My horrifying computer problems again to be solved by you :P

[}TCP{Cee]

Alright.. Since my last problem got so many answers and ppl helped me out big time...Yes..I answered the question back then myself and yes..nearly nobody posted.. but now its public and one of the 83 ppl has to be able to at least help me before I have to reinstall windows or kill my bunny doll God of long earity :O

So...My problem is this..(knowing that I have a GEFORCE 4 4200 TI)
Once upon a time, I wanted to play Battlefield Vietnam..It ran but it said that my drivers (53.03) would be too outdated and I should get newer ones. The game ran though, but I, of course, had to get newer drivers..and then it all started.. I installed the new 56.64 and it worked..but soonish my Battlefield Vietnam (after like 15 mins) started crashing, freezing.. So I thought "what the heck, delete the crap) and went on to Far Cry..
Played it and woah..runs fine even with high detail..but..wait a minute..oohh..it keeps freezing for like 30 secs every 2 mins..or when I'm looking at the sand..and woah look..I even get a bluescreen after approx. 10 mins of playing that mumbles about my nv4_disp.dll being the culprit..Tried it on lower details, same result..
That was it..I decided to go back to my good old 53.03 drivers..Yeah..Started Far Cry and oh yeah did it work.. After 5 mins bluescreen of course...
Now I got kinda angry and got the old 45.23 drivers.. Ran the game.. Finally..no more bluescreens..instead I get more freezes and it even stays frozen
Pissed off, I delete Far Cry as well and move on to Painkiller, blaming it all on far cry..But..no...the freezes haunt me there as well..
I install the 41.09, the 44.03, the 43.45, the 56.72 and some Starstorm crap too and it doesnt change anything..
It still freezes (it doesnt matter how much happens on the screen, it just freezes out of nowhere, plays on after 30 secs and freezes again after 2 mins until it stays frozen)..
Having fiddled with the BIOS too now, it still happens and its seriously annoying, because now also my Unreal is freezing again.. But it only happens in d3d or opengl games, since my football manager works fine and I also have no problems on the desktop..
Could it be that my gfx card is broken ? but why does it only happen in d3d/opengl games..another thing that I noticed is, that I have little green dots on my screen when playing Unreal or some other game..Also I cant read my bios screen and my bootup screen anymore, since I get blue lines going from top to bottom.. Which I guess is some problem with the 640x480 at the system start, because on the desktop all is well..Could be gfx card related again, but everything else works fine..
And its odd that all those problems just started after I installed the 56.64 and cant seem to be solved again..I didnt change anything else on my computer all those weeks :O
Reinstalled directx 9.0b as well, didnt help

Now anybody has a clue, what makes game freeze out of nowhere and run again and freeze again and get stuck ? :/
And what makes my bios and my boot screens fucked up with either colored letters or blue bars from top to bottom ? :l

I would try to change bios stuff, but I can hardly read it now and I dunno what does what ;_;
And I never overclocked my gfx card either ;_;
So help me ;_;
I cant play Unreal like this (or any other fps...) ;_;

[}TCP{aLICe]

Oh poor Sage Cee

But it only happens in d3d or opengl games, since my football manager works fine and I also have no problems on the desktop..

And now we see why you play football manager only
Seroiusly:
I had similiar problem. I was playing old good Baldurs Gate being happy with it. But there was the day when MicroShit released new DirectX version. I thought new, better... just I installed. And that was mistake. Crashes, blue screens... arghhh. Just BG was writen for DX7 (if I remember right), but there wasn't turn back. Only complete reinstallation of Windows could restore previous version of DX.
Hint: You have to check if game and drivers are designed for DX version you use.

Could it be that my gfx card is broken ? but why does it only happen in d3d/opengl games..

Can be. Maybe new drivers tried to automaticly update bios of card??? and something went bad...

another thing that I noticed is, that I have little green dots on my screen when playing Unreal or some other game..

I have them on my VooDoo3000 too. When I move mouse they disapear from place they was before.

Also I cant read my bios screen and my bootup screen anymore, since I get blue lines going from top to bottom..

This could make sense my supposition that your card or bios of card is broken.

Which I guess is some problem with the 640x480 at the system start, because on the desktop all is well..

Not 640x480 cause card when is initiated run in text VESA mode. Hehe, old text mode.... all new highend gfx cards have this part from middle ages build in. Maybe this part of card is broken. But odd. If card is broken you should have problems in ogl/d3d (means when accelerator part of chip is using) rather than text mode...
When I turn on my pc before I turn on monitor there is no synchronization so I can't see anything (just strange running lines). When I had old good ATI Rage Pro card it never happened!
Hint: Turn on monitor first.

And its odd that all those problems just started after I installed the 56.64 and cant seem to be solved again..I didnt change anything else on my computer all those weeks :O

Like I said before. Maybe this 56.64 drivers messed up your card's bios.

Reinstalled directx 9.0b as well, didnt help

Like I said before about game/drivers/DX compatibility.

Hint: Backup your partitions of discs and reinstall everything. You can restore old version of stuff (all partitions) quickly if something will go wrong. Linux is your friend

[Taz]

man its sad to hear that but, hopes it gets better

anyway i got the ut2k4 keys more than 4 keys even 6 :O

[Xavious]

ineresting. il ask my brother next time i see him (prob tomorow)

I was playing old good Baldurs Gate being happy with it

sorry, off topic, but you were?!?!?

i thought you guys all didnt like them hard rpg things.

[}TCP{Wolf]

Just a side note, VESA modes are not text modes, they are 2D graphic modes, but they use a general driver instead of the card's own driver.

If your 3D chip is screwed, your VESA modes should still run perfectly. The start screen mode is likely NOT a VESA, but old VGA 640x480x(4/8) which is a graphic mode but no VESA (VGA - xVGA).

Anyway yes it sounds like your 3D chip has a problem, but it might have taken some other parts of the card along in the misery. I had an ATI RAGE once which had similar symptoms and all I could do is throw it away. If it is just a stability problem (e.g. because of heat development) you might try to UNDERCLOCK you card. Check temperature on the 3D chip and cooling.

[}TCP{Cee]

Well..after looking around in the Internet, I noticed that I'm obviously not the only person that has those problems now and everybody who has it, has a geforce 4 and tried those odd 56.64 drivers..Freezing in every game even when uninstalled..So I doubt its my hardware or anything..
I'm just wondering why it still happens, even though the 56.64 are uninstalled by now, except when it changed some non nvidia file.. But I reinstalled dx9.0b as well and it didnt help..Dunno what else it could have changed :/

[}TCP{aLICe]

Just a side note, VESA modes are not text modes, they are 2D graphic modes, but they use a general driver instead of the card's own driver.

VESA interface - This is a software API that was designed by the Video Electronics Standards Association, and is usually implemented either as a loadable TSR utility or as part of the BIOS ROM on your video card. VESA allows you to do things like setting graphics modes and displaying images without needing to know the hardware details for every graphics chipset.

Yes, they are graphic modes. But computer starts and bios operates in text mode!

[}TCP{ZzCaT]

Don't you have an old video card lying around somewhere... I suspect it's a video card problem. By changing the card you could deduct that.

ZZ

[}TCP{ZzCaT]

Well..after looking around in the Internet, I noticed that I'm obviously not the only person that has those problems now and everybody who has it, has a geforce 4 and tried those odd 56.64 drivers..Freezing in every game even when uninstalled..So I doubt its my hardware or anything..

I just checked. I have the same drivers (5.6.6.4) and a GeForce 4 card. It runs fine here. No problems. Of course I have a Ti4600 and not a Ti4200. You can buy my card if you like. I'm thinking about replacing it by a Geforce 5.

ZZ

[}TCP{Carnage]

Do u by any chance also get an error when u start up windows ..
some sort of dll thing ?

[}TCP{Cee]

I dont get any dll errors when starting windows and never got any error so far either..everything always behaved

And no other video card around :/
But the ppl I heard from also had a gf 4600 or 4200 and got the problems..
I saw threads about it in the Splinter Cell, the UT2K4, the Far Cry and the Painkiller forums as well, so not everybodys card can be broken at the same time :/

So I guess I have to reinstall windows after all :O

[Taz]

but the stuff

[}TCP{aLICe]

... so not everybodys card can be broken at the same time :/

Maybe all one series was broken
Just buy ATI - better quality, at least same speed.

[}TCP{Cee]

Buying affords money :O

And nowadays my games even crash, when I'm in the options menu or the start menu or when I wanna quit

Then I either get :

a.) bsod with infinite loop in nv4_disp.dll 0x00 blawhatever (most common)
b.) bsod regarding win32k. or something related (when I quit a game..)
c.) Neat time saving automatical reboot (seldom)

But it still only happens in d3d/opengl games, never on the desktop or other programs..I also tried underclocking my card by 5, with the result, that the screen went foggy and white
Also used some driver cleaner again, installed like 4 new drivers..alas..non esta workando...shadowing off..agp fast write off..sideband off..multi combine write stuff off..screen off..nada :O

I dont wanna reinstall xp though, since that forces me to install every program again and I dont have the time for that :l
And if it stays that way, I'll probably not be able to make it on sunday :O

[}TCP{aLICe]

Buying affords money :O

Really? This is your own receipt for others

...shadowing off..agp fast write off..sideband off..multi combine write stuff off..screen off..nada :O

Who told you to turn off
I'm still waiting for e-mail with your bios/gfx driver options.

I dont wanna reinstall xp though, since that forces me to install every program again...

Yep, but after clean installation of Win and all programs you can backup all partition and restore it anytime you need, without setups, install options, uncountable reboots.