Graphics Card/RAM Trouble?

JohnNada

Hi guys.

My computer had been working fine until recently, when all of a sudden I started to experience the dreaded BSOD every time I turned the computer on.

To begin with, I was only getting 'tcpip.sys', 'ntfs.sys' and 'IRQL Not Less Or Equal' error messages. I tried running both 'chkdsk /r' and 'chkdsk /r/f', and uninstalling all anti-virus software, to no avail. I then tried resetting TCP/IP, which seemed to get rid of the 'tcpip.sys' and 'ntfs.sys' BSOD's, but I continued to get the 'IRQL Not Less Or Equal' BSOD. Recently, I have also had 'Worker Thread Returned At Bad IRQL' and 'win32k.sys' BSOD's.

I have a NVidia GeForce 6200 graphics card, and a quick Google search revealed that this problem seems to be reasonably common with the GeForce range of cards. I should note that I only ever seemed to experience problems during high RAM usage.

I read that updating the NVidia driver, as well as experimenting with the DRAM timings in BIOS, might solve the problem, so I downloaded the latest NVidia driver, uninstalled the outdated one (Intending to install the new driver upon successful reboot), rebooted, loaded up BIOS, and changed the DRAM timing from 'Auto' to 333mhz, before attempting to load Windows XP back up.

When I reached the Windows XP splash screen, a BSOD error screen appeared for a split second and Windows began to restart again. I entered BIOS again, changed the DRAM timing to 666mhz, then tried to reboot Windows. This time the screen just went black, and now whenever I turn the computer on, I just get a black screen.

I tested my monitor on another computer and it's working fine, so I suspect that I may have a problem with my graphics card, but since I can't see anything on the screen, I'm stuck. How can I restore usage of my monitor?

I'm using 2GB of DDR RAM, and a quick memtest revealed errors, so I'm sure the RAM has something to do with this as well. I've also noticed the efficiency of my RAM has declined somewhat in the last few months.

Any suggestions as to how I can restore my computer to it's normal working state? I depend on it to make my living, so I need to sort this out ASAP, and I can't afford to lose anything on my hard drives. Do I simply need to buy new RAM and graphics cards, or is my problem more complicated than this?

Thanks in advance!

DocHoof

I am no genius to overclocking, but that is what it seems you are trying. You cannot just change RAM speeds without adjusting FSB and a whole other myriad of adjustments. My suggestion if you are changing RAM speed is to google/search for adjusting ram speeds. I thought at one time that overclocking was just a matter of changing a setting here and a setting there, but that is not the case. RAM speed increase has to have a setting of another value with appropriate mathematical equations in another field increased as well, or else you get the black screen. I had the same problem a while back when I tried adjusting my new PNY modules to max speed. I honestly cannot remember where I found the info, but a simple google search was all I did to find how to adjust RAM speeds.

sychial

Pull your CMOS battery out for 30 seconds or so, this should restore your monitor. Let us know if this works.