Overclocked my geforce 5600. Now i have a black screen.

[dagerousdave]

I tried overclocking my Nvidia geforce 5600 to see what results i could get using nVidia System Utility 1.08.5.

I thought the software would be safe and not allow me to do damage to my card but i was wrong. The system froze straight away and when i tried to reboot i just got a black screen.

The monitor had no video signal, i could hear the HD spinning but no post beeps. I decided to reset the cmos and it seemed to boot up fine. But when i shutdown and restart i get the same as before. Black screen, no post beeps and HD spinning.

This has me thinking that the computer is still loading the overclocked settings but i dont know how to reset to the old settings. I have deleted the nVidia System Utility and thought it would take its overclocked settings with it, but it mustn't have. When i check display properties everything looks normal.

What do i do? I would be grateful for any suggestions. thanx.

[lenti_75]

un-do what you did, run the utility again and restore the settings.

[BJ_M]

how do you check display settings if you can not see the screen ?


anyway = boot into safe mode and work it out from there if you need to...

[dagerousdave]

how do you check display settings if you can not see the screen ?


anyway = boot into safe mode and work it out from there if you need to...

I can see the screen. As i said, it works when i reset the cmos, but i have to this every time i reboot.

Thanx for the replys BTW.

[kato51]

Maybe borrow any old pci vid card and hook your monitor up to that. If things load then undo whatever on the other card and hope that no damage was done.

[pfh]

Try a BIOS update.

[BrainStorm69]

It doesn't sound like you have fried your hardware. Try reinstalling the nVidia overclocking utility and setting your card back to the default settings. If this doesn't work for some reason...time for reformat and fresh Windows install.

[Bjs]

Clear cmos by removing the battery , leave the pc for about 20 minutes should be long enough for the cmos to drain all power .

Replace battery , reboot , and bang the hell out of the f8 key to get yourself into safe mode ...

It is here you reset the utility , not in the live os boot , this is because windows bypass's certain system drivers and is what they refer to as the safe area , how safe is anyones guess because you can still make a complete mess of the system here .

the reason for this is you have 2 options that should not fail at all .

1: reset the video card now to default and never ever do that again .
2: uninstall that useless utilty now , once and for good , in the untrained hands it will stuff you pc for good , I guarantee it .

I should now , I had a couple of geforce fx5200's die in the past 12 months , and I mean dead as road kill can be , it stinks .

One was overclocked , the others just plain died before the first 12 months was over simply because the cards supported 8x and 4x agp , the cards were only truely compatable with 8x .

Placing them into a system with 4x only agp is a quick way of killing them , and it is not recommend to install them unless you are willing to run the guantlet of trouble thats heading in your direction sooner rather than later .

[BJ_M]

what ?

ALL agp 8x cards have to support 4x .. but there are different voltage agp that could fry them ..

[dagerousdave]

Thanx for all the suggestions guys.

I have done a repair install of winXP. this did not solve the problem. I wanted to do a fresh install but it wouldn't let me do it the conventional way with the xp disk. I suppose i will have to search out instructions on the old fashion way (But that will be the last port of call before i get a new video card).

I also rebooted in safe mode but i was unable to access "nvidia system utility" tool to reset the overclocked settings, so that was no good.

I would still be very grateful for any more ideas.

[lumis]

sounds like you're pretty screwed.. if it were me, i'd pull the hdd from the system, copy any files i needed.. put it back in the system, booting from the win xp cd... delete all partitions, clean install.

but they dont call you dangerous dave for nothing

[dagerousdave]

sounds like you're pretty screwed.. if it were me, i'd pull the hdd from the system, copy any files i needed.. put it back in the system, booting from the win xp cd... delete all partitions, clean install.

but they dont call you dangerous dave for nothing

Well, i have already backed up my programme files with 10 dvds. I don't know why you would pull ur HD out? it doesn't seem like a HD issue.

Anyway, i cant boot from the win xp disk. I don't seem to get that option anymore after resetting the cmos battery. It just boots straight into windows after hitting F1 at the Checksum error message.

It just seems to be one problem after another!

All suggestions are still welcome.

[ViRaL1]

If you reset the CMOS, you'll need to go back in and set your CD drive as your first boot device.

[dagerousdave]

If you reset the CMOS, you'll need to go back in and set your CD drive as your first boot device.

Yes, i know, thanx for the advice.

But the problem is: When i come out of the bios i get the black screen again and have to clear the cmos to boot. Hows that for a catch22.

[lumis]

well, if you pull the hdd, it wont be able to boot in to windows (i.e. crash the card).. so you can just press ctrl+alt+del, your settings should remain in tact, get in the bios and set the cd-rom as the FBD

[offline]

Boot to safe mode. Disable video card under device manager. Reboot as normal and the nvidia settings
will not be able to be set. Remove the nvida system
utility (set to default first if possible) and reboot.

[dagerousdave]

The problem is still not resolved guys. I've tried all the suggestions and also tried a brand new video card but it still wont boot unless i reset the cmos. I have come to the conclusion that it must be something on the MB.

Any Techies out there with advice would be appreciated.

[offline]

dagerousdave,

When you push F8 as windows boots does it go
into safe mode ok?

[RabidDog]

Boot from a floppy disc after unplugging your hard drive .. dont need to take it out.. yet..
OR boot up with your old video card in there and safe mode and repair from there..

[dagerousdave]

Yes, i can boot into safe mode after resetting the cmos but i still could not fix the problem in safe mode either. For some reason i could not remove the nvidia software.

I appreciate all who take the time to help me out.