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Computer only boots in safe mode;screen output impaired

B

beginner99

Diamond Member
Hi all,

my parents computer is suddenly suffering from a strange issue which I can't resolve.

Supposedly it was working fine, went into sleep mode and then could not be waked up. -> forced shutdown by keeping power button pressed.

The boot screen is an intel logo but it now is not displayed correctly. you can barley see it. after the boot screen the typical text is not displayed correctly. everything is unreadable.
This also holds true for BIOS. I can enter BIOS but it is unreadable.

Anyway it does not boot into windows vista.however it is possible to boot into safe mode with network drivers. The screen output is readable there but colors are wrong and there are lines across the screen.

My ideas are GPU or BIOS issue. Removed dust from GPU + cpu -> issue still the same
Reset bios by jumper and /or removing battery. also waited for hours once. -> did not help.

I don't have a spare GPU to test. But can it be partially broken as good enough to run in safe mode but fails in normal mode? + leads to unreadable output in bios?

Any ideas?
 
Need a spare gpu. Everyone should have an old pci video card laying around for exactly these purposes. They cost almost nothing. In the meantime you can maybe check the sides of the road and thrift stores.
 
Can you describe "unreadable" in a little more detail, especially what the screen looks like before Windows starts. Is it dim, garbled, flickering, or something else?
 
mfenn said:
Can you describe "unreadable" in a little more detail, especially what the screen looks like before Windows starts. Is it dim, garbled, flickering, or something else?
Click to expand...

there is a bios picture set which displays the intel logo. However there are some undefined charachters almost all over the screen. Somewhat similar to a "^" just with a very bold line. behind it you still see the intel logo but if you don't it is the intel logo you would not recognize it.BIOS is all garbeld too.
After the logo the whole screen is full of something like 1/4M but some additional stuff. Maybe i need to make a picture....
 
Many problems can often be traced back to a bad power supply. In fact it is so common that that is often the best place to start.

There should be a safemod with video. Try setting video to lowest settings. Sometimes it can be a bad video card from overclocking or incompatibility. Drivers often also get corruputed, maybe replace drivers, or try an older video card. One time I fixed this by going back to the last backup.

I wonder if this is a missing INI file issue.

You might try getting an oper syst disk and try to see if it will boot with that or not. This could be the oper system corruption of also bad memory or power supply.
 
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Ok here are some pictures. Just noticed now they aren't great. Cell phone...

Intel Logo on Boot:



The white stuff all over the screen is the issue.


Then the next screen in the boot process after above logo:



This is how the BIOS looks:



This is Vista in Safe mode. Notice the vertical blue stuff all over the screen:

 
Yep, that looks like a problem with the graphics output itself. Maybe the VRAM, but still GPU related nonetheless.
 
Now I'm gettign annoyed. Bought and installed the cheapest HD 5450 I could quickly find and now I get nothing at all. No screen output. Since it's a crappy warehouse pc the mobo has no Status led's or beep or anything. Hence impossible to find the issue.

The HDD is making noise but i can just power off hitting the normal power button once. No need to keep it pressed for a few seconds. Hence its save to assume it does nto boot into windows...

Any Ideas?
 
What happens when you put the old card back in? Same issue? If so, you probably have a case of dying PC-itis.
 
mfenn said:
What happens when you put the old card back in? Same issue? If so, you probably have a case of dying PC-itis.
Click to expand...

Ok, old GPU in again and same issue as in above screenshots. tried CMOS reset again. nothing. with the new 5450, no screen output. probably broken...
-> Will bring it back and see what I can do
Where I live it's a little less customer friendly in terms of returning stuff especially from this shop.
 
Oh my good. I did some further googling and what I came up with is a killer. The mainboard in that Computer only has a PCI-E 1.0a connetion not 2.0 and it has a via chipset.

And exactly this VIA chipset is broken meaning even though PCI-E version are up and downward compatible this chipset is not. It will only work with a PCI-E 1.0 card. If you put in a PCI-E 2.0 card the screen remains black, just like it did in my case.

So basically I will have to scan ebay for a pcie 1.0 card (Performance doesn't matter) or suggest a new build to my parents. At least this issue will make it easier to convince my parent to go for a custom build (with me building it) than to get another cheapo warehouse rig.
And hopefully I can actually return the 5450 I bought. Or else keep it for testing purposes...
 
unledwbr.jpg


As long as your drives are SATA you should have everything else you need.
 
DominionSeraph said:
unledwbr.jpg


As long as your drives are SATA you should have everything else you need.
Click to expand...

true, but the case and the PSU is crappy too and the hdd also is few years old now. But it is a possibility. At the end it will be my parents that will decide how much to spend.

BTW I must first check if the mainboard actually is mATX or some custom crap...later woudl actually not really surprise me.
 
beginner99 said:
true, but the case and the PSU is crappy too and the hdd also is few years old now. But it is a possibility. At the end it will be my parents that will decide how much to spend.

BTW I must first check if the mainboard actually is mATX or some custom crap...later woudl actually not really surprise me.
Click to expand...

A Pentium G620 is only a 65W part, so I wouldn't worry about the load on the PSU too much. Of course, crap PSUs can blow up at any time! :awe:

Sucks about the GPU, I wasn't even thinking about possible incompatibilities with crap chipsets.
 
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