What could have happened to my PC??

Last Sunday, 8 June, I woke up to find that the screen of my computer monitor has gone amok! The display properties shown that I am viewing the screen at 8 bit (lowest colour setting) and the resolution set to 800X600. A check on my Adapter properties shows that it does not recognise the nVidia GeForce4 M440 graphic card which I have been using since my clone computer was born on 2002 (I guess). This indicates that something has gone wrong with my display card. Probing further, I check the hardware properties under the Device Manager (Oh, FYI to readers, I am using Windows XP on a AMD Athlon XP +2100 processor). The nVidia graphic card is indicated as not functioning properly and several reinstall of the driver does not help but worsen the problem. I am not unable to log on to Windows as the monitor turned black after the welcome screen.

Next, I boot up in Safe Mode to reinstall my Graphic Card driver and the result was the sam. After every restart to complete the installation, I got a black screen waiting for me after the Windows Welcome screen :( Convinced that it could be due to hardware failure, I opened up my Computer casing to find that the cooling fan for my graphic card is not rotating, hence I thought my Graphic Card could have reach its time to retire.

After doing some research online of the price and the compatibility of the AGP version of PCIE Graphic Card do no harm to my system, I purchased an AGP nVidia 6800 XT chipset Graphic Card. However, after installation, the problem persist. My computer is displaying lowest colout bit rate with the default vga driver loaded. The installation of nVidia's Forceware is not successful either as the computer is greeting me with black screen again after loading Windows.

With me running out of idea to solve the problem, I decided to send it to the nearest computer repair shop located at Kip Mart. Initial diagnosis could not identify the problem and the repairman bet with me by claiming that if the problem persist after installation of a newly formatted HDD with Windows, he will not charge me, if otherwise, I will be charged RM55 for service fee. Confident with the status of my HDD which already 3 years old and no big changes has been done to my OS lately, I accepted the bet. The next day, the repairman proudly shows me that with new HDD loaded with Windows XP OS, my pc was running normally without display issue. Almost convinced, I demanded that my old HDD to be fitted into the system to check for compatibility of running two HDD at one time. However, when fixing in my old HDD into the system, the repairmen claimed that a sad-faced smiley has appeared on my CMOS screen and the system cannot detect my old HDD now as a slave drive because of suspected hardware failure.

I have never received any failure regarding my HDD and no virus attack before as the repairman says the hardware failure can be easily caused by virus attack. I look at him with total disbelief. After weighing long time about the available options in front of me, I have decided to pay off the service charge and get cracking on my own to find the solution to my problem. Since I now know that the botht he graphic cards are in working condition and it could be working on my machine after I formatted my C drive with a fresh new install of windows.

The next day, I moved all my stuff to other partition to back them up and moved on the reformat and reinstall Windows. To my delight, the reformat has solved the problem finally but what makes me worried more is whether my HDD is working perfectly or not? After the reformat, I am also unable to install my TV card properly... heck the problem just keeps popping out one after another!

Wish me luck as my battle to get my PC going continues!