I have been having some intermittent video errors for the past couple months. When I power on my computer, often I will not receive any video signal. The screen is just blank in power-saving mode. When I check my motherboard's diagnostic lights, they indicate "video card error". However, if I power off the computer and try again, eventually it will power on without issue. This could take as many as 5 attempts before it actually powers on.
For the first month of the problem, the computer would work just fine once I was actually able to get it to power on. Recently though, even if the computer powers on successfully, I will sometimes see the screen just blink black for several seconds. When the picture returns, there will often be artifacts on the screen. For example, the mouse pointer will look like a large, light-blue checkerbox instead of a mouse pointer. Text is usually garbled in some spots of the screen. Usually the problem goes away for good until the next time the computer is powered on, but sometimes I have to reboot it. Of course, when I reboot it, I usually encounter the problem described in the first paragraph. It usually takes 3-5 power cycles before I actually get a video signal.
I tried reformatting the drive and reinstalling windows XP with all the latest drivers, but it didn't make any difference. What could be the problem here? What would be causing such an intermittent issue? I don't have another PC to test any of my hardware in.
I could just buy a new video card and see what happens, but I thought I'd post this here first to see if anyone has an easier solution, or thinks the problem might actually be with some other piece of hardware.
BTW, the video card is a GeForce 6800 GTO. Nothing in my system is overclocked.
For the first month of the problem, the computer would work just fine once I was actually able to get it to power on. Recently though, even if the computer powers on successfully, I will sometimes see the screen just blink black for several seconds. When the picture returns, there will often be artifacts on the screen. For example, the mouse pointer will look like a large, light-blue checkerbox instead of a mouse pointer. Text is usually garbled in some spots of the screen. Usually the problem goes away for good until the next time the computer is powered on, but sometimes I have to reboot it. Of course, when I reboot it, I usually encounter the problem described in the first paragraph. It usually takes 3-5 power cycles before I actually get a video signal.
I tried reformatting the drive and reinstalling windows XP with all the latest drivers, but it didn't make any difference. What could be the problem here? What would be causing such an intermittent issue? I don't have another PC to test any of my hardware in.
I could just buy a new video card and see what happens, but I thought I'd post this here first to see if anyone has an easier solution, or thinks the problem might actually be with some other piece of hardware.
BTW, the video card is a GeForce 6800 GTO. Nothing in my system is overclocked.
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