ATI Video card on laptop

[selenau837]

Ok, folks other than tossing my lap top out of the window what are my options here.

I've been getting a blue screen saying that my atidv32...(Something like that) is corrupted and had to shut down my windows.

Since I have an ATI card, I found my recovery disk and reinstalled those drivers.

Well it work for a week until last night, I started getting a blue screen of death error. System 32 error. It wouldn't even boot up in safe mood.

So, with tears in my eyes, I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled windows, from the recovery disk.

I've lost everything!! BLAHHHH!! Anyways,

After reinstalling that, it started getting the blue screen error about the atidv32 file.

Is my video card dying? Anyhelp would be wonderful.

Specs
Toshiba, Satellite
Windows XP Home
512 Ram
3.32 GHz Pent IIII
ATI Graphic card

 

[Minkey]

Hate to tell you this but a system repair rather than a full install may have fixed it and you wouldn't have lost your data anyway can you post the exact error message when it does blue screen (more info the better). Could you also post the model of the graphics card as well or even the model of the laptop.

I'm sure we can get this sorted without resorting to mindless violence - though I understand it happened to me enough times

 

[selenau837]

Hate to tell you this but a system repair rather than a full install may have fixed it and you wouldn't have lost your data anyway can you post the exact error message when it does blue screen (more info the better). Could you also post the model of the graphics card as well or even the model of the laptop.

I'm sure we can get this sorted without resorting to mindless violence - though I understand it happened to me enough times

It woudln't let me do a system repair. The computer wouldn't boot at all. It went directly to the sys 32 error, and then shut off. It wouldn't even boot in safe mode.

Anyways, I called the store I bought it from, and apparently It may still be under warenty. I'm going to take it in tomorrow and see what they say.

I'm sooooo upset, I've lost alot of stuff.

So, how can I stop this in the future. How do you back up data??????

 

[Rich]

How do you back up data??????

DVD burner, Zip disk, USB storage, another computer

 

[selenau837]

DVD burner, Zip disk, USB storage, another computer

Yes, but that takes up physical space..bleh.....

I just need to get an external harddrive and once a month or so, back up everthing on my laptop...

 

[Rich]

Doesn't the notebook have a built in burner?

 

[selenau837]

Doesn't the notebook have a built in burner?

Yeah.....
A toshiba Satellite...

 

[selenau837]

AS for my video card, it sucks. I can't play most of the new games that have come out in the past year. It freezes it up.

That's ok, it keeps me using my Laptop for school and work, and not playing.


I'm just ticked because I lost my JAVA compiler, and all my programs I had created in my class last year. I was saving them so I can go back and look at them every now and then to refresh my memory.

Ohh, well! I've learned my lesson!

I'll let you know what the Geek Squad at Best Buy says.

 

[Minkey]

It woudln't let me do a system repair. The computer wouldn't boot at all. It went directly to the sys 32 error, and then shut off. It wouldn't even boot in safe mode.

What I meant is to boot off your windows cd and therefore 'bypasssing' the loading of windows unless the error appeared before windows started to load (which is very odd).
There is a virus that creates a sys32 file which is loaded on startup and can be removed manually.

Oh well hope they get it sorted for you

 

[selenau837]

Well, I took it to them.

He listened to my hard drive, blew canned air in the fan, and cleaned the video screen.

He said the fan was dusty, and could have been over heating the video card. I asked if that would keep my pc from booting and he said.

So, Did I just reformat my hard drive, and lose EVERTHING due to a dusty fan.

Please Tell me No!!

 

[Vassago]

It's possible. Overheating of components can cause blue screens. Gotta keep those things clean.

 

[uncle-lai]

Here are some of my laptop computer experiences.

Pentium 4 is the hottest CPU in laptops, better ensure good ventilation when using your laptop. Don't use it lying flat on bed or sofa.

Most laptops comes with no Windows System CD, only with "Recovery CD" which only allow you recover back to "oringal". You cannot do a system repair by booting with a borrowed Windows Installation CD.

Once I helped my friend to repair a Toshiba Satellite laptop. It took me many attempts before I figured out a way to re-install the whole system in a safer condition. My last solution was to run the recovery CD to re-install the whole system, then take the hard drive out, using an external USB hard drive case connect the hard drive to another computer running Windows 2000, backup the whole hard drive (there is no more Backup program in Windows XP), make partitions, restore the backup file to the first partition.

I had tried to boot up the Satellite with Ghost boot disk from a USB floppy drive, but it automatically shut down after loading DOS. I don't trust XP's
System Restore function, so I always keep a Windows 2000 system in my computer for safty purposes.

 

[selenau837]

Thanks Uncle-lai....

Yes, I see that now. Mine also only comes with a recovery disk.

I've since purchased a lap desk for my lap top that allows for proper venilation. I'm also saving up for one that comes with a cooling system in the lap desk. They hook into a USP port for battery supply. That looks great since I use my laptop alot for school.

thanks again

 

[Minkey]

You cannot do a system repair by booting with a borrowed Windows Installation CD.

Have to diagree with you there - I've done plenty or repairs and full re-installs using a full albit OEM version of Windows on a system with only a supplied Recovery CD. There is no diffence in the Windows installation on the laptop whither it comes with a Recovery disk or the full product.

You can in fact use your Recover disk and with a little bit of know how create a full Windows disk which in turn allows you to do a repair install - which will keep your Windows settings and other files in place and only overwrite your Windows system files

 

[uncle-lai]

Hi Minky,

But I agree with you.

First of all I want to state that I am not an IT professional. Frankly, I can only describe myself as an experienced computer USER. I love to see my mistakes being pointed out, becuase I can learn from mistakes.

It was last week when I worked on the Toshiba laptop. Before that I had successfully repaired a few other laptops with the method you mentioned. But the Toshiba was different. When I booted from another OEM CD I was prompted to enter the Product Key, I then entered the Key provided for the Toshiba laptop but was rejected. (It's illegal to use the same Product key on more than one system, right?) I guess Microsoft must have different sets of keys for full versions, OEM version and bundled version.

The Toshiba Recovery CD provides no options, it restores the whole hard drive from a "drive image" file and thus wipes out everything including partitions.

It is a good practice and is strongly recommended to create a full Windows disk as soon as you get your new computer, desktop or laptop. But how many new owners would do that?

Here I would like to remind every new computer (famous brand name system, especially laptop) owners (oh, I don't mean for IT experts, they sure know more than I do ) that there are big traps for disaster waiting if you don't take preventive actions.

 

[Minkey]

When I booted from another OEM CD I was prompted to enter the Product Key, I then entered the Key provided for the Toshiba laptop but was rejected. (It's illegal to use the same Product key on more than one system, right?)

Ahh a Toshiba - that explains it they do have odd setups but I'm surprised one of the key's didn't work ? and yes it is illegal to use the same product key on more than one system - in fact a bit of info, if you have an OEM version of Windows i.e. the one that's cheaper without all the packaging and documentation you are expected to purchase a new disk every time you change your motherboard as Microsoft regard this as changing the system and OEM version should only be used with one system. Though I've never had a problem

It is a good practice and is strongly recommended to create a full Windows disk as soon as you get your new computer, desktop or laptop. But how many new owners would do that?

This is possible but is not easy - my best advice is to use the system restore options within Windows (these can be backup up to a cd/dvd) but one thing to be aware of - if you do a full re-install of Windows DON'T recreate your old log in and then restore your backup, it will cause havoc (use the administrator account) as Windows will think you have too users with the same name, also use a backup utility like Cyberlink, this is a 30 day trial version or Acronis. (Those of you in the UK can get a full version of Cyberlink Power Backup with a few minor features disabled with PCPro magazine).
I personally regularly burn my downloads and apps (as they on different partitions to Windows) but don't worry too much about Windows I prefer to spend some extra time and set it up from scratch again. The apps are more of a pain some do work without a reinstall some don't.
As I've said before you should be in a position that if your hard drive completely fails tomorrow you won't loose anything vital.

First of all I want to state that I am not an IT professional.

If your think I am then I'm not just been around PC since DOS and been through just about everthing with Microsoft products

I personally hate the concept of the restore CD although it's a type of OEM version of Windows I'd much prefer to have a disk in my hand that's mine - after all I paid for the licence.

 

[uncle-lai]

my best advice is to use the system restore options within Windows (these can be backup up to a cd/dvd)

I have Windows XP Home on my Averatec laptop. The System Restore funtion only lets me "Create a restore point". I can't find any way that allow me to store a backup on CD/DVD. Could you point me out how to do that?

Making Backups
I don't know why does Microsoft take away Windows Backup after Win 2K. I personally like to have full control of my backup files instead of just a "Restore Point". In the case of the Toshiba crsis, I could not even boot to command mode, what could I do with the "Restore Point"?

Ideal backup and restore can be categorized in two areas. The System Backup stores the Windows system, device drivers, all installed programs (especially those that requires online activation), and personal settings. Well, if you don't have other later-added programs it won't cause you much pain to do a clean re-install. The other Personal File Backup is much simpler, if you always keep a copy of your files in another storage device you don't need to bother about it.

My practice is always make several partitions in the hard drive, install a second Windows system on a separate partition, move My Documents to another logical drive, create backup files for each system using the other system after finished installing and configuring all needed programs and devices. Even if my hard drive is totally dead I can restore everything to a new hard drive in one step.

 

[Minkey]

Sorry I was a very tired and had a few beers so not quite thinking straight . A System restore point can be used from safe mode to 'roll back' to a previous configuration (as you know) but it is difficult to backup these restore points - their held in a folder that is not accessible by any user (even if they are an admin) - sorry !

I don't know why does Microsoft take away Windows Backup after Win 2K

They haven't but it's not installed as default in XP Home why I don't know (Pro does have it) to install:

Put your XP disk in and click on Perform Additional Tasks > Browse this CD > Navigate to ValueAdd folder > Msft > Ntbackup then run Ntbackup.msi to install the Backup utility. It will now be available from system tools.
You can then save this to a different partition (for easy restore if Windows screws up) and then burn it to CD/DVD for archiving (in case you entire disk goes bang!).

 

[uncle-lai]

Minkey,

Thanks a lot. That is great news for me. Ntbackup is a very useful tool, can't imagine why Microsoft hid this tool from the normal system.

Peter