poer
09-19-2003, 03:58 PM
Hi,
I am new to this forum and wondered if you guys could lend me a hand. I posted a message in another forum at another site and I am now posting it here, looking desparately for help or guidance. Am sorry for the length of the post, but I am trying to be thorough.
Please see what follows....
Original Post below
Need some advice about a problem that I have with my video card. Recently I started having trouble with my post (you know the part on boot up with the black screen, white letters)at startup. This happens when the PC is cold and is started up, whe this is done it displays vertical columns across the screen with the letters "a" and "~". If allowed to complete the boot, the WIN XP desktop will have blue vertical lines with dashes in them across the screen and the screen will blink on and off. A restart from here will cause a lockup on black screen and accessing a program will cause a crash of the program. If you do manage to restart WIN XP the desktop will either look and run normal, or, it will come up in 800x600 in basic RGB (4 bit ) and the video card will not be recognized.
Before I give my system specs, I should state that this is an Alienware Area 51 built last July. I have used both 45.23s and completely removed them when I got CTDs. With the 44.03s, I have had better success and it was with these that I noticed with games such as BF 1942 and IL-2 (graphics card intensive) that the temperatures were reaching upto 120C (using the Temp monitor)and also the card would interupt the program in progress to notify me that it was not getting enough power and would shut down features to avoid damaging my equipment. Since the temp cutoff was 140C, I suspect it may have hit that. When I looked inside the PC I noted that Alienware has placed a ribbon cable leading to the soundcard inside the cooling fan to the videocard - it was not able to run and probably never had. Removing the cable allows it to run cool (in safe range 40-60 C). Crashes as described above still happen. All power cables from the power supply to video card have been checked and are connected. Card is seated fine.
Is the card to blame for all of this? And what is the possibility that the motherboard is damaged due to high heat? Suggestions? Alienware is replacing the videocard.
System Specs.
Intel P4 3.00 GHz, 512 K L2 Cache 800 Mhz FSB
Intel D875PBZ Motherboard (bios updated regularly)
2X512 MB DDR PC 3200 RAM
Seagate Barracuda 120 GB 8 MB Cache HD
Nvidia GF Ultra 5900 256 MB (44.03 Drivers)
Creative SB Audigy 2, 6.1
Plextor Plexwriter Premium 52X
16X DVD
Win XP Home (fully updated with critical updates)
420 watt power supply
US Robotics V.92 56k PCI Modem (yes in the sticks here)
Followup -
I received a new video card from Alienware and installed it. Still had the problems described above including the bad Pool caller errror. Tested the RAM with MEMTEST and found errors in the thousands. No crash of MEMTEST 86 over 67 passes. Alienware sent new RAM and this tested with MEMTEST with 0 Errors. This has cleared up almost all of the problems with the exception of the bad pool caller error.
Reinstalled Win XP and got the bad pool caller error consistently after windows formats the hard drive and then begins installing. Once the error shows the only way to complete the install is to reboot and windows XP resumes the process. Once XP is up and running, I am still getting the bad pool caller error every 12 start ups or so. Windows usually restarts normally on the reboot after the error.
Can anyone tell me what the problem could be or how to solve it. Since this error is on the install and later in the normal load of XP could it be caused by the BIOS?
Please! Anyone!
Thanks,
Russ
I am new to this forum and wondered if you guys could lend me a hand. I posted a message in another forum at another site and I am now posting it here, looking desparately for help or guidance. Am sorry for the length of the post, but I am trying to be thorough.
Please see what follows....
Original Post below
Need some advice about a problem that I have with my video card. Recently I started having trouble with my post (you know the part on boot up with the black screen, white letters)at startup. This happens when the PC is cold and is started up, whe this is done it displays vertical columns across the screen with the letters "a" and "~". If allowed to complete the boot, the WIN XP desktop will have blue vertical lines with dashes in them across the screen and the screen will blink on and off. A restart from here will cause a lockup on black screen and accessing a program will cause a crash of the program. If you do manage to restart WIN XP the desktop will either look and run normal, or, it will come up in 800x600 in basic RGB (4 bit ) and the video card will not be recognized.
Before I give my system specs, I should state that this is an Alienware Area 51 built last July. I have used both 45.23s and completely removed them when I got CTDs. With the 44.03s, I have had better success and it was with these that I noticed with games such as BF 1942 and IL-2 (graphics card intensive) that the temperatures were reaching upto 120C (using the Temp monitor)and also the card would interupt the program in progress to notify me that it was not getting enough power and would shut down features to avoid damaging my equipment. Since the temp cutoff was 140C, I suspect it may have hit that. When I looked inside the PC I noted that Alienware has placed a ribbon cable leading to the soundcard inside the cooling fan to the videocard - it was not able to run and probably never had. Removing the cable allows it to run cool (in safe range 40-60 C). Crashes as described above still happen. All power cables from the power supply to video card have been checked and are connected. Card is seated fine.
Is the card to blame for all of this? And what is the possibility that the motherboard is damaged due to high heat? Suggestions? Alienware is replacing the videocard.
System Specs.
Intel P4 3.00 GHz, 512 K L2 Cache 800 Mhz FSB
Intel D875PBZ Motherboard (bios updated regularly)
2X512 MB DDR PC 3200 RAM
Seagate Barracuda 120 GB 8 MB Cache HD
Nvidia GF Ultra 5900 256 MB (44.03 Drivers)
Creative SB Audigy 2, 6.1
Plextor Plexwriter Premium 52X
16X DVD
Win XP Home (fully updated with critical updates)
420 watt power supply
US Robotics V.92 56k PCI Modem (yes in the sticks here)
Followup -
I received a new video card from Alienware and installed it. Still had the problems described above including the bad Pool caller errror. Tested the RAM with MEMTEST and found errors in the thousands. No crash of MEMTEST 86 over 67 passes. Alienware sent new RAM and this tested with MEMTEST with 0 Errors. This has cleared up almost all of the problems with the exception of the bad pool caller error.
Reinstalled Win XP and got the bad pool caller error consistently after windows formats the hard drive and then begins installing. Once the error shows the only way to complete the install is to reboot and windows XP resumes the process. Once XP is up and running, I am still getting the bad pool caller error every 12 start ups or so. Windows usually restarts normally on the reboot after the error.
Can anyone tell me what the problem could be or how to solve it. Since this error is on the install and later in the normal load of XP could it be caused by the BIOS?
Please! Anyone!
Thanks,
Russ