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I started my comp up for the first time in 2 months yesterday (summers get kinda busy for me) and XP could even get through the start up w/o crashing. I booted it up in safe mode and could find no problems with the computer after running some scans. I tried to start it up again, but it crashed again during the XP start up. I finally got it to start some what normally by selecting and option something like use the last working configuration prior to XP trying to start up.

So, now it will start up and everything appears to be running okay execpt for the video. I can only use minimum resolution and 4 bit colors and all of my nVidia tabs are missing from the advanced display settings (the settings you can get to be right clicking on the desktop : properties etc.). I also get an error upon start up that the nvcpl.dll is not loading. The only thing I can figure to do is reinstall my video drivers. I just cannot figure out why a bad driver would cause XP to crash on start up, which makes me think it may be something else. So if anyone has any other ideas as to whats wrong I'd be grateful for any advice.

You might try running System Restore to go back to when your computer booted without any issues or run the Windows Recovery Console from your XP CD.

I will probably give that a try, although I don't think that I ran the program that backs up your comp in a while...

I did some searching and that is an nVidia dll, so reinstalling the video drivers should fix that problem. Do you think that the start up issues may have been due to the video driver/dll problem or do I have some other issues to look for too?

Originally posted by Virgil57
Do you think that the start up issues may have been due to the video driver/dll problem or do I have some other issues to look for too?

I'm sure that a bad video driver alone would prevent XP to start up. But, that doesn't mean that there wouldn't necessarily be other problems as well. Drivers seldom go bad without any reason.

Try running scandisk. Use a virus-scanner with up-to-date virus definitions and run a full system virus scan. Run Windows update to get the latest security pathces. Update device drivers (if a new device driver doesn't work as desired, u can always use driver roll-back to switch to a previous driver).

When you get your system up and running make a new system restore point!

Its already been scanned for viruses and other problems via scan disk and all my norton stuff. Neither found any problems. I reinstalled the video drivers and that did not help. It unlocked the higher resolution/color modes but the comuter will crash if I attempt to use them. One of the times I started up in safe mode windows told me that the system instability was due to a video hardware error. All of this is leading me to believe that the video card my have died. I am going to swap it out with my friend's card (its the same one) and see if that fixes the problem. If thats it I'm going to be kinda pissed because I just got this card a year ago...

Is your graphics card secure in it's slot?

The nvcpl.dll is the nvidia control panel, makes sense as you said the nvidia tabs were not present in the display applet.

Ysh makes a good point. Hardware makes up a large %age of computer woes. It's a good place to start and an easy thing to check and/or fix.

What happened with the other vid card? Try reseating yours and booting up. If the above .dll is not loading, d/l the newest drivers from nvidia and apply them. Not sure if there any card diagnostics available with the nvidia software suite but if there are, give them a whirl.

I tried another card (an older GeForce) and everything worked. The problems only start up again if I put in my original card. I probably just go and buy a new video card. I've seen some good deals on MSI Ti4800 and that would be a step up from my current (but not working) video card.

Thanks for all the help guys! I have to say this is one of the friendliest forums on the net.

::waves hand hypnotically in front of Virgil57::

Yes, an MSI nVidia GeForce 4 card will work well for you.

: ockets checks from MSI and nVidia::