Hi all,
I have a troubling problem, and I was hoping to try and get some more information before I take action. I'll try to be as specific as possible but I'm not particularly tech-savvy so please excuse me if I leave anything out.
Here's the deal...
My basic system specs are:
Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz
1GB RAM
120 GB HDD
GeForce 4 TI 4600
Windows XP Home
I was using my computer yesterday, and with no warning the screen began to fill with large white lo-res blocks. The game I was running shut down, and the system basically crashed. It's the first time I'd seen XP fully crash since I've had the computer (about four months). I'd seen something similar with my old computer though (under Windows 98) so I thought no problem, and rebooted.
But the "white chunks" problem reappeared IMMEDIATELY - before the computer even managed to boot into Windows. The machine then failed to boot into Windows and froze with these large white blocks on a blank screen.
So I rebooted using safe mode and managed to get into Windows this time. Unfortunately the screen was covered with small (about 5x5 pixels) black and white dots, making the screen quite unreadable. As I moved windows around, the dots multiplied until I couldn't read anything. I managed to do a system restore (for what that's worth) but it didn't help. FYI the dots are overlaying the whole screen, that is, the mouse pointer appears under the dots and is obscured by them too.
Next step, I tried another video card. I pulled the GeForce card and replaced it with my old Matrox G400. But when I hit the power switch to restart the computer, nothing happened at all. It was completely dead, except for the fact that the red light at the bottom of my optical mouse was now flashing on and off at regular intervals (?!?).
So I pull the Matrox card and put the GeForce back in. The computer starts (only in safe mode), but with the same problem as before.
That's where I am now. I need to contact the manufacturer, but I 'd prefer to simply get a replacement video card than have to ship the whole damn thing back. But is it just the video card, or is something else fried?
A couple of points of interest... I'd been leaving my computer on for days at a time, but I don't think that's a problem. It used to be damn noisy though, and I think that was caused mostly by the fan on the GeForce. But now it runs extremely quietly, and while I can't tell whether the GeForce fan is spinning or not, I suspect it might have stopped working. Could this problem have been caused by the card overheating?
Also, I was running non-standard drivers, but I wasn't overclocking the video card or the processor.
Thanks in advance if anyone has any insight into this problem. I really hope it's just the video card and not something else.
I have a troubling problem, and I was hoping to try and get some more information before I take action. I'll try to be as specific as possible but I'm not particularly tech-savvy so please excuse me if I leave anything out.
Here's the deal...
My basic system specs are:
Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz
1GB RAM
120 GB HDD
GeForce 4 TI 4600
Windows XP Home
I was using my computer yesterday, and with no warning the screen began to fill with large white lo-res blocks. The game I was running shut down, and the system basically crashed. It's the first time I'd seen XP fully crash since I've had the computer (about four months). I'd seen something similar with my old computer though (under Windows 98) so I thought no problem, and rebooted.
But the "white chunks" problem reappeared IMMEDIATELY - before the computer even managed to boot into Windows. The machine then failed to boot into Windows and froze with these large white blocks on a blank screen.
So I rebooted using safe mode and managed to get into Windows this time. Unfortunately the screen was covered with small (about 5x5 pixels) black and white dots, making the screen quite unreadable. As I moved windows around, the dots multiplied until I couldn't read anything. I managed to do a system restore (for what that's worth) but it didn't help. FYI the dots are overlaying the whole screen, that is, the mouse pointer appears under the dots and is obscured by them too.
Next step, I tried another video card. I pulled the GeForce card and replaced it with my old Matrox G400. But when I hit the power switch to restart the computer, nothing happened at all. It was completely dead, except for the fact that the red light at the bottom of my optical mouse was now flashing on and off at regular intervals (?!?).
So I pull the Matrox card and put the GeForce back in. The computer starts (only in safe mode), but with the same problem as before.
That's where I am now. I need to contact the manufacturer, but I 'd prefer to simply get a replacement video card than have to ship the whole damn thing back. But is it just the video card, or is something else fried?
A couple of points of interest... I'd been leaving my computer on for days at a time, but I don't think that's a problem. It used to be damn noisy though, and I think that was caused mostly by the fan on the GeForce. But now it runs extremely quietly, and while I can't tell whether the GeForce fan is spinning or not, I suspect it might have stopped working. Could this problem have been caused by the card overheating?
Also, I was running non-standard drivers, but I wasn't overclocking the video card or the processor.
Thanks in advance if anyone has any insight into this problem. I really hope it's just the video card and not something else.
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