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Strange problem just cropped up....

P

Prizef1ghter

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 10, 2004
Messages
105
I've never seen this before and I'm not sure where the problem lies. Any help would be appreciated.

I just built a new PC and everything worked initially.

P4 2.8 Northwood /w coolermaster heatsink

Giga-Byte MB GA-8IPE 1000

ATI Radeon 9800PRO Latest Drivers

2 120 Samsung drives

Viewsonic G90fb monitor

1 Liteon CDRW

1 Liteon DVDRW


Anyways... When this system first powered up everything was fine. Played a little Serious Sam SE which looked great. Everything worked fine.

Now, the video or something is screwing up. When the system posts, there are a bunch of extra strange characters garbling up the text like a spade, commas, asterisks, etc.

Once windows starts, you can see a buch of strange hash marks all over the screen seemingly in groups of 4.

All my temperatures are fine. The CPU is at 29c, all the fans are running, GPU fan is working.

What might this be?
 
I assume this is a new build?

I would turn off the computer and check/recheck all cables/connections insides and outside of the computer.

If the problem persists try and find a spare vid card to see if the problem continues
 
sounds like video.


but let's cover all bases, and flash the BIOS on the mobo first, then report back.
 
I agree with the above post, check the BIOS but it sounds like it is a video problem.
 
Okay. Checked the bios, then I uninstalled and reinstalled the ATI drivers according to the FAQ sticky in this forum using the cleaner. The problem still persists. I still have a garbled POST and 'ghosts' and 'artifacts' in WinXP SP1.
 
Remember, Everything was running like a champ for a day and a half. This is a brand new PC build with all new parts.
 
Check if the GPU heatsink is correctly setup. I know thta's also new but you can't rule out every possibility, also check the vid card's components (blown capacitor or something). If you can check with another card to see if its a video problem or a mobo problem.
 
After being off all night. I fired up the PC and the problem is still there so it hasn't had time to be a heat issue I don't think. The heatsink fan is working normally. I swapped in another v-card which did not have the problem so its not a mobo issue. What could make a card screw up like this so quick? Should I request a replacement card? Is it definately a blown hardware part on the card because of what happens during POST? Just to give you an idea of the post errors here is a rough simulated sample:

Normal text: IDE Hard Drive Detected: Samsung 23232323 120GB

The text I see: IDE' ' ' ' Ha%d Drive ' ' '@Detec' ' ' ' ed: Sam. . .sung 24&48484

Sorta like that.

And of course poor video quality in windows with the hash mark ghosts and bright sprite lines with overlaying graphics from web pages, checkerboard artificacts in 3d games
 
Since it is definetively video, RMA the card and get a new one, it is a lot better than trying to fix it by yourself and going nuts about something that was broken to begin with.
 
I filled out all the information on ATI's site for warranty service. Anybody ever deal with them and know how prompt they are?
 
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