Graphical Weirdness Upon Bootup

[radio1_mike]

Hey, I just used my computer after several days rest and it will not boot up.

The boot screen will come and some letters will be grey instead of white, some characters will have extra pixels and there are white bars across parts of the screen.

I have: AMD XP Barton 2800, MSI K7L2G motherboard (NForce2), Twin Corsair DDR400 memory (2x256MB) sticks and a GF 4 4600Ti.

I can access the BIOS setup screen fine, and when the summary screen pops AFTER the inital boot screen, the graphic (artifacts) weirdness is gone. But then when my Windows XP logon screen comes up (if it comes up) the weirdness comes back...


What do you think?


I have looked at my diagnostic LEDs for the mobo while booting up and everything seems fine.

I must preface this by saying:

1) My brother-in-law is living with us and the guy is on my computer. Every few weeks, I take a break from my gaming and computer for say 4 days. Two weeks back I did this, and when I tried using my computer the floppy drive did not work. I have not used my computer since Sunday, and now this happens... And on Sunday I was playing UT2k3, BF1942 and Planetside with no problems. But I know BIL has used the computer since then.

2) I did flash my BIOS last week for better memory timings, and the computer has worked since then, see above.

So, I am thinking video card, memory or possibly power supply. Any gut feelings out there? I know what I have to do, and it ain't pretty. And I am really not in the mood to start a major diagnosis/reconstruction. Nor having to either RMA recent upgrades or buy a new video card (no matter how much I really want one)...

Insights are very welcome.

Sounds like you're on the right track with the video card idea. It could be a failing power supply not giving the the video card enough juice, but I'd test out a different vid card first (much easier to swap out ).

I had one Voodoo3 card that the engine died on and it would display the prettiest text artifacts. Then when it got to where Windows wanted some time on the card, the system just hung.

[radio1_mike]

I know. But the power drain may not show up on an older card, if it's my power supply.

So, I may just put in my Enlight 300W and test. Hopefully that'll clear it up. Presently I have a CompUSA 400W in there.

Ugh. (Dread.)