Technology Forum

My System Specs before I start:_Windows_Windows XP5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2_Memory (RAM)_ 1024 MB_CPU Info_ Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.20GHz_CPU Speed_ 2189.3 MHz_Sound card_ SB Live! Wave Device_Display Adapters_ NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 | NetMeeting driver | RDPDD Chained DD_Hard Disks_ C: 111.7GB_Manufacturer_ Dell Computer Corporation_Product Make_ Dimension 8200_BIOS Info_ AT/AT COMPATIBLE | 03/18/02 | DELL - 8_Motherboard_ Dell Computer Corporation Dimension 8200Basically, i've had my PC for a while and it's worked perfect, minus the few glitches that I come across sometimes. But a month or so ago, it started playing up, I suspect 95% it's the graphics card.NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti500 (Old, I know)It's always been good up til now, the problem is that whenever I start my computer normally, it'll run in my normal 1280x1024 32bit Resolution, then a few minutes later the screen will distort a little into a black screen, then the monitor turns off. I can still hear the computer working in the background as I can still hear the sounds of things, iTunes, Msn etc.It just sits there doing nothing, it isn't a Monitor problem as i've tried the PC on a different monitor and it still does the same thing.So the only way I can get on the PC properly is by starting it up in VGA Mode from startup (Boot Screen > F8 > VGA Mode > Windows XP), then it runs in 800x600 Resolution only and I cant change it or the display will break again.I've tried using a new graphics card, a ATI X1550 DDR2, my computer is old so I still use an AGP slot. I've unistalled drivers, shut the computer down, put the ATI graphics card in and all it does is bring up a distorted screen of colours. Once again, I can hear the computer running in the background as I can use my keyboard to navigate to my logon, and log-in to hear the Logon sound. Thing is, I cant actually see this happening as the screen is just a constant distort of random colours, not making even a vague picture from the colours.I'ev also updated the drivers for my current NVIDIA card to the msot recent, which still does nothing.Any help at all would be appreciated, either with the old card or why my new card wont work properly.Thanks in advance.