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Guess that hardware failure!
Darkewolfe
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I know sometimes it's impossible to diagnose, especially over the net, but figured I'd see if anyone happens to know. I tried to install the game Sims: Medieval on my computer. It ultimately didn't work and I gave up, long story, but, one of the problems I faced was system lock-ups on start up. The screen would get a diagonal line pattern of color, and the whole system would lock up.
Immediately after one of these lock-ups, every time, while the dos-looking text was on screen, prior to windows starting, the letters would be scrambled. Upon getting into windows I'd either be stuck in a low resolution, or I'd just immediately have the same problem (diagonal colored lines).
I'd then have to hard restart again from a system lockup, sometimes more than once. When everything worked, chrome would tell me there was a cache error, which might be indicative of hardware failure or just because of the hard locks.
Now, occasionally it will do the same thing, giving me a diagonal cross pattern of color which led into a hard lock of the system. I'm wondering if it's possibly the GPU, or if the hard lock is indicative of a processor or HDD problem. Anyone have any intel on trying to figure out which?
Immediately after one of these lock-ups, every time, while the dos-looking text was on screen, prior to windows starting, the letters would be scrambled. Upon getting into windows I'd either be stuck in a low resolution, or I'd just immediately have the same problem (diagonal colored lines).
I'd then have to hard restart again from a system lockup, sometimes more than once. When everything worked, chrome would tell me there was a cache error, which might be indicative of hardware failure or just because of the hard locks.
Now, occasionally it will do the same thing, giving me a diagonal cross pattern of color which led into a hard lock of the system. I'm wondering if it's possibly the GPU, or if the hard lock is indicative of a processor or HDD problem. Anyone have any intel on trying to figure out which?
What is this I don't even.
Darkewolfe on
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I mean this in the politest way possible, but do you have any foundation for that? I'd hate to fork out for a new vid card on someone's advice only to find out it's the HDD and feel silly for not doing more research. How is it that the vid card causes a full system stop?
I don't know if it's the graphics card itself but something might have corrupted your drivers, possibly?
Try reinstalling the drivers, or borrowing a friend's card or something.
The BIOS text is screwed up, prior to windows loading the drivers.
The screwed up letters are from corrupted video memory.
If you want to double-check, find another video card (other computer, friend, etc) and pop it in there. You don't even really need to get into Windows or install new drivers to see if it's no longer failing in the same way.
That could be it, too.
Do you still get corruption in the post screen characters if you let it sit for a while before powering it up?
The post screen characters are only ever corrupted after I reboot from a lock up. Never initially. The diagonal lines seem able to happen at any time. I don't THINK it's tied to heat, because it doesn't seem that predictable (I haven't really done anything particularly heavy duty lately and it's still doing it). I'll try rolling back the drivers just to see if it helps.
Edit: Oh lord, I haven't bought hardware in awhile. Is PCI Express 2.0 something I can leverage, or do I need to check on my mobo's compatibility? I've been using a geforce 8800 gts.
Post your mobo and we can help you out.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059
Cards are still at PCIe 2.0, which is what your 8800 GTS is, so you should be fine. I'm assuming that's what you meant by checking your motherboard's compatibility? It has a PCI-e x16 expansion slot.
So yeah, pick up a new card for cheap - but seriously, whoever suggested trying another card first, if you can do that, go for it. See if you can convince a friend to lend you their video card for fifteen minutes, if possible. I mean, the card is almost sure to be the problem here but it would suck if the lines didn't go away (or even worse, if they DID but another problem cropped up), and you couldn't return the new card.
You can use a PCI-E 2.0 card, but it might not take full advantage of it. 2.0 hardware is backwards compatible with 1.0 motherboards, though.
For a significant upgrade which can play modern games at good settings, get a GTX460.
Postage from Australia might be a bit high though.
I would try swapping power connectors and unplugging all non-essential to boot hardware.
Boot it up with ram, video card and hard drive.
If there's a power problem, it's brand new. I've had this rig the way it's set up for several years now. I also don't know what hardware I'd unplug.
Now I'm not entirely sure this also counts for gts (as I've only tried gtx) but according to this http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=29940245#post29940245 it's working for several different cards in both the gts and gtx series.
Good luck!
edit: just to clarify, I had the exact same things appearing on my screen as you do. Before you go 100% sure on it being the video card (even though I'm 99% sure) try switching from your current vga port to the other one that should be present on your videocard, if that doesn't solve it then you can try the oven trick.
Hmm, thanks. I actually ended up going ahead and ordering a vid card upgrade anyway. It's not too spendy and it's about that time. I may try this when the card gets in, before opening it, just to see.