Garbled screen on boot-up?

[hulbdo]

Just had this problem that started today. Everything was working fine, but then I loaded up World of Warcraft and the screen becamme garbled as soon as the game loaded up and stayed that way, even when I tried to alt-tab back to desktop. I then restarted and when I got back into Windows and loaded WoW again, same thing would happen, but this time it would freeze up for a few seonds than restart on its own. On a couple of occasions, this happened without even loading the game but right when windows loads up. On on occasion, on the boot-up screen (where it shows what drives it detects), the text there is garbled as well. I currently have a 9700 pro vid card and my comp isn't overclocked in any way. Now, thought, after all these restarts, the comp seems to be working fine again and the game loads up fine. Do you guys think my vid card is starting to die? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Epox 8KHA+
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
1 gig pc2100
ATI AIW 9700 Pro

 

[jackschmittusa]

Fan clean and working on the vid card?

 

[hulbdo]

Yea, the fan seems to be clean and spinning fine. I haven't had the problem yet today...kinda makes me wonder what was up last night with it.

 

[jackschmittusa]

You could try pulling the card and reseating it, especially if the mb does not have a lock for the card. Pulling and inserting the card even cleans the contacts somewhat on both the card and the socket.

 

[hulbdo]

Just wanted to thank you for the help. I tried pulling our the card and reseating it earlier this morning. Just now, however, I had the same garbled screen and reboot happen, but its been fine again since then. Do you think its a vid card prob or motherboard one? Kinda wierd how it does this so randomly..

 

[Slikkster]

I'd be reinstalling the video drivers, too. Something might have gotten hosed the first time you had an issue with WOW. So, fresh drivers couldn't hurt. Might even be some updated ones since last you looked.

Edit: didn't notice this happened at bootup, too, on occasion. But the driver update won't hurt. How about your bios? Update available for that?

 

[Whatisthat]

could have had a glich when u loaded it on to ur comp and it just showed up?

 

[hulbdo]

Thanks, I reinstalled the drivers and everything seems to be fine now. let's hope it stays that way!

 

[RelaxTheMind]

Sounds like it could have been a refresh rate/resolution problem...

 

[hulbdo]

Hmm...I've been having this problem again this morning, but it seems to be different now. I went to restart my computer and right at the boot-up screen, all the text was scrambled. So I turned off the computer and turned it back on, but this time, before even posting, the computer seemed to be "stuck", with the hdd light on and both dvd drives lights going on and off. I turned it off and on several times and same thing. So I open up the case and look at my Motherboard's Post LED (Epox 8KHA+) and it shows "C1", which apparently indicates a memory problem. In my comp, I have a Kingston 1 gig pc2700 (running at pc2100), 256 crucial pc2100, and another 256 crucial pc2100 i believe. So I take turns taking out the ram to see if anything would happen. Only when I left the 1 gig stick in there, did the comp boot up at all, but all the text was still scrambled. I went ahead and added the other 2 and it still booted up, but was still scrambled. After a couple of turn offs and turn ons, it finally booted up normally, but the RAM detected was only 256, so after detaching and reinserted all the ram sticks, it finally loads up again as 1 gig and everything is back to normal. What is up w/ this? Anyone have any idea? I'm guessing its not a vid card issue, but maybe my motherboard or RAM?

 

[Slikkster]

Why don't you inspect your motherboard for bad capacitors. These can certainly be the cause of sporadic problems.

I did a google search on your motherboard, and sure enough, others have had bad capacitors plague this board.

If you want to know how to identify bad caps, go here:

http://www.badcaps.net/ident/

Click on the pictures there to see what a bad cap looks like. Don't expect to see leaking caps, but you might.
Pay very close attention to the tops of these capacitors. They should be perfectly straight across.

Any bulging whatsoever signifies a bad capacitor. Of course, any that show leakage is a certain sign of a bad cap.

If you don't see any bad caps on the motherboard, look at your video card closely.

 

[hulbdo]

Hmmm....never realized that my board has had some history with bad capacitors, thanks for letting me know about that. I checked them out though and they all seem okay. The video card seems okay, nothing unusual with it and the fan on it works perfectly. It seems that whenever I completely power off (for >10 min) and turn it back on, I'll get the scrambled text on boot-up and with the loading xp screen, but if I reset a couple of times, eventually, everything goes back to normal. I ran a memory test for 2 hours and no errors come up. Man, i'm completely stumped.

 

[Slikkster]

Well, as badcaps.net tells you, visual analysis of caps sometimes isn't enough.

It sounds like you could have an issue wih something like a cap that isn't stable until it gets a little warmed up. Maybe a cold solder joint, too.

And, of course, the easiest thing to test is to swap out the video card and see how it goes.

 

[phatrabt]

I had a similar issue where when I'd boot I'd get garbled text. My problem was a bad vid card so I sent it back to ATI and they sent me another one.

 

[hulbdo]

Wow....this is quite a jam....Don't know if I should go and get a new motherboard or video card. I knew I should never have given my spare computer away!!! It would be useful to use it to test some components....

 

[Slikkster]

Well, even though I brought up the bad cap on the motherboard issue, I'd go for the video card first. I say that because it seems as if everything else is working on the pc as it should. Now, of course that's no guarantee, but trying to use logic here.

You haven't changed any of the video settings in the bios, right? Like AGP Aperature size, etc.?

Edit: Looks like this is proof (or darn close) you've got a video card issue:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_21064912.html

 

[hulbdo]

Hmm...I'm going to see if I can test one of my friend's video cards on my computer and see what happens. The cap issue might make some sense. It seems that if I boot the computer cold....it's freeze and won't boot up, with the access light on. If i leave it like that, i can hear it restarting on its own (beeps), then nothing. But leave it long enough, like 45sec, it'll actually boot up and display the boot up screen, although garbled, and then everything will go black. It'll then restart again, and same thing. Eventually, after like 2 more minutes, it'll boot up fine and everything looks and works okay now, except if i turn off the computer. Would that sound more like a motherboard problem? Just wanted to thank you guys again for the help!

 

[Slikkster]

The beep could be a video card error beep that the bios is signalling. Did you read that link I posted about the guy with the 9700 pro and the garbled text?

There's more where that came from.

But, bottom line is yes, it still could be the motherboard. The video card swap, however, will easily bear out what the problem is. That's your best option to try right now.

 

[hulbdo]

Yea, I was reading up the link that you provided and it seems that the problem that person had was with corruption/garbled graphics upon moving the mouse, which was present all the time. It seems that now, my problem just happens when I cold boot the computer, which after about 2 minutes of nothing (all access lights are on, occasionally the boot screen comes up garbled, but after trying to detect the drives, it'll go black for a while, then try again), eventually the boot screen will come up normal and stays normal in windows and games until I turn off the computer and cold boot again. I've been reading up on the Epox 8KHA+ and you're right, its got a pretty bad history with bad caps and other problems, but the history with the 9700 pro isn't that great either apparently.

 

[hulbdo]

I've seen to find something else out. It seems that if I unplug both my hard drives and both my dvd drives, then the computer will start up fine. If I plug them back in, I'll get the boot-up problems again. Does this pretty much point to a power supply problem?

 

[Slikkster]

how about trying to isolate it even more, like plugging them back in one at a time to see if there's something that's really at fault.

 

[hulbdo]

I currently have the following drives on my computer:

Maxtor 30GB
Western Digital 120GB
Pioneer DVD-ROM
DVD Writer (NEC-1300A)

The problems with booting only appear to occur when the WD 120 GB hard drive is plugged in. Any combination of the other 3 appear to boot up normally, except when the WD is plugged. Would you think that this is a problem of the WD hard drive? Or because it draws more "power" and my power supply may need to be exchanged?

 

[Slikkster]

I would hardly think that this drive requires more power. If you have it plugged in alone, it still results in a garbled screen?

Also, how about plugging it in alone, yet on a different controller, like the controller that the DVD drives were on. Put it in whatever position on that IDE cable that it would have been on on its normal controller/cable. In other words, if it is a "Master", put it in the master position on the DVD cable without any other drives attached.

Still trying to isolate it, if you see what I'm getting at. Could be the controller vs. the drive.

Edit: Also, try swapping in different IDE cables. If you don't have spare IDE ribbon cables, then at least try hooking up the WD drive to:

The controller it's on now, but using the ribbon cable that you normally use for the dvd drives.

The other controller with its normal ribbon cable.

The other controller with the DVD drive ribbon cable.

Each of the above, but with a different power connector attached. Try to use a power connector from a different feeder wire off the power supply than what was originally attached (there's usually two power connectors on a feeder...you want to try a different feeder wire).

 

[hulbdo]

Well, I tried out different combinations between the 2 different IDE cables and the different power connectors and it appears that the only times when this "garbled screen" and difficulty booting occurs is when the WD 120 GB hard drive is plugged in, either by itself or in combination with the other drives. The WD is currently my "slave" drive with the Maxtor the "master" and holding the OS. I do, however, only have a 300W power supply powering both dvd drives, both hard drives, game theater xp sound card, ATI AIW 9700 Pro, 1 gig ram, and 2400+; although its been working fine for the past half year. Do you think this would more indicate power supply problem or hard drive problem? i did have problems with this hard drive this past summer when it completely stopped working and was unrecognizable, when it was plugged in, it would take >15 min just for windows to load up, but with it plugged out, everything was fine. I sent it in and WD sent me a refurb HD. otherwise, the Western Digital HD has no other problems that I've been aware of. Thanks!

 

[Slikkster]

At a bit of a loss, but since your hard drive is what's causing this event, run some diagnostics on it.

Open a command prompt. Let's say that this drive is your drive E:

At the command prompt, type:

chkdsk e: /f

and tap the enter key.

Also, is the bios reporting the drive correctly? Cylinders and Sectors correct?

Jumper pin on the drive correct?

Any loose pins where the power connector attaches?

I can't buy the power supply problem...yet. Powering one drive and still having an issue doesn't make sense, when it can power a different drive and two opticals with no problem.

Have you cleared the CMOS on the motherboard and reset your bios settings? Maybe something got hosed and is intermittent.

Definitely clear the CMOS (via a jumper on the motherboard...see your manual) if you haven't already done so. Then, see what happens on restart with the problem drive connected.