*&%$ing Vista is killing my computer

tigger

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Hey guys, I need a little help and I'm not exactly the most computer savvy guy. I've got a computer running a MSI 945GM3 motherboard, 2.8ghz dual-core Intel processor, 2g of RAM and a NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT graphics card. And Windows Vista. Goddamned Vista.

Anyway, it has been running fine for 2 years. But a couple days ago it crashed (blue screened right in the middle of Fallout 3), and now Vista won't let my graphics card work. It has disabled it, citing "Code 43" and saying it can't access the right drivers. That left me with a 640x480 screen resolution and 4-bit color. Not good.

I tried reinstalling the drivers, I completely uninstalled and reinstalled the graphics card, then I got bored and did a clean install of Vista. That was fun, but it didn't work. The computer works fine without the graphics card installed though.

There's my unneccesarily long post. Any ideas?
Please don't say the cards dead. Please don't say the cards dead. Please don't say the cards dead.
 
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I would try installing the Nvidia into another machine and see if it works there. If not, the card is probably fried (overheated?).
 
buy a cheap inexpensive video card for like $40 and try putting it in and see if it is the card or somthing else about your computer. this can help narrow it down. also vista is great in my opinion and if you dont like it u should try windows 7 (its great!)
 
I would try installing the Nvidia into another machine and see if it works there. If not, the card is probably fried (overheated?).
This. If it doesn't work in another perfectly healthy machine, it's toast.

I doubt it would have overheated, unless the onboard fan failed and you got no overheating warnings at all. Does it have a warranty?
 
So I'm a bit lost as to how this is Windows Vista's problem.

Code 43 is a bit more complex than you'd might think.

On the surface, it sounds like your card is toast. The drivers attempted to load for the device, during Initialization of the hardware they encountered a serious issue and bailed out leaving Windows to load a generic VGA based driver for that device.

You could try pulling off all the chipset and video card drivers, then doing a reinstall of those, but honestly, a BSOD followed by a series of failed device driver loads sounds like hardware is going bye bye.

There's a chance it could be your motherboard as well. Northbridge chipset is overheating, that will cause issues as well.

It'd be helpful to know what BSOD you encountered too.

I'm not going to disagree w/ the Goddamn Vista part, but let's blame it for what it does do wrong, not just everything that goes wrong.
 
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I would try installing the Nvidia into another machine and see if it works there. If not, the card is probably fried (overheated?).
I'll see if I can convince my roommate to let me pull apart his computer and stick a potentially fried video card in it. There was never any warning that the card was failing. It had a good mess of dust on it when I pulled it out though.

So I'm a bit lost as to how this is Windows Vista's problem.
Because I hate Vista :lol:. It's really not terrible, it just drives me nuts with the constant nagging since I download a lot of stuff. And for better or worse, it does suck RAM. Which is a problem since I can't run more than 2g worth with my motherboard.

Anyway, thanks for the link. It's the first good info on code 43 I've found. There was this diagnosis in there:
A device driver notified the operating system that the device failed.
I hate to admit it but it would make sense that this is a hardware problem, all things considered.

I'll see about testing the card in another computer tomorrow. Worst case scenario is that the card is FUBAR ... then I've got an excuse to build a new computer and turn this one into a server for the house.

Since you're all gentlemen and scholars: rep all around. Except for you Dogbert :p ... I think I owe you something like 3 hits of rep now.
 
^ as I think I have ranted about before, nVidia's fail without warning, and often catastrophically. Well, by warning I mean shoddy video and gameplay quality for a few months and a warm system temp overall, in my case. I'm on my second card (a refurb, but a good one) and I have a mate who went through 3 in one year, and gave up and switched to ATI or something.
I think there is a design fault in quite a few computers (definitely mine, it's well documented too) in which dust gets sucked in really easily, and it accumulates in fans and on the GPU. So it's not really their fault, just bad designing. But still, they should install better software to monitor temps and warn you of problems.

Just my two cents :)
 
That left me with a 640x480 screen resolution and 4-bit color.
That happened to me a number of years ago and I tried to press-on and keep using the computer until I had the cash to buy a new graphics card. I was still trying to check email, download pornography, read forums et cetera. I found some pictures of the best looking ass I had ever seen. It was so perfectly formed.. It was a thing of beauty. I couldn't quite make out all the details but I knew enough to know it was a fine ass.

Long story short, when I finally got a new graphics card I realised I'd been jerking it to a picture of a friggin' mannequin!
 
Because I hate Vista :lol:. It's really not terrible, it just drives me nuts with the constant nagging since I download a lot of stuff.

No, it really is worse than you think. :) Trust me.

Please report back on this so we know you're okay. hahaha

That happened to me a number of years ago and I tried to press-on and keep using the computer until I had the cash to buy a new graphics card. I was still trying to check email, download pornography, read forums et cetera. I found some pictures of the best looking ass I had ever seen. It was so perfectly formed.. It was a thing of beauty. I couldn't quite make out all the details but I knew enough to know it was a fine ass.

Long story short, when I finally got a new graphics card I realised I'd been jerking it to a picture of a friggin' mannequin!

You make it sound like it's a bad thing...
 
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The 8500 and 8600 suffered from a manufacturing error which caused them to overheat and die. You might want to see if you can RMA yours.
 
Have you tried kicking it? :p
next is a hammer....apart from that ......euhrmm :p
 
Again, thanks all for the help. I've been waiting on Vista; it had to connect to Skynet or whatever and get the 80 updates my computer was missing. I'm going to start keeping my mini-sledge handy for when it goes sentient. The video card didn't work in my friends computer (and he's got pretty much the same set up I do) so I'll go ahead and call it dead.

as I think I have ranted about before, nVidia's fail without warning, and often catastrophically.
The 8500 and 8600 suffered from a manufacturing error which caused them to overheat and die. You might want to see if you can RMA yours.
I looked into that and my card, a "G86", is one of the ones that's most affected. Whoopee. I'll see if I can get in contact with NVIDIA about an RMA ... or some money. :mrgreen: If I get a response I'll post it.
 
Unfortunately the card is well out of warranty, so I guess I'm SOL there. Any suggestions on a new video card? I might be able to spend $100.
 
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I know this is an old thread now but I had to replace a mate's 8500GT a little while ago because it had decided to just show coloured artefacts instead of the bloody image. Luckily I had an old 7900GS knocking around that I let him have. He actually says it's an improvement.

He didn't have a 6-pin either, but he happened to have a brand new PSU on the shelf with one. I didn't realise that my 9800GTX+ took 2 6-pins until I got it, was surprised.
 
IIRC, the 8600GT would've been a better match to the 7900GS.

Personally, I've owned among other Nvidia cards: a 6600GT PCI and a 640MB 8800GTS. Both cards died while in use.

The 6600GT was a bitch as far as power consumption went. Took me a while and about 4 or 5 PSU before I could get it to run without crashing the system. And by then, the damn thing kicked the bucket. Replaced it with a ATI X800GTO, which was cheap, and at least power efficient.

The 8800GTS started showing oddball, psychedelic colors on screen, while booting Linux, then showed the same symptoms in Windows. Was probably a few weeks short of a year, old. Replaced it with an ATI HD4850, which is what I am currently using.

So, for me, reliability of Nvidia boards hasn't been all that good.
 
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