Vista Ultimate 64 - Screen Scrambles and System Locks

[sleiding]

I am running Vista Ultimate 64 on a Sony Vaio. Starting yesterday, my system (after logon) would run then the screen would scramble (not legible) and the system would lock. I can run it in safe mode. I have tried the following:

- Reset BIOS
- Restore to Earlier Version (Twice) - First didn't work, so I went back farther.
- MSCONFIG (Deactivated Unnecessary Programs)
- Startup (Removed Unnecessary Programs)
- Removed anything HP printer related (since I've heard of so many issues with 64 and HP)

When the lock occurs, I'm not getting anything written to the Event log. I've been running virus and malware protection religiously.

I'll take any more ideas. I had to do a total restore to the phanton partition about 6 months ago, but nothing since then. This laptop with Vista 64 has been a constent thorn. I'm trying to decide if I should invest in Windows 7, but not sure if that is the fix I need.

 

[osholt]

I am running Vista Ultimate 64 on a Sony Vaio. Starting yesterday, my system (after logon) would run then the screen would scramble (not legible) and the system would lock. I can run it in safe mode. I have tried the following:

- Reset BIOS
- Restore to Earlier Version (Twice) - First didn't work, so I went back farther.
- MSCONFIG (Deactivated Unnecessary Programs)
- Startup (Removed Unnecessary Programs)
- Removed anything HP printer related (since I've heard of so many issues with 64 and HP)

When the lock occurs, I'm not getting anything written to the Event log. I've been running virus and malware protection religiously.

I'll take any more ideas. I had to do a total restore to the phanton partition about 6 months ago, but nothing since then. This laptop with Vista 64 has been a constent thorn. I'm trying to decide if I should invest in Windows 7, but not sure if that is the fix I need.

Have you tried doing a repair install?

Oli

 

[sleiding]

Sony never gave me the Vista CDs. They place a total restore snap-shot on a hidden partition. I'm not sure how to do a repair install without the CDs. I tried repair on boot-up, but it gave me options that I've already looked at. I just found some other posts that suggest it might be related to the graphics card and/or drivers. I am going to uninstall drivers and reinstall to see if that helps. Thanks

 

[sleiding]

I uninstalled ATI Radeon Mobility driver and reinstalled. The screen didn't scramble, but the system still froze up and I had to reboot. I uninstalled the driver again without reinstalling and that seems to have worked. I'm now running on the standard VGA driver which makes my HD screen on my laptop useless. I really don't want to live with this situation. Any ideas? Should I upgrade to Windows 7 and try to load the driver with Windows 7? I'm not sure how hard or expensive it is to change out a video card in a laptop. I guess that I have some research to do.

 

[osholt]

It's basically impossible to change a mobile GPU, I wouldn't even consider it.

Try installing an older version of the driver.

Oli

 

[sleiding]

Now, I am getting the BSOD with the message that a corrupt deivce driver was trying to load so Windows shutdown. How can I determine the driver? It can't be the ATI driver, I removed that.

 

[osholt]

You will have to look in the event viewer and get someone from the BSoD section to analyse your dump file.

I would suggest starting a new thread for this BSoD.

Oli

 

[sleiding]

Ok. I'll give that a try. My event log is empty, though. I'm not sure why. I don't remember clearing the log and when it did have entries I don't remember seeing any BSOD entries.