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Please help me isolate the problem(s) preventing Windows from loading

arredondo

arredondo

Senior member
I have a dual monitor set up where my computer posts on the small display and then switches to my 60" HDTV once Windows starts to load. Yesterday my computer tried to load and instead displayed garbled artifacts (blocks, wavy lines, distortions) over the normal screens of the startup process. Once it tries to load Vista in the switch to my HDTV, nothing comes up. I ran the program to repair problems, but the same issues remained.

I know my hard drive has issues since a week ago or so. It would click once every three seconds when certain programs loaded, and running the diagnostic test yesterday (from the boot disc) revealed a failure in one of the seven tests (I'll report the error once I get back to my computer later tonight). Still, I wonder if the nature of the visual issues means that the video card has problems.

What is the best way to isolate and determine if the immediate problems are caused by the hard drive, the video card, both, or something else? Also, since I can access the hard drive somewhat, I need to back it up. Is the boot disc's back up program sufficient (HP recovery disc for my Pavillion) if I buy an external drive today? I don't need to back up programs; just docs, pics, songs, 50 GB of vids and some other odds and ends.

Thanks!
 
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You are waiting too long to back up your important files. Shut off the drive. Attach it to a working PC (with a disk-to-USB cable or with an external drive housing or with an internal computer connection) and copy the files from it if they still exist. But do it now. Do NOT do any disk testing until the data is backed up.

When doing the backups, copy the most important stuff first. Make a list of what you want. Your disk may fail half-way through the backups.
 
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I'm typing this from work, and unfortunately I don't have access to another computer at home to do that.

The boot disc has an option to backup my data to any drive I choose, so I thought that there'd be no problem to purchase an external drive today to do that. Do external drives come pre-formatted? Shouldn't it work by just plugging it in and then transferring the data?

Also, is the video card ruled out as a problem despite the graphical issues and inability to use the second display, or are you commenting first on the most important issue only? I'm asking so I know what stuff to buy.
 
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Pre-built external disks probably come pre-formatted. But they are probably FAT-formatted, which will only work with files smaller than 4 GB. I don't know what kind of file(s) your backup utility will create. If it's one big file, then that's going to be a problem with a FAT-formatted disk.

I'm not ruling out other issues, but if you have evidence your hard drive is failing and if it's making new noises, you should copy the data elsewhere. Everything else can wait.
 
Not sure, but I don't think a 500 GB drive can be FAT formatted. All my externals are NTFS.
 
I have no 4GB files that I know of. My video files are 2-3 minute clips of fighting game tourney stuff, and there are only about 20 of those. So I'll try to copy the data over to an external drive tonight to see what happens.

Assuming I successfully back up my data, what do I do then to determine what the problem is? I mean, either way I need a new internal hard drive so that isn't an issue. I suppose my real question is, are the visual artifacts possible because the drive is failing, or is the video card (or something else) a concern as well?

Thanks for the help so far!
 
So I backed up my hard drive on an external, and then I plugged in a new internal - the same issues remain. I think it's the video card. What is the best AGP card that will work with my system that I can get? I know that tech has moved on to PCI, but I can't afford a new rig right now.
 
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driver not loading. I'm curious will it start up on just the small monitor and work fine? ( disconnect the 60in.) Are you running HDMI to the 60 in?
 
Actually, to make sure my monitor wasn't going out I connected directly to the HDTV (via DVI-->HDMI connection). The same distortions and blocky artifacts remained, and it won't load Vista. I held F8 and it won't even go to Windows safe mode. I can only access the F11 config menu or the boot DVDs.

So it appears that despite the hard drive's issues, it wasn't causing any fatal problems at the moment (I'll change it out anyway, and I've already backed up my data). The video card is the likely culprit unless someone has other ideas. Unfortunately, no one sells powerful AGP cards anymore, so I don't know what I can do for the time being. 🙁
 
corkyg said:
Not sure, but I don't think a 500 GB drive can be FAT formatted. All my externals are NTFS.
Click to expand...
I haven't purchased a commercial external drive in a while and can't remember what format they came in. Historically, external disks were provided with FAT32 format to be Macintosh compatible.

These two links indicate a 2 TB FAT32 volume is possible:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table

http://www.windowsitpro.com/article...es-for-the-various-windows-file-systems-.aspx
 
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