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I was using it normally only for the screen to wink out to black leaving the cursor only, a few failed restarts led to the 'last known good confiq' screen where it then did this...
I've just popped out the HDD and it seems to work and I'm backing up my files to my external.
Would it be the graphics card?
I could really do without this now...
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possibly a kernel panic. Do you have the original install disks? There are some recovery and repair tools on there that you can access when booting from the disk.
If its graphics card related and you have one slotted into your motherboard try taking it out, then connecting the monitor to the post on the motherboard. Your best bet though is to back everything up and maybe reformat or replace the hard drive.
Does it do this the second you turn it on, when it's counting memory (POSTing)?
Or does it start as soon as it starts booting into windows?
My initial feeling is that is almost certainly a hardware failure, not a software one - I've had video cards go that looked just like that. As Dreadclaw said; do you have a onboard (built in) video card, or do you have a seperate video card? You can usually tell by where the monitor cable connects: is it oriented vertically up at the top with the other stuff, like USB, serial ports maybe, perhaps sound? Or is it horizontal and more towards the bottom of the case, with perhaps one or two places to plug in additional monitors, one of which is maybe a HDMI port?
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
It goes wrong as it gets too the 'Windows' screen, that's a good idea re the on board graphics, I'll have a look round the back (oooo er) and see what ports are there. Do I need to disconnect the GPU to get it to default to the on board?
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Looks like some baseline code error. Backup your stuff and do a complete reformat. If that doesn't solve the problem, it's a hardware problem, most likely motherboard related.
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Lt. Coldfire wrote:Seems to me that you should be refereeing and handing out red cards--like a boss.
Ouze wrote: Does it do this the second you turn it on, when it's counting memory (POSTing)?
Or does it start as soon as it starts booting into windows?
My initial feeling is that is almost certainly a hardware failure, not a software one - I've had video cards go that looked just like that. As Dreadclaw said; do you have a onboard (built in) video card, or do you have a seperate video card? You can usually tell by where the monitor cable connects: is it oriented vertically up at the top with the other stuff, like USB, serial ports maybe, perhaps sound? Or is it horizontal and more towards the bottom of the case, with perhaps one or two places to plug in additional monitors, one of which is maybe a HDMI port?
Yeah, my bet is either bad video card or perhaps RAM.
RandyMcStab wrote: It goes wrong as it gets too the 'Windows' screen, that's a good idea re the on board graphics, I'll have a look round the back (oooo er) and see what ports are there. Do I need to disconnect the GPU to get it to default to the on board?
No. You just need to get into your BIOS (there should be something on the screen saying which key to hit, usually F1, F2, DEL, something like that). Once you get into the bios, I can't tell you exactly what it will look like - there's a lot of variation here. Look for something in Integrate Peripherals that looks like this:
You might have to dig around a little for this. If you accidentally change something and are afraid you screwed it up, hit escape and exit without saving, it should prompt you. Then report back.
This is, of course, presuming you have a seperate video card and it's not the onboard that went (and that it's the GPU at all) - but that's where I'd start.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/06/24 16:58:59
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
It goes wrong as it gets too the 'Windows' screen, that's a good idea re the on board graphics, I'll have a look round the back (oooo er) and see what ports are there. Do I need to disconnect the GPU to get it to default to the on board?
There's a wee video on removing your GPU. If the GPU is connected it will override whatever is installed on the motherboard
Most motherboard GPUs will be covered over with caps as factory standard to prevent their use (the black caps in this picture)
Unscrew them and connect the monitor to the correct port.
No, it's an either/or. I posted my option because it's faster, and because some really lousy motherboard manufacturers will keep the setting even if the GPU is no longer present in the slot it's firing to - it's rare, but I've owned at least one Shuttle PC that if you set it to init PCI first, and then later remove the card and plug it into the onboard, you never get any display, it keeps sending the signal to the nonexistent PCI vard - you have to put it back and change the setting. Very annoying, but also kind of rare.
At this point physically remove the GPU and connect it to the onboard video using Dreadclaw's video and instructions. This is, again, presuming that you have a separate GPU and that you also have some manner of onboard as a backup. Also note that some older PC's - I don't know how old yours is - will have a 7 pin serial port which superficially resembles a VGA display. The onboard VGA will probably be blue, should have 15 pins, and is probably labelled VGA.
You also might have DVI.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2013/06/24 18:20:16
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
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That looks like what happened to mine when i punched the tower (its not big and its not smart I know but the thing had it coming). Try flashing the bios and see if that helps, for if its not the GC then some thing on the MB has shorted and that gets expensive fast.
My instinct is either the video card is bad or something on the motherboard is bad. You need to run some sort of system diagnostic like memcheck if possible. If you can't do that on your own, then it looks like a trip to the local PC repair guy for you.
I would say its your base code. By the sounds of it your OS is completely frakked and needs to be repaired/replaced. I would suggest going to a friendly computer person and having nice words.
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master of ordinance wrote: I would say its your base code. By the sounds of it your OS is completely frakked and needs to be repaired/replaced. I would suggest going to a friendly computer person and having nice words.
Artifacting in the BIOS is unambiguously not an issue with the OS. In the screen pictured the PC doesn't even know what boot devices exist, let alone what operating system is installed on them. He could remove every single storage device and it would still display the artifacting. This is not a software issue.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/06/26 20:50:27
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
Also, try a different monitor for giggles, if you have one.
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master of ordinance wrote: I would say its your base code. By the sounds of it your OS is completely frakked and needs to be repaired/replaced. I would suggest going to a friendly computer person and having nice words.
What does that mean? Base code?
The screenshot of his BIOS being completely mangled has nothing to do with an OS. It's generated from a chip on your motherboard. You can get to that page (and see the corruption) without even having a hard drive installed in your computer, let alone having ANY OS installed. Might as well suggest it's because he hasn't hacked enough Gibsons lately.
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This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/06/26 20:53:58
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/06/26 20:57:33
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I would agree that it is a hardware fail somewhere. Could be any number of things IMO. It could be simple, it could be complex but without getting a look at it I suspect we will just be guessing, which to be honest is what you would be doing taking a look at it IRL. Just trying stuff untill it was fixed. I'm no expert though.
Did you remember to chant the incantations and anoint the keyboard with sacred oils on boot up? You may have angerd the computers machine spirit.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/06/26 21:05:10
insaniak wrote: Sometimes, Exterminatus is the only option.
And sometimes, it's just a case of too much scotch combined with too many buttons...
Don't forget another monitor! Or failing that, try the monitor on another comp or laptop.
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If this were my rig I'd personally check every single major component with a spare to try and ID the issue - prioritizing by suspicion of course . My instinct is telling me your mobo is misbehaving in some way. I realize it certainly won't be easy confirming this, but taking apart the rig and reassembling it - even crudely - only takes a short while and it will confirm the problem. This isn't a software issue, it's definitely hardware and it seems to me that the HDD, GPU, PSU, ODD, (and obviously irrelevant components like fans and stuff) are not the culprits here. I don't have much experience with troublesome CPUs (chalk it up to modern build quality), so I can't say for certain but this doesn't seem like an issue with it either.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/06/27 01:18:28
Hi all I managed to find the time to pull the GPU and with the onboard it will boot up and display fine, YAY, I'll look into replacing my ancient 7600GT sometime soon, thanks for the input and help from everyone.
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. My instinct is telling me your mobo is misbehaving in some way. I realize it certainly won't be easy confirming this, but taking apart the rig and reassembling it - even crudely - only takes a short while and it will confirm the problem. This isn't a software issue, it's definitely hardware and it seems to me that the HDD, GPU, PSU,