Need help with crazy display behavior

[machado17]

I posted this on some other boards and haven't had any resposes yet. I have a problem that I can't find any info on. I have a XFX PVT42GUAD7 Geforce 6800GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card and I think it is the source of my problem, but I'm not sure. About 90% of the time when my computer boots up, the boot screen is mottled with white dashes and gray boxes with misc. flashing characters. Then when Windows is at it's start-up screen, it has white dashes all over the screen, making it look like basket weaving. Windows will not load and then the display goes blank and the computer is like it's in stand-by. I have to shut it off and start over. It takes about 20 attempts before it will come on normally. Any info you all could give me would be appreciated. I have some pictures of it if interested. Other info:

Windows XP Home

dual LCD Screens

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor

1 GB RAM

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

Two Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives


Raid configuration

 

[Un4given]

Graphic anomolies before the logo screen, with the scrolling load bar, tend to indcate hardware issues.

Could be:

Video card
Motherboard
PSU

Based on what you have described, more often than not it's been the video card, but the other items should not be ruled out.

NOTE: If you have added after market cooling, you may want to look into that as well.

 

[GregTombstone]

Check the obivious first. Like dogey cables. If it was the video card you should get a good screen during boot as it is running in vga until the drivers load up. you say this is happing during the boot. Try making sure your memory is properly inserted, every hear of chip creep. things can work loose during heating up and cooling cycles. in fact make sure every thing is inserted properly, cables chips etc. will it boot in safe mode of vga mode ok ??