Graphics problem in slot 1 and a blue screen of death in slot 2

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A few days ago I was organizing folders with photos in them, moving them to another location to keep them in order.  One folder, with nothing inside having it all copied, would not delete - it was being used by another program.  I've had this happen before, so I restarted the system via the start menu.  When my computer went through the POST, it gave a beep error code as it had done 8 months ago; one long beep followed by three short beeps.  It was a video problem before, and a new video card solved it.  A new video card did not solve my problem this time.

As for my specs, I'm running an nVidia nForce4 SLI x16 motherboard, 1gb ram (two 512mb), XFX 256mb GeForce 8600GT, and two 160GB RAID0 SATA HDs.  I'm running Windows XP Home Edition.  I have not replaced the RAM, CPU, or motherboard since I received my machine in February of 2006.

The new card I tried was a GeForce 8800GT.  When I put that in my first PCI-E slot there was no beep error code, but there was still no display on my monitor.

So I tried putting my card in the second PCI-E slot.  Both cards were able to run and there was a display again.  However, there was a new problem that came up.  Chkdsk ran and then the computer booted up.  Windows started up for about 10 seconds, but before the taskbar could fully load the computer would give me the blue screen of death (bsod) before restarting, prompting the chkdsk to run again repeat ad nauseam.  I had to manually stop the computer from auto-restarting to see what the bsod even said.  The following is the problem (apparently):

Stop: 0x00000024 (0x001902FE, 0xF78BEB74, 0xF78BE870, 0xF70F76D4)

ntfs.sys address: F70F76D4
Base at: F70E60000
Date Stamp: 45cc56a7

I read somewhere that I should set the second slot as my primary graphics slot somewhere, but I can't seem to find out where that is before the computer restarts.  I'm not sure if that's the problem even.

My computer, as it stands, will not load into safe mode nor allow me any time in Windows.  Right now I'm thinking that the PCI-E slot is defective or something is wrong with the motherboard.  I'm trying to troubleshoot but I can't find any information on this particular problem anywhere on the web.  Any help or information is greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

[RayDude]

The 8800GT takes a lot of juice. How big a power supply do you have?

If I understood you correctly, the old card didn't work. The new card in primary PCI-E didn't work. But with the old card in Primary and the new card in secondary, they both work?

That's really weird dude.

I think you have more than one problem here. That makes debugging more difficult.

First off, if your power supply is less than 450 Watts, chances are good that the 8800GT is soaking up too much power and causing other issues.

Try this:

1) reset bios settings to default.
2) Run the original card in the first PCI-E slot, reseating it may be all it needed to work. Make sure its in all the way. I've seen systems where the cards "*censored*" popped up but looked installed to the average person.
3) Check the bios to see if it reports voltages. Make sure they are all at or above the specified voltage (in other words make sure 3.3 is 3.3 or greater, etc.
4) If they are even close to borderline, and you only have a 400 Watt or less supply, try another power supply. (just hook it up to everything without installing it to see if it make any improvement.

Once you try these experiments report back and there will be more to try I'm sure.

Raydude

[merlin]

Replace the video card that came with the pc........then post back

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Replace the video card that came with the pc........then post back

Ignore this advice.....but if you can borrow one, try it.

[dropdown]

I have a 650 watt power supply, so I don't think that was the issue.  Both cards worked in the second slot.  They both did the same exact thing ending in the bsod.  What I found most odd was that my system booted up to begin with, I was actively using it, I reset it, and then there was no display.  So, from what I've come up with so far, its not the graphics card itself and its not the monitor.

I reset the bios by taking out the CMOS battery and waiting at least 5 minutes before putting it back in.  I started up the computer with the 8600GT and I received the same beep error code - one long beep followed by three short beeps.

I did not try the other card.

[RayDude]

According to this:

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

One long followed by three short beeps is bad memory. (at least for AMI bios, what kind of bios do you have?)

What I don't understand is why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Can you try other RAM?

Do me a favor: open the case, pull out the video card and shine a bright light into the video card slot. See if there are any bent pins inside it. AGP could be damaged pretty easily, I don't know about PCI_E but its worth checking.

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I will try swapping memory from another (older) computer.  Something still seems strange to me though, when the graphics card is in the secondary PCI-E slot, the beep error code does not go off.  If it was a RAM issue, I would think it would consistently go off regardless of where the GPU was.

I do have AMI bios.  However, I did not have a BIOS reset function on my board.  So I took the CMOS battery out as another site advised to reset the bios to default.  Upon putting the card in the second slot again, I had a failure screen come up do to the CMOS not being set.  I went into set up and changed the date and time, but I still don't even get to the window loading screen before the PC hangs.  Black screen with a gray cursor position line blinking constantly is all I see.

I can get into the bios setup utility, but not anywhere else now.

What I've discovered thus far:

• Beep error code only sounds with 8600 in primary PCI-E slot and not when the 8800 is there.
• Putting either card in the secondary PCI-E slot produces a display, and no beep error code.
• I have reseated the RAM, swapped locations and tried only one at a time.
• After resetting the bios (by taking out the CMOS battery), I can no longer access windows.
  

I ordered a new motherboard too; advice from a friend who had to replace his.  It should arrive in a couple days.

This is really stumping me.  It doesn't make sense at all unless its the motherboard that's failing.  There aren't really pins, but nothing is bent or looks different/broken.

[RayDude]

Sounds like you're doing a good job trying to track this down.

It sounds like the "tabs" located in the PCI-E slot are okay. Perhaps the 8600 card has a problem? Perhaps you could look at its edge connector and see if there's something obviously wrong?

Its possible that the error message you are getting means "can't find video." It certainly sounds that way. Although you'd expect it to be 1 long 8 short for bad video...

Also for the heck of it check the pins on your monitory cable. Perhaps a VGA serial line got bent and the BIOS can't detect the monitor. If you have DVI, its unlikely a pin is bent or damaged but still check it out.

[dropdown]

My DVI cable doesn't have any bent ends.

I'm pretty sure it's not the monitor as the computer will display images while either card is connected to the secondary PCI-E slot.  I would have thought it was the graphics card too, but the new one does the same exact thing.  The only thing that really baffles me is the there is no beep error notification on the 8800 while its in the first slot but still no display.

Also, the blue screen of death message I had received (when I could still get into windows) was very strange.  It was referring to the NTFS.SYS file that manages partitions, but I have never partitioned my HD.  0x00000024 refers to the NTFS.SYS having a problem.  Truth be told, I don't really understand how that went together with my display problem and why it only occurred when I put the card in the second slot.

I'm really thinking its the motherboard, and I'll find out for sure when it arrives in a few days.  If you have any more suggestions or things I could try please let me know.

[RayDude]

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

Its interesting that the beep error message indicates high memory issues when the card is in the PCI-E slot. As far as I know the board memory is direct mapped into high memory. I wonder if the motherboard's ability to decode the video card's memory has been broken some how.

If the 8800 has more memory, its possible that its walking over more memory than the 8600 and actually preventing the computer from reading ROM space.

It really sounds like a mother board issue.

Good luck with the new motherboard.

[dropdown]

It's finally update time.  I received my motherboard, and after some difficulty getting the old one out, I was able to get all the new components in place.  I ended up having to order a new CPU and getting new RAM as my old components didn't work with my new hardware.  Go figure.  I have a brand new machine now, minus the hard drives.

I turn the computer on.  No warning beeps.  The monitor blinks on.  I see the ASUS loading screen.  Everything is going as planned.  The windows loading screen pops up.  Then it quickly switches to a blue screen and restarts.  The process begins again.

So now windows won't load.  I'm given a 0x0000007B error which has something to do with the hard drive.  I think I have a general idea of what's wrong, but I'm not exactly certain.  I have a new DVD RW drive that is SATA.  My two hard drives were RAID 0 set up.  I have four slots on my mobo for SATA cables but in bios I have to set them all to RAID or all to IDE (there is another, ahsi I think?).  I don't have a windows boot cd, I have the Alienware respawn CD.  I don't want to erase my hard drives, just see if windows needs re-installation or if the hard drives are just dying on me.

Then again, maybe it's a set up error.  But I'm closer to thinking it's a problem within the drives, possibly in one of the sectors that windows information is stored.

I'm going over to a friend's right now to try and hook my HDs up to his PC and see if anything happens.

If there are any suggestions as to what I can try or do, I'm all ears.

[RayDude]

Sorry dude. New mobo means new windows install. Even if it happened to work, it wouldn't be optimal and would likely burn you later anyway.

Besides the new install will make everything fresh again.

Make sure to copy off the important data...

You have a valid windows XP license. Read and and search for that version of windows on the torrent sites. You should be able to use your valid key with that CD. If not, then try another version.

[patio]

Sorry dude. New mobo means new windows install. Even if it happened to work, it wouldn't be optimal and would likely burn you later anyway.

Hold on a second...this is not true.
The option he has that's little known would be to run a Repair Install of XP.....

I highly recommend reading thru the process to get familiar and then print out a hard copy for reference...

Then after re-booting the machine install the new MBoard drivers and re-install any other peripheral drivers such as vid-card; sound card etc.
The MBoard drivers should be done FIRST no matter what.

Re-boot and you are back in business with all your apps and data intact.
Beats having to re-install everythng all over again...

I've used this procedure countless times. There's also another method that works just as well but needs to be done before the hardware is changed but it in this case the horse is already out of the barn...

[RayDude]

Sorry dude. New mobo means new windows install. Even if it happened to work, it wouldn't be optimal and would likely burn you later anyway.

Hold on a second...this is not true.
The option he has that's little known would be to run a Repair Install of XP.....

In my experience, the reinstall causes a massive amount of unused cruft in the registry, in the drivers directory, and in the system in general. I always ended up doing a fresh install. I particularly had problems when more than three network devices were (ever) installed.

[dropdown]

Well I ran my HDD in my friend's computer and his BIOS had a self test that I was able to perform on both drives.  The first one self tested and went fine.  The second one failed immediately.  I think that hard drive is the problem.  However, since I was in a RAID 0 set up, I believe what I need to do now is - if I want to recover my data - send it to a data recovery professional.

I already thought of getting an XP torrent as I've read other testimonials about problems with the Respawn kit not working properly with different sized hard drives and other set ups.

At this point, I think my only real question is if there is another way to retrieve my data or if sending it in is the only thing I can do?