[Ztruker]

I'm not sure as I've never had one. I would start with Device Manager and see what it says. If that doesn't have it then try Belarc Advisor, see if it provides the info.

You could also power off the compute and open then case to remove the tuner card, see what it says.

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Please post a snapshot with Speccy -
How to Publish a snapshot with Speccy
This will help us check what cards are installed and active -

Thank You -
EDIT -
Sorry I missed the reply above from Ztrucker, but this will also help us look at your problem -

Edited by noknojon, 09 January 2012 - 04:00 PM.

[noknojon]

Please post a snapshot with Speccy -
How to Publish a snapshot with Speccy
This will help us check what cards are installed and active -

Thank You -
EDIT -
Sorry I missed the reply above from Ztrucker, but this will also help us look at your problem -

Edited by noknojon, 09 January 2012 - 04:00 PM.

[Ztruker]

Thanks noknojon, I had not thought of Speccy.

[noknojon]

Hi -
No problem with Speccy, as I use it more on BleepComp forum to check systems.
It seems to give you a better look at what is operating (without using OTL or similar) -

Regards -

[paolo]

I don't believe I have an NTSC TV tuner. Nothing shows up in Device Manager and I don't recall seeing a TV tuner when I opened up the case. In any case, I am in the UK and our TVs use PAL, not NTSC. Is it still worth downloading the drivers anyway or is there not much point?

I've defragged my C: drive and got my free disk space up to 29%.

Here's the snapshot from Speccy:
http://speccy.pirifo...24vlJIwPvvvmy7i

Edited by paolo, 10 January 2012 - 01:24 AM.

[Ztruker]

No, no point in installing the other driver as you don't have a TV tuner and even if you did, it would be PAL and not NTSC as you said.

Try the latest driver for the X600 from ATI (AMD): AMD Catalyst™ Display Driver

See if it makes a difference.

[paolo]

First of all I tried installing the complete package at that link. That gave me a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA on normal reboot into Windows. After rebooting into VGA mode, I looked at the display adapters in Device Manager - these were ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series and the ATI ... Secondary. Windows had warned that these were not compatible with my hardware.

I did a system restore to yesterday and got the old drivers back. I then installed just the integrated driver from the link (Catalyst installs ATI USB). Windows warned that "The software you are installing has not passed Windows Logo testing to verify its compatibility with Windows XP." I let it instal anyway. This gave no apparent change: Device Manager lists the adapters as X600 SE and SE Secondary, ati2dvag.dll in C:/WINDOWS/system32 is still the version from June 2006 (as updated a few days ago from the 2005 version), on startup I still get vertical lines on the Dell startup screen and vertical bars on the Windows startup screen, and if I attempt normal booting I still get the ati2dvag BSOD. Booting into VGA mode still works OK but with the blue vertical bars, as before. So no real difference yet.

[Ztruker]

Many video cards make use of your system RAM. I think it would be a good idea to test it and see if there are any problems.

Download Memtest86+ (you want the 2nd one Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)). Unzip it then create a CD from the iso file using your CD burning software. There is a good freeware burner called ImgBurn which will do this easily.

DO NOT burn the .iso file directly to CD. It must be used as input to a program that knows what to do with it, like the one I mentioned above.

Boot the CD and run for at least 3 complete passes unless it shows errors sooner than that.

[paolo]

OK, I'll do this but I'll need to buy some CDs first. I take it CD-Rs will do fine?

I also have some hardware-testing software on my PC. I can run that too and see whether it throws up any RAM-related errors.

[Ztruker]

Yes, CD-R is good. Built in test is also a good idea.

[paolo]

You say: "Unzip [Memtest86+] then create a CD from the iso file using your CD burning software. DO NOT burn the .iso file directly to CD. It must be used as input to a program that knows what to do with it, like the one I mentioned above."

Sorry, I don't quite follow this - I have installed both these applications but am not sure how to create the CD from the iso file. Could you give me step-by-step instructions, please? Thanks.

[Ztruker]

Put a blank CD-R in the optical drive
Start ImgBurn
Click on Write image file to disc.
Navigate to where the memtest .iso file is and select it then click on Open
Click Go or Start or Continue (I don't remember the exact wording).

It will create a bootable CD that you then boot to run the test.

See here: How to write an image file to disc using ImgBurn

[paolo]

OK, thanks. I did that let it run for a good few dozen passes (for 5-10 minutes). It didn't report any errors.

Incidentally the text on the DOS screens, as in the boot menu and Memtest, is also corrupted by noise, making them hard to read.

Edited by paolo, 15 January 2012 - 06:34 AM.

[Ztruker]

I think it's time to consider buying a new video card. I can't tell from what you've posted so far if your video is onboard or a PCI/AGP or a PCI-E card.

The alternative is to try a Repair Install but to do this you will need a XP Install CD.

[paolo]

I think it's time to consider buying a new video card. I can't tell from what you've posted so far if your video is onboard or a PCI/AGP or a PCI-E card.

Can you tell what kind of video card I have from the Speccy spec I posted a while back (http://speccy.pirifo...24vlJIwPvvvmy7i)? If not, how I can I find this out?

The alternative is to try a Repair Install but to do this you will need a XP Install CD.

I don't have an XP Install CD unfortunately. I don't think Dell distribute those with their PCs.