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only see garbled characters during bootup on XP
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Posted by: derfberg
Hi,
I have worked with and fixed computers for 10 years but I'm stumped as to why this is happening? When I power-up the unit the display fills with garbled characters (not unlike the Matrix) - occasionally you get a glimpse of a system message and later the XP Home logo appears in a checkered pattern all over the screen for a short while and then it reboots again.
I have tried booting up with system disks in both floppy and cd-rom drive and I believe it's working (drive lights are on) however the screen continues to show garbled characters so that I can't do anything. Same thing if I try to access the CMOS set-up screen.
Is this a virus? Or corrupt display software/card? or corrupt cmos??
I have searched high and low on net for similar issues but can't find anything...
I have tried two diff. monitors so I know that's not the reason. The next step I guess is to try a diff. graphics card.
Any suggestions on how to proceed?
Specs:
P4 2.4Ghz
256MB DDR
ATI Radeon 7500 64MB
Lots of HD's
Thanks,
Derfberg
Posted by: redwench
probably the graphics card. did you try cleaning it and reseating it? you can also try clearing the cmos.
Posted by: derfberg
I tried a different card and it works (phew!). I tried cleaning and reseating also and it still didn't. I've never had to clear the cmos before - how is that accomplished?
Thanks!
Posted by: redwench
it varies from motherboard to motherboard, although it appears not to be necessary in this instance. modern boards have a jumper, older ones the battery has to come out.
the card that works and the one that didnt were tried in the same slot, right?
Posted by: derfberg
I only had a pci card to test with and the original is agp - so no, they were not in the same slot. I have another machine I can try the agp card in where the pci one was - that should tell me whether it's the card or not right?
Posted by: redwench
yes.
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