Need a little technical assistance

[o9z]

ISSUE - PC will load - but as soon as it loads to desktop, the screen will be completely filled with artifacts. The time it takes to get to this point will vary. Sometimes immediately, sometimes not for 10 minutes. Usually within 30 seconds though.

SPEC:
A64 3200+(swapped in 3100 sempron to test no change)
K8V Deluxe SE board
3x512 RAM(swapped ram to test - no change)
9800 pro card(swapped in TI4200 to test - no change)
250GB IDE Drive

I have swapped ram, processor and video card - no change.

Can view the bios load and everything else until it loads to desktop then it goes haywire. Not sure what else to do.... board? HDD?

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

Does this happen after a cold boot? What's the specs on your powersupply? Maybe it doesn't provide enough juice to your video cards.

 

[o9z]

Yes - PC has been down for 1 month now. Had it off for this time, loaded it up and artifacts appeared

 

[mechBgon]

1) Power-supply brand and model = ???

2) Is this plug connected to the motherboard (receptacle is up near the top-left corner)

3) Is this plug connected to the 9800 Pro

 

[o9z]

1. TurboLink CWT-420ATX-12V
2. Yes
3. Yes

 

[mechBgon]

You mentioned you're using three memory modules.

1) what brands and models are they

2) what speed are you running them at

3) what voltage are you running them at

4) have you tried with just one at a time



It sounds like the system struggles to reach the desktop screen, but as soon as it gets there, it experiences video corruption regardless of which video card. So here's another tangent: did you (duh) install the VIA 4-in-1 motherboard driver package?

Other than that, if you haven't tried a clean installation of WinXP with the network cable unplugged (to prevent worm attacks), that could be worth a go once the rest of the stuff has been checked (memory voltage, timings, bus speed, etc).