what is wrong with this thing

[hstuehmeyer2000]

one day i was checking some voltages on my graphics card and it sparked and shut off, but i turned it back on and it worked fine except between the windows boot screen and the welcome screen now for 20sec it shows a black screen before it gets to the welcome screen, what is this all about

 

[digital_exhaust]

I'm pretty sure the black screen after the boot screen is normal.
My xp has always done that. Maybe you just never noticed it before?

 

[hstuehmeyer2000]

it did the black screen but not for 20 seconds

 

[defakto]

You probably sorted something that shouldn't have been shorted. You've probably done some damage to one of the onboard chips that isn't totally essential for operation. Sparks are bad when it comes to computer components.

 

[hstuehmeyer2000]

so is it really going to effect much

 

[engiNURD]

so is it really going to effect much

Just RMA it already.

 

[defakto]

so is it really going to effect much

Well it's obvious it has affected it alot already, who know what partial damage has been done that could cause problems later. RMA it, you screwed up. If a jolt of static electricty with very little current can damage an IC, imagine what something with a bit more current can do to it.