Corrupted Display.

[RobFDB]

Specs:
Barton 2500+ Stock speed.
Thermalright SP-97 /w 80mm YS-Tech fan.
Asus A7N8X Deluxe.
2 x 512mbyte Corsair CMX512-3200C2PT running @ PC2700 speed.
Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro Stock speeds.
60gb IBM 60GXP.
120gb IBM 120GXP.
250gb SATA 250gb 7k250.
Iiyama VMPro 451.
Windows 2000 Pro SP4.

System has never been overclocked. Also temperatures have been fine all day and the problems below happen even with the side of the case off with my windows fully open (bloody cold).

Anyway a few hours ago i came back to my computer and turned the moniter on. Much to my horror this was the screen i was presented

www.realms-of-chaos.com/screwed.jpg <<-- 56k warning, big picture.

First thing i did was test to see if it was my moniter, by switching to the other computer hooked up to it (dual inputs) but that screen was fine. I tried capturing my screen using print screen and pasting into PSP8 and it displayed the artifacts. Next i tried adjusting the refresh rate, and tried 60, 72 and 75 (was at 85) but that didnt help. Next i reinstalled my drivers (Cats 4.8) but again no help. It was at this point the artifacts started appearing during the boot sequence. At this point i went into my bios to check voltages and AGP/gfx card settings, which have remained unchanged for the best part of 2 years and reset the bios to default. Doing this caused the boot voice reporter to tell me my memory was bad. I removed the second stick and the system booted, all be it with the artifacts. I managed to get into windows, connect to the net and load mirc, before the screen went black on me forcing me to reset. Now the system is lucky to get to the windows login before the black screen appears. When its like this the system seems hard locked as pressing num and caps lock dont do anything. As a last resort i tried some old ram (Crucial PC2100, 256mb stick) but that didnt help. Im at a loss now. All ive been doing today is transferring data to my dads brand new Pocket PC, but ive been doing that for a couple of days now and the P-PC wasnt connected at the time. I dont have a spare gfx card to test in the machine unfortunatly but i might be able to get hold of a friends V5 5500 in the morning. Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

 

[tbalon]

I would check the video cables and pins for damage and then swap out the video card and see what developes......

 

[oldman420]

i have a 9600 that did that it fixes it when i reset the cmos strange but true

 

[RobFDB]

Ok so this morning i've tried the following.

Clear CMOS.
Changed moniter cables.
Changed graphics card to GF2 Ultra.
Removed the ADSL modem.

The system now wont even post and fails to display anything. As far as the moniter is concerned there isnt even a signal from either graphics card. I can press num lock when its like this and the light will go on/off but thats it. I've taken the mobo tray out to check under the mobo but there is nothing grouding the mobo to the tray. I guess this all points to the mobo being dead, but i have no idea how this happened. The problems literally started out of the blue and i've no clue to whats caused them. I can get hold of an old PSU (350w, my current is 450w) if people think its worth it, but everything is spinning up fine at the moment.

Edit: Ive checked the board for any signs of physical damage (ie blow capacitors) but it looks fine. Also i dont spose anyone can tell me where to find the serial number?

Edit 2: Tried with just CPU/1 stick mem/boot drive/gfx card. Still no signal to my moniter.