Annoying Problem

w3tw1lly · Nov 12, 2006, 03:33 AM

Every time I start up my computer, on the POST logo, it shows like colourful lines, when it goes to anything that has text in it such as the BIOS setup or anything like that, I have these weird characters and all this random stuff, such as the DOS text for smiley faces. It also will freeze at the windows XP loading. Although one time, it booted into windows XP but I had colourful lines a little, and then my screen flickered like 4 times then my computer was fine. To get rid of it, I have to hit the reboot button about 60 times before it actually goes to normal. It doesn't seem to be my monitor as my monitor works fine with my Xbox 360. It started about 3-4 days ago for some reason. My stats are as follows:
ASUS A8N-SLi Premium
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
BFG 6800 ULTRA OC
1 GB CORSAIR TWINX DDR400 RAM
OCZ 520 W PSU
DELL P991 19" CRT FLATSCREEN MONITOR
System is about a year old

I also found something that sounded a lot like my problem:
Was googling and found this text here http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...=118855&page=2
"...have been getting weird corruption intermittently (checkerboard pattern, garbage characters, offset text) showing up on the BIOS POST screen and into..."

For some reason I cannot get into that area of the forum.

Dyre Straits · Nov 12, 2006, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by w3tw1lly

Every time I start up my computer, on the POST logo, it shows like colourful lines, when it goes to anything that has text in it such as the BIOS setup or anything like that, I have these weird characters and all this random stuff, such as the DOS text for smiley faces. It also will freeze at the windows XP loading. Although one time, it booted into windows XP but I had colourful lines a little, and then my screen flickered like 4 times then my computer was fine. To get rid of it, I have to hit the reboot button about 60 times before it actually goes to normal. It doesn't seem to be my monitor as my monitor works fine with my Xbox 360. It started about 3-4 days ago for some reason. My stats are as follows:
ASUS A8N-SLi Premium
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
BFG 6800 ULTRA OC
1 GB CORSAIR TWINX DDR400 RAM
OCZ 520 W PSU
DELL P991 19" CRT FLATSCREEN MONITOR
System is about a year old

I also found something that sounded a lot like my problem:
Was googling and found this text here http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...=118855&page=2
"...have been getting weird corruption intermittently (checkerboard pattern, garbage characters, offset text) showing up on the BIOS POST screen and into..."

For some reason I cannot get into that area of the forum.

Greetings and welcome to DriverHeaven!

If you are seeing this kind of problem at the POST screen it indicates at least one of two things that I can think of offhand:

1. The cooling fan (if there is one) is not functioning properly on the video card.

2. The video card, itself, has been damaged.

When you first post the computer, there are no drivers at all installed. So, it can't be a driver-related problem as the drivers don't take affect until you get into Windows.

Have you tried removing the card and cleaning it out? If there's a fan, it could be clogged by dust and debris. Use canned air and blow out the dust. Don't get too close as you can actually damage the fan with too much force.

While you have the case open, be sure to clean out the other fans. In fact, a good thorough cleaning is likely needed.

Good luck!

w3tw1lly · Nov 13, 2006, 09:24 PM

Okay, got some pictures. It stopped screwing up for a while, now it started again, and now it will randomly do it within windows.
Here are some PICS. PLEASE HELP. I reseated my videocard yesterday. Didn't help.

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1285/dsc01396wa6.jpg
See the jibberish? It would appear as if the jibberish overlays everything behind it.

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/413/dsc01384gm4.jpg
As you can see there is some weird colours on the XP flag.

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/9678/dsc01393lw8.jpg
JIBBERISH!

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/7014/dsc01376vg6.jpg
Weird screen.

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/7668/dsc01379kr2.jpg
Missing letters, but less gibberish.

Dyre Straits · Nov 14, 2006, 04:13 AM

I've had one card in the past 12 years that did something like that and the card itself was bad. It was still under warranty and I had to RMA it.

I think you'll be in the market for a new card or, if yours is under warranty, you'll need to RMA it.

Romani48 · Nov 20, 2006, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by w3tw1lly

Every time I start up my computer, on the POST logo, it shows like colourful lines, when it goes to anything that has text in it such as the BIOS setup or anything like that, I have these weird characters and all this random stuff, such as the DOS text for smiley faces. It also will freeze at the windows XP loading. Although one time, it booted into windows XP but I had colourful lines a little, and then my screen flickered like 4 times then my computer was fine. To get rid of it, I have to hit the reboot button about 60 times before it actually goes to normal. It doesn't seem to be my monitor as my monitor works fine with my Xbox 360. It started about 3-4 days ago for some reason. My stats are as follows:
ASUS A8N-SLi Premium
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
BFG 6800 ULTRA OC
1 GB CORSAIR TWINX DDR400 RAM
OCZ 520 W PSU
DELL P991 19" CRT FLATSCREEN MONITOR
System is about a year old

I also found something that sounded a lot like my problem:
Was googling and found this text here http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...=118855&page=2
"...have been getting weird corruption intermittently (checkerboard pattern, garbage characters, offset text) showing up on the BIOS POST screen and into..."

For some reason I cannot get into that area of the forum.

I don't think it is a video card problem, because I have the same problem, and it is not the first time! Second, in fact!
I know it isn't a video card problem because i got other disk with other operating system that has no problems

So i think the problem is in the hard drive, specificaly in the MBR (Master Boot Record), because the problem is at the boot. Then i try to correct the MBT the problem is solved, but I still cant enter windows, and I cant repair Windows (XP) so i have to reinstall it by formating the disk

But if someone has other idea please say! cause i dont want to waste time copying all my files to other hard drive just to format....

My problematic system is 10 Year old but has a few changes (hey but it still rocks!! and i still play some newst games in it

) :

Pentium III 500Mhz
320 MB Ram
160Gb Samsung Disk
8Gb Toshiba Disk
Geforce 5200FX 128Mb
Creative Audigy4

I hope it doesnt affect my new pc!! looool

TheBlackCat · Nov 20, 2006, 02:12 AM

If you are sure it is a problem with the HDD (I'll have to defer to others to make that diagnosis) you can always get a replacement. You can get a fairly large one for not too much money nowadays. Then set the current hard drive up as a slave and set the new one up as a master. You should then be able to reinstall windows in the new hard drive but still access your files in the old without formatting. Then transfer the files on the old one over to the new before the old one dies. I don't know that much about it so someone else can probably tell you more.

Romani48 · Nov 20, 2006, 02:28 PM

yeah that is what i've done last time
i solved that problem before.
im just waiting for the new HD

im suspecting a virus, because i dont think the hard drive is having mechanical problems :P
just wait to see how the problem is solved

thanks!

And here is the shot of what appens when it tryes to load windows, it stucks and the screen keeps like this (or worse):

Romani48 · Nov 20, 2006, 07:50 PM

Just to update:

Well it seems that i was right! I've entered in Windows Repair console by booting with windows XP CD and when it was detecting the operating sistems it freeze for some seconds and then it didn't recognize my damaged instalation, but when i used the FIXBOOT command and it askme if I wanted the C: as my default booting drive and I said yes it told me that it was an error on the disk

Conclusion:
Before this i couldn't boot with that hard drive
After this i only can see a 10Mb hard disk, completly clean

but i was able to recover most of the data with FILE SCAVANGER

My luck is that many of my data was backd up in my cousin computer

now I can reformat my hard drive and reinstall the Windows
Just hoping to be so stable as my old one was!
DAmm it was so great :S

Dyre Straits · Nov 21, 2006, 08:27 AM

Good luck to you!

It's been so long since I had to deal with a virus...and that does seem to be the case here.

Romani48 · Nov 21, 2006, 11:24 PM

just my luck!! it's the second time in almost 11 years that i deal with a virus!
And i might seem to have found the file in question!! and anti virus dont consider it a virus cause i don't alter any file.. i enter in the Master boot record of a hard drive and alters it

the problem is when i tried to recreate it with the windows xp cd repair console the console consider it a 10Mb disk :P (FAT16), when the real is 160Gb (153Gb) NTFS, but only for my luck is the second time this happens! This were the only two real problems i have faced in my computer life experience

lool

Anyway We learn from our errors...

PangingJr · Nov 25, 2006, 05:46 PM

look at the pic above, on the main/boot drive i have never seen the "UDMA 82" mode like that. what kind of hard drive was it?

Nov 12, 2006, 03:33 AM	#1
w3tw1lly DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Annoying Problem Every time I start up my computer, on the POST logo, it shows like colourful lines, when it goes to anything that has text in it such as the BIOS setup or anything like that, I have these weird characters and all this random stuff, such as the DOS text for smiley faces. It also will freeze at the windows XP loading. Although one time, it booted into windows XP but I had colourful lines a little, and then my screen flickered like 4 times then my computer was fine. To get rid of it, I have to hit the reboot button about 60 times before it actually goes to normal. It doesn't seem to be my monitor as my monitor works fine with my Xbox 360. It started about 3-4 days ago for some reason. My stats are as follows: ASUS A8N-SLi Premium AMD Athlon 64 3500+ BFG 6800 ULTRA OC 1 GB CORSAIR TWINX DDR400 RAM OCZ 520 W PSU DELL P991 19" CRT FLATSCREEN MONITOR System is about a year old I also found something that sounded a lot like my problem: Was googling and found this text here http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...=118855&page=2 "...have been getting weird corruption intermittently (checkerboard pattern, garbage characters, offset text) showing up on the BIOS POST screen and into..." For some reason I cannot get into that area of the forum.

Nov 13, 2006, 09:24 PM	Thread Starter #3
w3tw1lly DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Okay, got some pictures. It stopped screwing up for a while, now it started again, and now it will randomly do it within windows. Here are some PICS. PLEASE HELP. I reseated my videocard yesterday. Didn't help. http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1285/dsc01396wa6.jpg See the jibberish? It would appear as if the jibberish overlays everything behind it. http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/413/dsc01384gm4.jpg As you can see there is some weird colours on the XP flag. http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/9678/dsc01393lw8.jpg JIBBERISH! http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/7014/dsc01376vg6.jpg Weird screen. http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/7668/dsc01379kr2.jpg Missing letters, but less gibberish. Last edited by w3tw1lly; Nov 13, 2006 at 09:40 PM.

Nov 20, 2006, 02:12 AM	#6
TheBlackCat DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Searching for the Candle in the Dark Posts: 567 Rep Power: 0	If you are sure it is a problem with the HDD (I'll have to defer to others to make that diagnosis) you can always get a replacement. You can get a fairly large one for not too much money nowadays. Then set the current hard drive up as a slave and set the new one up as a master. You should then be able to reinstall windows in the new hard drive but still access your files in the old without formatting. Then transfer the files on the old one over to the new before the old one dies. I don't know that much about it so someone else can probably tell you more. __________________ [color=#000000]There is always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible and wrong.[/color] -H. L. Mencken

Nov 20, 2006, 02:28 PM	#7
Romani48 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Gaia, Porto, Portugal Posts: 12 Rep Power: 0	yeah that is what i've done last time i solved that problem before. im just waiting for the new HD im suspecting a virus, because i dont think the hard drive is having mechanical problems :P just wait to see how the problem is solved thanks! And here is the shot of what appens when it tryes to load windows, it stucks and the screen keeps like this (or worse): Last edited by Romani48; Nov 20, 2006 at 02:43 PM.

Nov 20, 2006, 07:50 PM	#8
Romani48 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Gaia, Porto, Portugal Posts: 12 Rep Power: 0	Just to update: Well it seems that i was right! I've entered in Windows Repair console by booting with windows XP CD and when it was detecting the operating sistems it freeze for some seconds and then it didn't recognize my damaged instalation, but when i used the FIXBOOT command and it askme if I wanted the C: as my default booting drive and I said yes it told me that it was an error on the disk Conclusion: Before this i couldn't boot with that hard drive After this i only can see a 10Mb hard disk, completly clean but i was able to recover most of the data with FILE SCAVANGER My luck is that many of my data was backd up in my cousin computer now I can reformat my hard drive and reinstall the Windows Just hoping to be so stable as my old one was! DAmm it was so great :S __________________ ---------------------------------------------------------- It is you that control your life! Not your life that controls you....

Nov 21, 2006, 11:24 PM	#10
Romani48 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Gaia, Porto, Portugal Posts: 12 Rep Power: 0	just my luck!! it's the second time in almost 11 years that i deal with a virus! And i might seem to have found the file in question!! and anti virus dont consider it a virus cause i don't alter any file.. i enter in the Master boot record of a hard drive and alters it the problem is when i tried to recreate it with the windows xp cd repair console the console consider it a 10Mb disk :P (FAT16), when the real is 160Gb (153Gb) NTFS, but only for my luck is the second time this happens! This were the only two real problems i have faced in my computer life experience lool Anyway We learn from our errors... __________________ ---------------------------------------------------------- It is you that control your life! Not your life that controls you....

Nov 25, 2006, 05:46 PM	#11
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	look at the pic above, on the main/boot drive i have never seen the "UDMA 82" mode like that. what kind of hard drive was it?