Troubleshoot Dell D830 white screen at boot

[Skinoku]

Briefly explain your current issue(s)

Machine boots into an unusable state (White screen) but it seems to work without drivers

Steps taken to resolve, but have been unsuccessful

Installing different types of driver, both manufacturer and Nvidia site

I also runned the in-bios self test and that tool said the machine is perfectly fine... I don't know if I should trust it by the way...
Thanks anyone in advance for the help!!

 

[Morvotron]

As first, you should know if the official drivers do not support Windows 7, it's probable you can't use it (or did the computer came with that version?).

When having problems with booting, i always used the same method. Format the whole disk with a Linux known distribution (known= no bugs). Installing any distro on my HDD always helped for "cleaning it". After properlly installed, Windows installations ended with no issues, nor did the booting.

STUFF TO KNOW:

-Was the machine running Ubuntu regularly before it stopped working? Did it have factory Ubuntu?
-Did you install anything (software, drivers) before it broke?
-Ever had any Windows version on this computer?

 

[Skinoku]

No, The machine come with Windows Vista immediately removed by The Institute where it was used before replacing it with XP and Ubuntu.
Before doing anything I wiped The drive deleting all primary and extended partitions with Gparted.
The windows install is clean and updated.
I installed Windows 7 into just blank space (I don't like many partitions on my PCs).
It's strange because I use many of other similar computers (XP era) with 7, 8.1 or even 10 without problems simply getting The driver from CHIP MANUFACTURER like Realtek, Synaptics,... and not computer assembler (Acer, Dell,...).

 

[Morvotron]

No, The machine come with Windows Vista immediately removed by The Institute where it was used before replacing it with XP and Ubuntu.
Before doing anything I wiped The drive deleting all primary and extended partitions with Gparted.
The windows install is clean and updated.
I installed Windows 7 into just blank space (I don't like many partitions on my PCs).
It's strange because I use many of other similar computers (XP era) with 7, 8.1 or even 10 without problems simply getting The driver from CHIP MANUFACTURER like Realtek, Synaptics,... and not computer assembler (Acer, Dell,...).

So you just installed Windows 7 and the problems started? Why was Ubuntu failing on the first place?

 

[Skinoku]

I really don't know @Morvotron but The strange thing is that jesterday was working fine...
Ubuntu was unable to boot both in normal and recovery mode.
With Microsoft drivers standard VGA works well but obviously can't use gpu-intensive tasks like hd video stream...
XP was working but it was so messed up by malware and errors that The only way to go was formatting!

 

[Morvotron]

I really don't know @Morvotron but The strange thing is that jesterday was working fine...
Ubuntu was unable to boot both in normal and recovery mode.
With Microsoft drivers standard VGA works well but obviously can't use gpu-intensive tasks like hd video stream...
XP was working but it was so messed up by malware and errors that The only way to go was formatting!

I'd recommend you to run Dariks Boot and Nuke from a pendrive and clean your whole disk. Be careful, it's a very powerful tool that will rewrite your disk and make data unreachable (lost). Or tales it's time to work, probably a few hours. Once cleaned I'd recommend you to reinstall Windows XP and protect yourself with some light great antivirus as 360 Total Security. Even better I'd recommend you Puppy Linux. Both light enough to work on your machine.

 

[Skinoku]

I've tried that and also using a bootable test CD that revealed a faulty chip. I reverted to the Windows 7 installation backed-up with Acronis true image... I'll use it this way because it will be a computer for my relative that only needs basic web browsing and Skype voice calls.
Tanks @Morvotron for all the help!
Cheers!