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Update:
May have found the problem. Sat in BIOS for a while, had no problems. I think the Harddrive is fine really because I hooked it up on dad's pc and it didn't have issues over night. Hard to say since the pixelation doesn't seem to have a trigger that I can detect. However, the new RAM that I swapped into her PC may have been shoddy, and I think her original RAM was shoddy too. On a whim, I snagged a stick from dad's pc and put it in mom's pc, and it is so far running fine (2 hours now). Hopefully I can return the new RAM if this is the cause. I'm leaving her PC running for a couple hours to see if it bugs out again. Fingers crossed!
Original post for reference:
---------------------------------------
Trying to troubleshoot my mom's PC, which suddenly started having issues. I suspect this may be a video card/graphics (integrated) problem because it happened after she upgraded monitors, but I can't confirm that yet.
Symptoms:
Hard freeze with scrambled pixelated screen between 1 and 30 minutes from boot up. Picture of the pixelation.
When:
Occurs about 5-60 minutes after boot-up. May happen when idle on desktop or in an application like Firefox or Outlook - does not seem to have a pattern with program usage. It seems to get worse each time it boots. At first the problem occurred after an hour or so, now it's down to 5 minutes. It definitely seems to be getting worse.
Started:
She upgraded her monitor from a 21" to a 25" around the time that it started happening. She also logged into her work remotely and her work's interface forced her to download "some toolbars and RegEdit Pro" at the same time. These things happened the week before the first freeze, and it may or may not be related. I have already uninstalled those programs and toolbars.
Troubleshooting:
Virus/Crapware Scanning.
- Ran Windows Security Essentials, Spybot S&D, Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, Avast, Panda. WSE quarantined RegEdit Pro. Removed toolbars, spyware, etc. No other significant threats were found though.
Updated Drivers.
- Updated drivers for her motherboard.
Checked connections.
- Checked all cords, made sure nothing was loose. Used compressed air.
Swapping Monitors.
- Switched back to the old monitor. Does not help -- the freeze issue remains.
Swapping RAM.
- Switched out to brand new RAM, no effect.
Reset CMOS.
- No effect
Swap HDD.
- Original HDD seems ok. Ran
Next planned steps:
- Swapping GPU. The only card I have to test her pc with requires two (2x3 row) power plugs, but she only seems to have one available. So I am checking with friends to see if anyone has one I can borrow.
- Reinstalling Windows 7 with a full reformat (hard drive is backed up). However it is now only up for 5 minutes or less before it freezes.
- Buying a video card to see if this is a graphics issue (*see Questions).
- Replacing motherboard/CPU/etc.
System (2.5 years old):
ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W Continuous Power ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor HDZ720WFGIBOX
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1333C9A G
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Questions:
Does the image of the problem look like a video card/graphics issue to you guys? If not, what else could it be?
She uses integrated graphics which means the problem is on her motherboard (if it's a graphics issue). Will installing a video card bypass the integrated graphics routines on the motherboard, or should I just replace the mobo entirely? (If so, I'm kind of considering building her a 2500k system since it's not worth replacing, imo.)
Thoughts?
May have found the problem. Sat in BIOS for a while, had no problems. I think the Harddrive is fine really because I hooked it up on dad's pc and it didn't have issues over night. Hard to say since the pixelation doesn't seem to have a trigger that I can detect. However, the new RAM that I swapped into her PC may have been shoddy, and I think her original RAM was shoddy too. On a whim, I snagged a stick from dad's pc and put it in mom's pc, and it is so far running fine (2 hours now). Hopefully I can return the new RAM if this is the cause. I'm leaving her PC running for a couple hours to see if it bugs out again. Fingers crossed!
Original post for reference:
---------------------------------------
Trying to troubleshoot my mom's PC, which suddenly started having issues. I suspect this may be a video card/graphics (integrated) problem because it happened after she upgraded monitors, but I can't confirm that yet.
Symptoms:
Hard freeze with scrambled pixelated screen between 1 and 30 minutes from boot up. Picture of the pixelation.
When:
Occurs about 5-60 minutes after boot-up. May happen when idle on desktop or in an application like Firefox or Outlook - does not seem to have a pattern with program usage. It seems to get worse each time it boots. At first the problem occurred after an hour or so, now it's down to 5 minutes. It definitely seems to be getting worse.
Started:
She upgraded her monitor from a 21" to a 25" around the time that it started happening. She also logged into her work remotely and her work's interface forced her to download "some toolbars and RegEdit Pro" at the same time. These things happened the week before the first freeze, and it may or may not be related. I have already uninstalled those programs and toolbars.
Troubleshooting:
Virus/Crapware Scanning.
- Ran Windows Security Essentials, Spybot S&D, Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, Avast, Panda. WSE quarantined RegEdit Pro. Removed toolbars, spyware, etc. No other significant threats were found though.
Updated Drivers.
- Updated drivers for her motherboard.
Checked connections.
- Checked all cords, made sure nothing was loose. Used compressed air.
Swapping Monitors.
- Switched back to the old monitor. Does not help -- the freeze issue remains.
Swapping RAM.
- Switched out to brand new RAM, no effect.
Reset CMOS.
- No effect
Swap HDD.
- Original HDD seems ok. Ran
Next planned steps:
- Swapping GPU. The only card I have to test her pc with requires two (2x3 row) power plugs, but she only seems to have one available. So I am checking with friends to see if anyone has one I can borrow.
- Reinstalling Windows 7 with a full reformat (hard drive is backed up). However it is now only up for 5 minutes or less before it freezes.
- Buying a video card to see if this is a graphics issue (*see Questions).
- Replacing motherboard/CPU/etc.
System (2.5 years old):
ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W Continuous Power ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor HDZ720WFGIBOX
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1333C9A G
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Questions:
Does the image of the problem look like a video card/graphics issue to you guys? If not, what else could it be?
She uses integrated graphics which means the problem is on her motherboard (if it's a graphics issue). Will installing a video card bypass the integrated graphics routines on the motherboard, or should I just replace the mobo entirely? (If so, I'm kind of considering building her a 2500k system since it's not worth replacing, imo.)
Thoughts?
Last edited: