Hey all, really hoping somebody out there can help me out. I am having one hell of an issue.
First, my computer specs:
Processor: Intel Pentium D Processor 950 w/ Dual Core Technology 3.4GHz 800MHz FSB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2
Power Supply: Alienware 650 Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply with Active PFC
Motherboard: Alienware NVidia nForce4 SLI X16 Motherboard
Graphics Processor: 256MB PCI-Express x16 NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: High Performance - 160GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM w/ NCQ & 8MB Cache
Storage Drive: High Performance - 160GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM w/ NCQ & 8MB Cache
Primary Display: Samsung SyncMaster 1100DF 21" CRT Display - Black
I built this computer as a gaming computer about a year ago and I have never had any issues. I have had maybe a total of 5 total lock-ups in Windows until recently.
Last night I went to play Rainbow Six: Vegas and after about 30 seconds my computer just Locked Up - no control whatsoever. I rebooted and here is where things started to get weird.
At the Windows XP logo there is some vertical blue bars that are about 2-3 inches long and about half a cm space in between each. There is roughly 10 of these bars that go across my whole screen. They look kind of like static, or what you would expect something "bad" that you would see upon booting a PC.
I tried the game again thinking oh its just some weird crash with the game. Once again, comp locked up and I rebooted. I decided to try another game. It locked up and I rebooted. Still getting the bars I booted into safe mode and uninstalled my drivers and went to reboot. Reinstalled my drivers in Windows and figured I'd play an older game. I booted up Doom and it took up about 1/10th of my screen and had 4 colors.
I exited Doom and could not increase my resolution of 4 bit color. I finally fixed that but now whenever I boot up ...
I get those blue bars, and when I get to the login screen (1 out of 5 boot attempts, roughly I get this far) there is some colored rectangular boxes and when I click to login my screen goes black.
The other 4 out of 5 times after the Windows XP logo and blue bars of death my monitor flashes for half a second, then the light just blinks on and off. Now nearly everytime I boot I can't even get to my login screen. The monitor light just blinks at me like there is no input.
It sounds to me like my video card is dead but I would like to verify this is the problem and not something else. I don't have financial means or friends or hardware available to try any other hardware. I have tomorrow off and will go buy a new video card if this is my problem but I would like to confirm.
Anyone else seen this happen and can verify if the monitor light blinking on and off after these blue bars is just the video card death?
Thank you for reading
First, my computer specs:
Processor: Intel Pentium D Processor 950 w/ Dual Core Technology 3.4GHz 800MHz FSB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2
Power Supply: Alienware 650 Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply with Active PFC
Motherboard: Alienware NVidia nForce4 SLI X16 Motherboard
Graphics Processor: 256MB PCI-Express x16 NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: High Performance - 160GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM w/ NCQ & 8MB Cache
Storage Drive: High Performance - 160GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM w/ NCQ & 8MB Cache
Primary Display: Samsung SyncMaster 1100DF 21" CRT Display - Black
I built this computer as a gaming computer about a year ago and I have never had any issues. I have had maybe a total of 5 total lock-ups in Windows until recently.
Last night I went to play Rainbow Six: Vegas and after about 30 seconds my computer just Locked Up - no control whatsoever. I rebooted and here is where things started to get weird.
At the Windows XP logo there is some vertical blue bars that are about 2-3 inches long and about half a cm space in between each. There is roughly 10 of these bars that go across my whole screen. They look kind of like static, or what you would expect something "bad" that you would see upon booting a PC.
I tried the game again thinking oh its just some weird crash with the game. Once again, comp locked up and I rebooted. I decided to try another game. It locked up and I rebooted. Still getting the bars I booted into safe mode and uninstalled my drivers and went to reboot. Reinstalled my drivers in Windows and figured I'd play an older game. I booted up Doom and it took up about 1/10th of my screen and had 4 colors.
I exited Doom and could not increase my resolution of 4 bit color. I finally fixed that but now whenever I boot up ...
I get those blue bars, and when I get to the login screen (1 out of 5 boot attempts, roughly I get this far) there is some colored rectangular boxes and when I click to login my screen goes black.
The other 4 out of 5 times after the Windows XP logo and blue bars of death my monitor flashes for half a second, then the light just blinks on and off. Now nearly everytime I boot I can't even get to my login screen. The monitor light just blinks at me like there is no input.
It sounds to me like my video card is dead but I would like to verify this is the problem and not something else. I don't have financial means or friends or hardware available to try any other hardware. I have tomorrow off and will go buy a new video card if this is my problem but I would like to confirm.
Anyone else seen this happen and can verify if the monitor light blinking on and off after these blue bars is just the video card death?
Thank you for reading
