tek

Price 59.99 tigerdirect.com
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1458679&CatId=935

not bad and should get the job done
 
#26 ·
flyskimma said:
I picked up a Vantec Iceberq4. On the box it says recommended for radeon 9800 pro, yet the connector is 3 prong instead of 2. What do I do about that?
Man.. I stick to the simple stuff... agp, pci or pci express. just check the slots / plug and play... its really supposed to be that simple.

2 or 3 prong. thats actually kinda funny.

whats a prong by the way? never read about that in the a+ manual.

a prong by its definition is : "clawlike wires used to hold a gemstone in place"
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top