Weird Graphics Card Problem

Oriel

Hi folks,
I woke this morning to find my monitor had loads of white lines streaking down the screen, so I restarted - but the same thing happened again - even in the BIOS logo and DOS etc. I tried the monitor (15" FTF) on my laptoop and it was fine, so there's nothing wrong with monitor itself.

More confusing - when I boot into safe mode, the white streaks are still there, but I'm able to at least see what's happening on the screen. But if I try to start windows normally, it gets to far as where the log in screen is supposed to be, then it completely f*cks up and I can't see anything.

I tried reinstalling the drviers (XP Pro), but no joy. I'm thinking is must be a hardware issue then, but what could be wrong? If it's a hardware issue, then why does safemode work ok? etc

Any ideas?

S.

Sleipnir

if it's doing it at the BIOS screen then it's most likely hardware, as no software is loaded.
Could just look different on safemode because screen resolution will be different in safe mode.

Have you a spare graphics card handy you could try?

(please, don't let anyone mention overheating, the over-used excuse)

Oriel

Yeah, we should have a spare one round here somewhere, I'm going to try that later. Thing is: what could have gone wrong with the card? Apart from over heating etc, is it likey to be easily fixable?

S.

Sleipnir

Well, it could be something simple, like it's moved a milli or two in the slot.
You may find that taking it and putting it back in again will fix it.

If you get the same problem with another card that you know works (on another system, say) then it could be motherboard, processor, memory.
But I doubt that TBH, if one of those screws up you wouldn't usually get the 'lines' you describe, you usually wouldn't get anything at all.

If it happens as soon as you start the computer, i.e, the computer is cold, then it won't be due to overheating although it may be worth hoovering the card while you have it out of the box!

Oriel

Right, I'm goona mess about for a while, I'll let you know how it goes.

S.

Oriel

Well, took out the card, hoovered about the place, in the fan etc, and replaced the hard, but the same thing is happening. I'm going to wait until a flatmate gets home till I get another card from his room. I'll give it a go, and let you know how I get on.

In the mean time, and other suggestions as to what could be wrong?

Thanks,
S.

Oriel

Update, took the fan off the card to find that it's bollocksed - must be some kind of heat damage. So I'm hoping that there's no perminant damage to the card itself. I'm going to try to get my hands on a new fan, and see if that makes any difference.

S.

kmb

Go to safe mode,change graphics driver to standard vga and reboot.This will tell if its a driver issue,card damage or something else.regds

Oriel

I can just about get into safe mode, last time I was there, I reinstalled the lastest drivers. Things it, if the problem is in happening in DOS, (which should be VGA) then I doubt changing the windows config to VGA is going to do any good.

But hey, I'll try anything once. I'm using a 4mb card in the mean time, just so that I can actually use the PC. I'll have a go at that, next time I'm messing about with the card.

(Oops, btw the card is an Asus 64MB gForce4 Ti4200).
S.