video card problem ?? *update*

[thirtythree]

I've been having some video trouble (all bold text displaying white, mouse pointer not showing up, etc). I reinstalled the drivers and everything seems to be working now but I still get random letters on the screen when booting up. is this likely a problem with my video card? if so, I'm guessing it's a hardware problem ?? I know the fan on my video card is working at least. any other ideas would be appreciated. here are my system specs, just in case it matters:

ASUS A7N266-VM AA
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ Retail
2 x Kingston 256MB DDR PC2100
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM
BFG GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB
Generic 16x DVD-ROM
CenDyne 40x12x48 CD-RW
Sony Floppy Drive
Evercase with 300W ps
Windows XP Pro SP2

 

[Markfw]

This sure sounds like a video card problem "random letters on the screen when booting up." But they why would a driver install fix the other problems ? Try another video card if you can for a few days, also Nvidia, so you don;t have to change drivers.

 

[thirtythree]

I can try the onboard video for a few days if I need to. I don't do much gaming anymore.

 

[CraigRT]

I had the same problem with a TNT2 ultra back in the day.. ended up switching for another cause I got so fed up.. (convinced the store it was the video card) and the replacement worked just fine....

problems are almost identical to what i had!

 

[thirtythree]

yeah I should be able to get it replaced under warranty if it is in fact the video card. I already had to replace it once when the fan stopped working :|

 

[thirtythree]

I had the card replaced under warranty and installed the new one today but I'm still having some small problems (including the random letters when booting up) so I'm guessing it's a problem with the motherboard. is this a possibility? there's also been a pause between when my start menu show up and when everything else loads (active desktop, icons .. windows button doesn't work). is there any way I can check the motherboard without getting it replaced? is there anything else I should try first?

 

[thirtythree]

^

 

[thirtythree]

one last bump...