My comp has a new cool trick!

D

DrNecroNancy

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Oct 9, 2008
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Hey all! (yay Sheogorath)
Wanna help me out, please? :)
Yesterday, turned on my comp and at the bios/loadin screen small squares start flickering everywhere and the Win XP blue loading bar is super glitchy. I use the comp normally, it looks fine after that screen. Later in the night it gets fuzzy like above.
Next day (today), it' a lot worse, and is in the state of that screenshot. That is me backing up my files :P

Some tidbits:
Comp: First gen blue ugly Dell XPS. (2004)
Vid card: ATI RADEON 9800

Crucial info that might be the case to this freakish screen: Past few weeks everytime I turn on the computer, I get the computer-speaker-beep (forgot, was it called POST?) and it tells me "warning system battery low" Yes i googled it- the computer has a lithium battery. (I checked the battery, it's secure.) Perhaps the battery is dead? Would it cause my screen to go crazy like that though, vid card gettin weak or somethin?

Somethings I changed recently: Swtiched vid cards from my new back to the original Radeon (i had a nvida gt 6800) and I changed the original 1 gig ram to 2.5 (slipped in few gig sticks and got rid of a 512)

Thank you all so much! I really appreciate it and I just feel so lucky we got a tech forum haha ;) I'm desparate I gotta play ma' Borderlands... and TF2!
 
A/ pull the other 512 mb ram, restart comp. B/ reinstall Geforce card and drivers.
This could be a driver issue or not, did you remove drivers BEFORE you installed the new ATI? It could also be your new card is not seated correctly... You might try removing it then reinstalling it, before just switching back to the older vid card
 
nah the ati came w/the computer, then i switiched to an nvidia, then i swtiched back to the old ati.
I will go ahead and check if the card/ram is secure though for a start and I'll also try w/o that 512
thanks :D!
 
If it's happening even in the BIOS then chances are you GPU has gone bad. Probably time to invest in a new card. Also the battery low is not really a huge concern. It just saves your BIOS settings basically and keeps the time if you completely unplug your computer.
 
Looks like a driver issue to me. I had the exact same problem. Yes, even in BIOS. Try a different driver. All should be fine.
I thought it was a bad card but a system restore messed up my display driver.

Boot into safe mode and uninstall Catalyst.
Reboot and reinstall Catalyst.
Reboot.
You should be up and running.

Glad I could help, but if this doesn't help, RMA your card.
 
SnakeATWAR said:
Looks like a driver issue to me. I had the exact same problem. Yes, even in BIOS. Try a different driver. All should be fine.
I thought it was a bad card but a system restore messed up my display driver.

Boot into safe mode and uninstall Catalyst.
Reboot and reinstall Catalyst.
Reboot.
You should be up and running.

Glad I could help, but if this doesn't help, RMA your card.
Click to expand...

Your BIOS doesn't use Windows drivers. If you're sitting in your BIOS and seeing little squares your GPU has gone bad.

Unless they've made some new type of GPU that you install the drivers on the card itself?
 
That is the case, apparently. My card was perfectly fine, but was doing this until I reinstalled my drivers.

I was confused when it first happened. I called AMD and everything... They said to reinstall my video drivers but I didn't believe that would fix it. Long story short, I eventually tried it anyways and everything worked.

Try reinstalling your drivers before sending the card back. :)
 
i used to have a 9800 pro card. Actually i have had two. the first one was damaged, and looked exactly like that. The second one came and i had no video corruption. I would bet my money on the video card. Looks fried.

-Blue
 
ShadowBlade72 said:
Your BIOS doesn't use Windows drivers. If you're sitting in your BIOS and seeing little squares your GPU has gone bad.

Unless they've made some new type of GPU that you install the drivers on the card itself?
Click to expand...

your BIOS runs independantly aside from your OS. You should not be seeing corruption in your BIOS period.

the video corruption from the screenshot is obviously related to the video card. Drivers do not cause that sort of pixelation and corruption. I dont think it will matter which drivers you use, youre going to have a damaged card either way.

Try to get your hands on a different card you could test out. Also, chances are, if you have hardware damage, and different drivers do somehow bring about a fix, it will only be temporary. If you keep using the damaged card, it will get worse over time.

-Blue
 
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Yea, sad It looks like the vid card is fried.
But, just for argument sake try pulling the card out, cleaning the connecting surface & reseating it.

If that doesnt work then you may just be outta luck :<
 
Wow, That would suck to play with that Hope you get that fixed soon.
 
Blue Stealth said:
your BIOS runs independantly aside from your OS. You should not be seeing corruption in your BIOS period.

the video corruption from the screenshot is obviously related to the video card. Drivers do not cause that sort of pixelation and corruption. I dont think it will matter which drivers you use, youre going to have a damaged card either way.

Try to get your hands on a different card you could test out. Also, chances are, if you have hardware damage, and different drivers do somehow bring about a fix, it will only be temporary. If you keep using the damaged card, it will get worse over time.

-Blue
Click to expand...

Not sure why you quoted my text. I was making the same point you were. The second half of my post was sarcasm :P.
 
To echo everyone else, it looks like a bad video card. As someone mentioned, try reseating it. This happened to my 9800 and a reseat fixed it. You can also try removing the HS/F and reapplying some TIM (AS5, etc...). Might be overheating due to old crusty thermal paste. Is it passive? If not, make sure the fan is spinning.

cg
 
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