Sometimes, we had to solve something which has a lot of possibilities. In order to solve that kind of problems, i usually use Elimination method. This method will try to reduce as much possibilities until at the end, we can find the right answer. This method doesn't always works well, since you might have to combine several method to have the correct one. I use this method when i wanted to find the source of my PC problem. I have tried several testing and my conclusion so far is the VGA Card. The strange thing is that i can run my PC normally in Safe Mode, which means it can operate on smaller resolution and also with minimum services. When i saw the Event Viewer, i saw some services failed to load. I don't know whether it's because of the Safe Mode or not. My other prediction is the hard disk. This disk has been serving me for about 6 years (i bought this PC when i started to enter college at 2001) so i guess it's time to have it changed (lucky me that i have backed it everything on my portable hard disk).
Since i'm busy with lots of things, i may not be able to fix it myself in short time, so probably tomorrow i will bring it to the computer shop to get it fixed. Probably i will buy a new VGA or hard disk and install a new OS again (sigh... i had to configure it again from scratch).....
Your VGA's RAMDAC will use different mode and (S)RAM size on different resolution and color depth. It might be the 1st (S)RAM chip is OK, but others are faulty. This can cause Safe mode to work but normal mode will fail. Another possible case is if you use 3D hardware accelerated display card. On the Safe Mode, the 3D engine will shutdown. When the DirectX or OpenGL mode are activated, then it can fail.
ReplyDeleteTo eliminate the hard disk for testing, it is easy, just boot your Live CD from Ubuntu, Knoppix, Slax..etc. Or get a DSL from bootable USB.
Hm... haven't tried that yet, but thanks for the information. I will try that whenever i have time, but this time, my priority is not my PC (even though i admit i'm thinking about it everyday)
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