BC(?) may have damaged my PC! [all started from BC]; or the graphics driver

[Gareth]

I'm having very similar problems to what someone else is having in another forum [after Googling around] - here: http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=319452 so I thought someone here might know something more about this problem?

It all started after I upgraded my graphics driver to the latest driver version: v. 163.69  WHQL. I went on Bridge Commander, and set the game up. As soon as I clicked 'ok' to run the 'skirmish' mode, this is what happened.....

- the computer suddenly restarted itself with no warning;
- the monitor was on, but after the first loading screen it's completely black/blank [and stays black/blank];
- while the monitor is blank, there was a slow ticking sound inside my PC;
- it lasted for possibly several minutes



So the only way to solve this was to go into safe-mode, and try a System Restore... *BUT* - and this is possibly very important!* once I was able to get back onto Windows, I found out that somehow it had literally removed ALL of my System Restore points!! Thankfully I still had my previous graphics driver installation on my computer.

Here is the exact behavior that is does now, every so often:

- The entire UI freezes completely. No greyed out windows - it stays like that for possibly 5-20 seconds;
- When it does, mouse moves intermittently;
- I also again hear a slow 'ticking' sound inside my PC when it's doing this;
- sometimes my computer just very briefly gives me a black screen and a short paragraph of text appears [too quickly for me to read], before it suddenly restarts/reboots itself.


AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
System model: MSI MS-7325
HDD model: SAMSUNG HD401LJ
Vista Home Premium, 32bit
2GB RAM
2 GeForce 8800 GTS graphics cards via SLi - v. 162.22  WHQL
700Watt power supply

[El]

Sounds like a harddrive/hardware fault to me. Nothing to do with BC.

[cordanilus]

Hard to say.

I know you're supposed to delete the "options.cfg" when you install a new graphics card for the game to reset the graphics options.

If you have onboard video, I suggest you take out the Sli video cards and use the onboard video as the base.  If that works, then it could be 1 of a number of problems I can think of.

If you don't have onboard video, then I'm not sure yet what to suggest.

The ticking sound might be from an internal moving part, meaning the hard drive but it could also be from the speaker inside.

If I remember correctly, that black screen and the text before reboot is the system halting from a system file being corrupted or missing.  I don't know which one, as a number of files (if corrupted) can halt windows including Video Drivers.

All of my suggestions are only speculation as I have only used Windows Vista for 2 months and have not encountered the problems you posted.  I know that it uses DirectX 10 and uses an emulator in order to run games needing DirectX 9.0c or below.

I can be wrong in my interpretation of these events as fixing computers and troubleshooting windows is only a hobby for me and I do not possess any certificates for this.

The only real thing I can suggest, is to "Un-Install" the the Video Cards.  If you just re-install or install the original drivers, windows has a tendancy to keep the newer files and in this case...be conflicting with a windows driver or just be a corrupt file.  Once the drivers are un-installed, restart the computer and install the original drivers with the cd that came with the video card.

Hopefully, this will solve your problem.

[MLeo]

A ticking sound is possible due to a harddrive failure.

I'm afraid it does sound as a HDD crash from the events that you told me.

[Gareth]

What would be the best way to backup all my files before a complete failure happens?

I guess you're going to say 'DVDs' [or an external HDD which costs a bomb], but are they the only ways of backing it up? I've got over 100 gigabytes of stuff on my HD [although honestly a lot of that are just games and/with mods]

*edit* I'm trying to use Vista's backup program, but it's failing to back them up [I've got a blank DVD inside]