MAJOR PROBLEM with my graphics card

[r0tc0d]

Hey, earlier today I opened my case up clean my heat sink off because it was extremely dirty. Before I opened I grounded my self... then I grounded my tools and I took off the little stock fan I have and then gently wiped the heatsink off with a cotton ball. Then I took a can of pressurized air and blew into the heat sink. I put everything back to together. Windows loaded fine but when I went to launch steam I got a windows error that said

"AppName: steam.exe AppVer: 1.0.0.0 ModName: steam.dll
ModVer: 2.0.0.0 Offset: 001097cb"

I uninstalled, cleared valve from my registry, then reinstalled but had the same problem.

Then I tried to launch Call of Duty but it wouldn't work. Same with Medal of Honor, Americas army, and videos won't play. Through my extremely skilled deduction talent I have decided that there is something gone wrong with my GFX card.

So I updated my drivers, but it didn't work. So I uninstalled all my drivers, then retried, but no go. I updated my Mobo drivers, but still no good.

What should I do?! I want to give this card all I can before simply trashing it and buying another... Btw my PC is:

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
System Model: A7N8X
BIOS: Ver 1.65
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2100+, ~1.7GHz
Memory: 512MB RAM
PNY GeForce 4 Ti-4200 8xAGP 128MB DDR
Western Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM HD

 

[TheMajor]

Any other errors?

 

[r0tc0d]

No other errors really...

I just installed the BETA Nvidia drivers... during the middle of the installation it said that my GFX wasn't XP compatible... do you think that my windows installation could be messed up and all of the sudden isn't recognizing my GFX card?

 

[TheMajor]

I would boot in safe-mode. Uninstall gfx driver. reboot. safe-mod. re-install latest drivers.

 

[TheMajor]

and don't use the BETA drivers.

 

[r0tc0d]

Ok thanks... do you think that'd be any differant than a non-safemode uninstall and reinstall?

 

[TheMajor]

yes, because windows loads default drivers in safe mode.

 

[r0tc0d]

So I go into safe mode, uninstall, then re-boot and install the drivers in safe mode? Or install in normal windows?

 

[TheMajor]

All in safe mode.