Newly built pc: blotchy display & ati drivers headaches

[dfourthhorseman]

Hi all, I've just built a computer using the following parts:

AMD Athlon64 Venice 3200+
MSI Neo4 K8N Platinum Motherboard
MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E PCI-E Graphics Card
Corsair 1GB DDR400 Ram
Western Digital 160GB SATA300 HDD
FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX500-A ATX12V 500W PSU
Windows XP Pro w/ SP2

Here's the problem I've been having.

1. As soon as I boot up the computer, as soon as the motherboard's
logo screen come's on I get this very messy screen. It's like there
are these white dots evenly spaced all across the screen. It continues
in BIOS and WinXP installation, often blocking the letters. When the
WinXP logo bootup screen shows up, the blocks turn into big green
ones, still evenly spaced. When it comes into windows, it becomes 3-4
giant vertial, spaced-out strips that is sort like a darker shade of
the normal color that it should be. If I were to move the mouse over
it, all these strips would flash a lil color for an instance but still
remain.

2. All of the above has been on WinXP's generic video driver. I have
been unable to install ANY radeon/ati drivers. The latest one from the
MSI website (v8.09), the latest one from ATI (Catalyst 5.6, both with
and w/o NET frame versions), and the usually reliable OMEGA drivers
(Catalyst 5.4). It would install fine but then after a restart, there
would be a significantly mroe noticeable red blotches over the screen.
Then mouse won't work after bootup, then 10 secs or so after it goes
into windows, the monitor's display would go on and off, always
freezed and very dissorted. The problem would go away if I were to go
to safe mode and uninstall those drivers.

Here are the steps I've already done to try and solve the problem:

1. Update using the latest BIOS and drivers for both the graphics
card, motherboard, SATA chipset, LAN chipset, and BIOS from both MSI
and the manufacturer's websites (MSI, nVidia, etc).
2. Get the latest updates from Windows Updates.
3. Clear CMOS, and use stable (non-overclocking options)
4. Unplug certain unneccary devices and plugs, such as DVD drive and
internal USB.
5. Changed between 2 CRT VGA monitors and 1 LCD DVI monitor.
6. Disconnected and reconnected all cables.

I would really like the know what the problem might be, and if there's
any chance I can have of fixing it without returning of the parts. And
if I have do, which part is most likely defective?

Thanks so much in advance,
Ruibing

 

[hercules_upw]

it is my opinion that you have a video card problem

do you have another?

 

[dfourthhorseman]

Thanks for the fast reply.

Unfortunately, I do not have another pci-e display card, and all of my friends still use agp. Lol, being high tech sure has some problems.

Luckily, I bought everything off newegg, so doing an RMA exchange won't be much of a problem.

But I'd just like to make sure there's nothing else I can try, and that the motherboard or PSU isn't the one at fault. Is it really possible for a generic driver display with bothcy spots and stripes, to turn into complete driver crash with real ati/omega/catalyst/msi drivers? Can I rule SP 2 out as a possible problem, but even that does not explain how the display problem happens during even the POST screen.

So it's either or a combination of PSU, internal wires, motherboard, video card, or bios.

If you have any suggestion, please don't hesitate to post, I'm really out of ideas.

Thanks again.

 

[hercules_upw]

the problems with the POST screen further my belief that you have video card issues.

I'm sure you did, but i'll ask anyway. Did you connect the power supply cable to the video card ?

The only other suggestion i can think of now is to try a different cable to connect the video card to the monitor.

 

[dfourthhorseman]

Well this is a X800XL, so it doesn't have one of those special video card power connectors on it, even though my PSU can support that connection.

I've tried using their DVI to VGA adapter on my CRT monitors, and I've used my newly bought, arrived just today, LCD monitor, all exact same thing. I would use the other DVI port on the card but I can't install the ATI drivers to get it working without crashing/locking on boot.

I also think its most likely the graphics card, but can it also (hopefully not) be the motherboard?

Thanks again.

 

[pedmart]

mmm... i'm having the same problem now.. and i'm hoping it was the video card too.. i;m sending mine soon, also bought from newegg, it was a xfx 6800 gt extreme.
great website to find about this things ...
thank you guys