has my bios got a virus?!

[spug1]

Hi guys!

Just built a new pc for my mate, and been putting lots of s/w on it. Suddenly when he was watching a dvd, the screen went all liney, grainy, scrambled etc....(call it what u want).

Now, everytime I restart, post screen and bios screen all just come up with scrambled characters, and its difficult to read anything. Same thing continues into windows, but its just all fuzzy in windows.

Normally Id just reinstall, but considering all the character distortion happens b4 any windows files load up, Im thinking that the virus must be in the bios?!

Any ideas? I thought I might ask b4 I try and do stuff, incase its important to nip it in the bud.

Should I flash the bios?...should I format the MBR??

TIA,

dug

 

[spug1]

oh....an after thought..could it be something to do with the videocard??!!

 

[CaptainWafflos]

Sounds more like a hardware problem than a virus.

 

[CaptainWafflos]

Originally posted by: spug1
oh....an after thought..could it be something to do with the videocard??!!

There you go. =P That's probably it.

 

[bacillus]

Is he overclocking the card?
If not first try reseating the card.
It is possible that the video card BIOS can become corrupted so as the last straw if no other solutions are found then try reflashing the BIOS.

 

[spug1]

hi there! Thankx for the speedy comments.

not overclocking the system in anyway.

the system worked absolutely fine for a few days!

could it be corrupted memory on the videocard?......would that make random charactes appear/text scrambled?

one other thing. the problem just suddenly arose....not after a restart....would that tend to imply it wasnt a virus??

thanx loads..

 

[Yanagi]

WHat videocard? Might be the videocard was defective or that it got overheated.

Tell us the specs of the pc.

cpu, powersuply, ram, motherboard, gfx card etc etc.

 

[Sideswipe001]

Forget the virus theory. It's extremely more likely that the video card has bit it. Is it old? Do you have another one you can put in for testing purposes?

 

[spug1]

hello again!!

its the videocard!

swapped in my 9800pro, and it worked fine.

The card itself is a brand new HIS radeon 9200se, with a passive heatsink. Hasnt been overclocked, and only done about 10-15hours. My mate was just watching a dvd.

Should I try and flash the bios?.....wouldnt want to void my warranty, its just that my mate needs it for his work, and u know what RMA'ing is like!!

also, i could try fiddling with the mem/core clocks....if only i could see what i was doing!!

Anywayz

 

[bigboxes]

If you just bought the video card, send it back to where you bought it and have them send you another one. If it's been longer than 30 days then you probably have to RMA to the manufacture. Check your retailer's return policies. Forget about the bios. The card is brand new and should work. It's not your job to "fix" it.

 

[dakels]

do you have another machine to test that 9200? presumably where the 9800 pro was? At least you could confirm a bad card before going through the RMA process. Have you gone into the bios before to change anything like AGP aperature or voltage?

 

[spug1]

Hey again. Thanx for all the info.

dakels, the system worked fine when i put in my 9800, so its gotta be the vid card. but your right, I should have put the 9200 in my system to test it wasnt an incompatibility problem....but i didnt think of that....

but at the same time, the 9200 was working fine for a few days.....i might test it in mine later....encoding a dvd at the mo tho!!

thanx

dug

 

[Zinn2b]

Sorry didn't read all the post see you found it.

 

[JBT]

Sounds like bad video ram to me. I had a old ATI rage card that would spit out weird characters in the BIOS and during POST. 2 years later started to die in windows too.