[Ztruker]

A Google search for 128MB ATI RADEON X600 SE (from your Speccy info) shows it's a PCI-E X16 (16 bit) card.

I'm not sure a new video card will fix this though it should. No guarantee though.

You might be better off to purchase a copy of the Recovery CD for your computer. It's no longer available from Dell but restoredisks.com has it.



If you use USPS then there is no shipping charge. You need XP Media Center which is $26.99. I've purchased several recovery discs from here and from restore-disks.com and they have all worked well.

I think you can do a Repair Install with the Dell recovery disc/discs but I'm not sure. It would be best to backup your data first to make sure you don't lose anything, then boot the Dell recovery disc and see what happens.

If that doesn't fix it then a new video card is in order.

[Ztruker]

One other thing I forgot to mention. Vertical lines on the display could be a display problem and not a computer/video card problem. Can you try the display on another computer to check?

[paolo]

Ztruker, on 16 January 2012 - 12:36 PM, said:

One other thing I forgot to mention. Vertical lines on the display could be a display problem and not a computer/video card problem. Can you try the display on another computer to check?

I don't have another computer but could try taking it in to work or to a friend's. I'm not sure this is likely though because when I turn on the computer at the wall (before powering it up), the Dell splash screen shows up without any corruption.

I'll get hold of the recovery disk and give it a try.

[paolo]

There were some problems with the mail but my recovery disk finally arrived.

I did a system recovery today and reinstalled all the drivers that would be accepted, but still no joy. I can still only use safe mode and VGA mode (booting into Windows still causes the same BSOD) and the vertical lines are still there in Windows.

Two things:

1. Despite installing the ATI drivers, I get an error message on going into Windows:

"The ATI Control Panel failed to initialize because no ATI driver is installed, or ATI driver is not working properly. the ATI Control Panel will now exit."

2. I'm not sure whether I've mentioned that the pre-Windows DOS screens are corrupted too. There is noise over the characters. The Dell start-up screen (where you can press F2 or F12 to boot) also has vertical lines on it. Would this suggest a problem other than video drivers?

Thanks.

[phillpower2]

If I may pitch in with a couple of suggestions;

1: Clean out any internal dust, first remove the power cord from the wall and open up the case, take anti static precautions before touching anything inside, you can do this by touching a bare metal part of the case, remove the video card, blow out the slot and re-seat the card securely, do the same with the memory stick/s, clean all internal fans, if you use canned compressed air do not let any fan spin freely this can damage them, use something like a clean lollipop stick to hold each fan.
Make sure If all internal connections are secure and that there are no loose components, write down the psu details (make and model) re-assemble the computer, boot up and see how it goes.

Just a cautionary note, if you do use canned compressed air do not upend the can as it is possible for fluid to be emitted.

2: See if DriverMax can provide any better drivers http://www.innovativ....com/drivermax/

I am only suggesting the free driver downloads and in no way suggesting that you use any other product or service at the link.

3: Check your temps and voltages with HWMonitor http://www.cpuid.com.../hwmonitor.html provide a screenshot of the results;

To capture and post a screenshot;

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload...
then after typing in any response you have... click on browse...desktop...find the screenshot..select it and click on the upload button...then on the lower left...after it says upload successful...click on add reply like you normally would.

Screenshot instructions courtesy of happyrock

[paolo]

Thanks for your suggestions.

1. There was hardly any dust in the case although a fair amount in the air inlet, which I've cleaned out. All internal connections look secure to me. The graphics card does not look like it can be removed - it's hard to tell, but it looks like it's screwed or soldered in.

Attached are two photos of the inside of my computer. I think the graphics card is the component at the bottom right of the full image and in the close-up shot. Is this the graphics card?

2. DriverMax does suggest several drivers but they fail to install: when I run the .dmx-info files I get the following error message:

1 - Invalid download file for this device. Please try another driver.

3. Temperatures can be seen in the system information I posted in this thread some time ago. The computer does not seem to be unduly hot when I'm running it at the moment in VGA mode, and the fan does not come on excessively.


I am coming to the conclusion that the graphics card is somehow damaged and that it is not going to be replaceable. Does that seem likely?

Thanks.

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 
• 

[phillpower2]

Not sure if colleague Ztruker has another suggestion but I recommend running PCPitstop;

Please Run the PCPitstop.com OverDrive Full Tests

Here's how:

You must use your Internet Explorer for this procedure. (doesn't work so well in Firefox or others). If your machine is running Vista or Windows 7, you must Select IE to “Run as Administrator”. After completing PCPitstop OverDrive you can close your IE browser and re-open it Normally so that you are no longer running as administrator.

Go to: http://www.pcpitstop...pit/default.asp
Click on "Free Computer Check-up" listed below PC Pitstop OverDrive
In the User Login - Click on "Sign up FREE!"
You'll need to submit a valid email address and create your own password, then click - Create Account(button)

Now enter your email address and password to Log in, Select - Scan this system Now!(button)
You will then be asked to download an ActiveX component and allow it to install.
It is safe and does not compromise your privacy.
Follow the on-screen prompts to install the ActiveX and to allow the Full Tests to be run on your machine.

The Full Tests take about 2 1/2 - 3 minutes on most machines.
When complete, a Results - Summary - Recommended Fixes will be displayed.

Please post the URL internet address, from your Results, back here into this Topic Thread so that we can review the configuration and present performance levels of your machine.

Note: During the graphics 2D and graphics 3D testing, your screen will display some rapidly moving objects.
If you are sensitive to visual flashing, it may cause dizziness. Therefore, look away from the screen during that portion of the testing.

After reviewing the results we will be more informed and may be able to provide better recommendations for you to work towards improving your machine's performance.

While PCPitstop does offer a variety of Paid Products, the PCPitstop OverDrive testing is FREE. Please ignore the references to Paid Products. We prefer to provide manual solution instructions that you can apply directly to your machine.

Thanks to rshaffer61 for the PCPitstop instructions

[Macboatmaster]

PLEASE do as my colleague phillpower2 has suggested BEFORE addressing my requests.


1. When you started this topic you mentioned that the free space on your hard drive was LESS every time you booted AND you were trying to run the system with LESS than 2% of free space on a 78Gb HDD.

IN FACT on one occasion you had less than 1% of free space.
When you posted the system analysis from Speccy IT REPORTS that you have 20.4GB of free space on the 70Gb partition which is lettered C and is partition 1.
You have ONE Hard drive
It is forgetting the letter allocated to it by Windows DISK 0
ON Disk 0
Partition 0 is 70.5Mb and will be the Boot files which allow you to use the recovery parition. -YOU NEVER see this parition in normal use to write to it.
Partition 1 is as you see C Drive and is 70Gb and you have the aforementioned 20.4Gb of free space or 29%
Partition 2 is 4.64Gb - You never see this in normal use and it is your recovery partition.

SO MY QUESTION IS - what free space do you have now on C Drive - still the 20.4Gb or HAS IT LESSENED AGAIN drastically.

2. You have 512Mb of ram in TWO 256 Mb sticks
You asked earlier about would an increase in ram improve matters.
THE ANSWER is a most definite YES
The lowest cost performance improvement, apart from general housekeeping you can make.

YOU are from what I have seen on your analysis running a system that is NEVER going to run SATISFACTORILY on 512Mb of ram.
The magic figure for XP SP3 is considered to be a MINIMUM 1GB for it to run smoothly and with some satisfactory level of performance
HOWEVER before you rush out to buy ram
WE NEED as far as possible to ensure that you do not have a MOTHERBOARD fault, as clearly ram in a defective motherboard, when you would probably not have call for it in a replacement is a waste of money.

3. You have that Ati Radeon graphics card.
You also have onboard graphics.

YOU FIRST JOB - without ANY doubt, is to uninstall that card, when you say you cannot see how it fits in and there are no clips like on the ram, I think it is in a PCIe slot and there are NO clips. On an AGP (Advanced graphics port) there is a small clip at the back end of the slot, that locates in the card.

IT IS NO USE simply connecting to the VGA port on the I/O plate at the rear of the case, that is near to where the LAN is connected and the USB ports, as that will NOT cover the possibility of a defective card causing errors across the PCI bus on the motherboard.
You then need to check in BIOS if onboard graphics are enabled, if you DO NOT get an image on the monitor on boot.

4. If that does not solve the problem, disconnect your webcam.
reboot and try and all other connections except the graphics, usb keyboard and usb mouse.

5. You have McAfee installed. - full security suite including Firewall. - CHECK THAT WINDOWS Firewall is NOT ON.
You also have WINDOWS DEFENDER - check that Defender is NOT turned ON. - I AM SURE YOU WILL FIND IT IS.
Start
All Programs
Windows Defender - turn off
OR
change the Startup type to "Manual" from the Services Properties. Right-click Windows Defender, and click Properties to see the option


6. DO YOU have a DVD disc inserted - ALFRED HITCHCOCK - if so take it out. before you boot.

7. Do NOT be annoyed with me asking but have you been tweaking the services START configuration.

8. McAfee is and I am not criticising its effectiveness as an A/V program, NOT the one for you with limited ram, it was at the time of your analysis using 89Mb of ram and that was only a small portion of what it used at Maximum which was 297MB.
MY ADVICE if it is possible to solve the original problem is to give serious consideration to changing your AV protection.

9 UNLESS I AM MISTAKEN you have NOT whilst on this topic run a chkdsk on C drive.
I have a doubt about the state of the C Drive.
RUN
chkdsk /r
on C drive.
That is
Start
run
type
cmd
type
CD \
that wil take you to a C:\> prompt
type
chkdsk /r
agree the message to run on restart and do so.

It is a five stage check please do not interrupt it.
On completion if you watch the screen you will see if there are any bad sectors found.

If you miss it when it reboots Go
Control Panel
Admin tools
Eevent Viewer
Click Application on left pane
On the main window click the source heading that will sort them alphabetically
Find
winlogon
Double click to open it.
Click the details
IS it chkdsk
If so click the double page symbol ONCE on left click - that is to the right below the broad up and down arrows.
Right click and paste to reply.

If the first winlogon you check - the most recent is NOT the chkdsk results, then go to the next winlogon.

[paolo]

Thank you phillpower2 and Macboatmaster for your latest suggestions.

Phillpower2 - I've run PC Pitstop. Here's the URL of the results page:

http://pcpitstop.com...?conid=24822270


Macboatmaster - answers so far:

1. Since then I've uninstalled a lot of old programs and removed unwanted data. Currently the free space on the C: drive is 14.6G.

2. Noted.

3. Can you expand on this, please? Do you mean uninstall the graphics card in Windows, or remove the hardware? I don't follow what you're asking me to do here, sorry.

4. To do.

5. McAfee and Windows Defender no longer appear to be on my system since doing the system restore a few days ago. I have since installed Avast and am currently using that.

6. There is no DVD in the drive.

7. Services START configuration - what is that? just to make sure I haven't, how would I have changed that?

8. See 5.

9. I ran chkdsk and it immediately reported the system was clean, then booted up into Windows without going through five stages. This was on a reboot into VGA mode, as I am having to do now.

Note that I have now upgraded my system to SP3.

[phillpower2]

Thanks for the url
I note from the results that you have AVG and Avast Pro anti virus programs on your list of software, having more than one AV is never a good idea as the two programs will fight for system resources which will lead to system instability and crashes, AVG is one of the more demanding AVs and in this instance it is being compounded by the lack of available system memory, remove AVG using the correct uninstaller tool http://www.avg.com/ww-en/utilities

Please return to the PCPitstop results and address the items that have a red X against them, if you hover the cursor over the item you will be given a description of the issue and if you click on it you will be instructed how to correct the problem, post back when you have done this.

As colleague Macboatmaster has mentioned you should upgrade your Ram asap as it is limiting your system performance
Use the Crucial system scanner tool to find the best recommended Ram for your system, no need to purchase from there, write down the details and shop around for the best deal http://www.crucial.c...ner/?click=true let us know what is suggested and we can also look for you.

[Macboatmaster]

To clarify a few points see below please.
HOWEVER having seen Pitstop I think it best if you follow the advice from my colleague and leave my suggestions for the time being.
It is also better if while you are working with us you do NOT make changes to the system other than what is suggested by us.

1. With reference to your point 3 on your reply

Quote

3. Can you expand on this, please? Do you mean uninstall the graphics card in Windows, or remove the hardware? I don't follow what you're asking me to do here, sorry

I apologise if you did not find the recommendation CLEAR

Quote

YOU FIRST JOB - without ANY doubt, is to uninstall that card, when you say you cannot see how it fits in and there are no clips like on the ram, I think it is in a PCIe slot and there are NO clips. On an AGP (Advanced graphics port) there is a small clip at the back end of the slot, that locates in the card.

IT IS NO USE simply connecting to the VGA port on the I/O plate at the rear of the case, that is near to where the LAN is connected and the USB ports, as that will NOT cover the possibility of a defective card causing errors across the PCI bus on the motherboard.

I meant - the actual graphics card - BUT ONLY IF you feel able and competant to do so. - you presumably have already looked as you mentioned the fact there were no clips.

2. CHKDSK - did you type at the C:\> prompt - chkdsk /r
Because if so and you agreed the message to run on restart. IT should have progressed through the checks.


3.

Quote

Since then I've uninstalled a lot of old programs and removed unwanted data. Currently the free space on the C: drive is 14.6G.

SINCE when - as you had 20.4Gb on the speccy analysis.

4.

Quote

Note that I have now upgraded my system to SP3.

WHEN because on your second post on this thread you said

Quote

Dell Dimension DXC051, Pentium 4 CPU, 3GHz with 512M RAM, running XP Media Center Edition v2002 SP3.

#

and INDEED that was installed on 27 August 2008 - SP3 service pack.

So have you carried out a repair install or a REINSTALL since you posted the Speccy results
Is that what you meant when you said

Quote

system restore a few days ago

LOOKING at Pitstop results I SEE THAT you have - reinstalled on 26 February and I MISSED the paragraph of your post that you had done so.
I apologise that I missed this.

Quote

There were some problems with the mail but my recovery disk finally arrived.

I did a system recovery today and reinstalled all the drivers that would be accepted, but still no joy. I can still only use safe mode and VGA mode (booting into Windows still causes the same BSOD) and the vertical lines are still there in Windows

[paolo]

phillpower2:

Here's the latest state of my computer according to PC Pitstop:

http://pcpitstop.com...?conid=24823197

Is the system restore capacity still too high? It recommends reducing it to around 1G, which I have done. Should it be lower than that?

I downloaded the missing driver from dell.com as PC Pitstop would not provide a link, even though I was logged in.


Macboatmaster:

The problem with disk space going down is no longer happening.

Here's the output from chkdsk /r:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 05/03/2012
Time: 08:39:03
User: N/A
Computer: HOME-A1CBD2A078
Description:
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 3546 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 3546 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 3546 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

73176074 KB total disk space.
55711148 KB in 129502 files.
55844 KB in 17124 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
427970 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
16981112 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
18294018 total allocation units on disk.
4245278 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
20 dc 02 00 cd 3c 02 00 69 3e 03 00 00 00 00 00 ....<..i>......
ae 27 00 00 07 00 00 00 d1 15 00 00 00 00 00 00 .'..............
32 40 93 0e 00 00 00 00 a8 be ac fa 00 00 00 00 2@..............
b0 e2 da 46 00 00 00 00 da 97 1c 89 06 00 00 00 ...F............
b2 d9 14 2c 01 00 00 00 3c d0 61 15 09 00 00 00 ...,....<.a.....
70 b0 5e b2 00 00 00 00 88 38 07 00 de f9 01 00 p.^......8......
00 00 00 00 00 b0 56 48 0d 00 00 00 e4 42 00 00 ......VH.....B..

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.


For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft....ink/events.asp.

[phillpower2]

paolo

As per my post #40

Quote

Please return to the PCPitstop results and address the items that have a red X against them, if you hover the cursor over the item you will be given a description of the issue and if you click on it you will be instructed how to correct the problem, post back when you have done this.

Until colleague Macboatmaster has concluded the testing that he has in mind I will only suggest that you resolve all of the highlighted PCPitstop issues, this will avoid any possible confusion.

[Macboatmaster]

http://www2.ati.com/...32_dd_68898.exe

Boot VGA mode.
When you boot safe mode that loads the windows generic drivers for VGA mode
When you boot VGA mode that loads Windows in normal mode apart from the display and loads the VGA mode of your actual graphics driver.

Download the drive above. It is an exe installation.
Save the driver download - do NOT install at this stage
Go Control Pane Add/Remove programs uninstall ALL Ati software for your graphics card particularly relevant is the Ati WDM driver which you do not want, as it does not apply to your system.
and the catalyst suite of software.

Then when you have done that reboot into Safe Mode
and open the saved driver download and click RUN

Follow the on screen prompts
Reboot when it has installed.
NOW try Normal mode.

[paolo]

phillpower2:

Here is the latest URL: http://pcpitstop.com...?conid=24826664

This is the best I can achieve at the moment. There are two issues remaining:

1. Temporary files. Despite following the instructions given by PCPitstop and running CCleaner, between 70 and 200M of temporary files remain somewhere. The software suggested by PCPitstop is for scanning only unless I buy it.

2. Screen resolution. At this time I cannot increase my screen resolution above VGA mode. Doing so either messes up my display in a way that I cannot recover from without a hard reboot, or gives the BSOD.


Macboatmaster:

I did as instructed but these drivers seem to be the wrong ones for my system. After uninstalling the existing ATI software and drivers and installing the new software in safe mode, I rebooted into normal mode and got the same BSOD again. I also got the BSOD when I tried booting up into VGA mode. I have now uninstalled these drivers.

These are the drivers that got installed:

ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series
ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series Secondary

Previously, these were X600 (see Ztruker's posting of 16 January).