Artifacts On Screen, Screen Suddenly Goes Black and on Standby

[Method]

I posted this on another forum, but it was computer/tech heavy so I've come for a bit more specialist support


Ill put here my problem and the steps ive taken so far as stated on the other forum.

Right, so past few weeks my pc has been playing up. Every few days or so its appearance would randomly change from a mix of safe mode but filled with wierd artifacts, lines etc... and **** on the screen. Sometimes I could just do a system restore and it would be fine until it did the same thing the following day after day, and sometimes I couldnt get past boot and had to use the Vista disc to repair.

But now, the artifacts are on screen again, I cant boot to safe mode, the repair, chkdsk and memory diagnostic do nothing to fix my problems. It simply boots up, displays the bios screen and then goes to black or if I attempt safe mode it loads a load of files on screen until it gets to windows\system32\DRIVERS\AVGIDSEN.sys and it just freezes on that for hours and doesnt budge.

Ive ordered a new hardrive just incase if its the HD thats failing, but if it is failing, I could really do with getting back in to back up all my important files to an external I recently ordered too.

The hard drive led is a constant red also. Really hoping its not the MOBO though.

Any thoughts? What does it sound like is screwing up and whats most likely the problem?

Installed fresh HD and Windows 7.

Still has me a bit worried though.

Installed fine, restarted, upon starting up for the first time it does a few checks, the artifacts and wierd lettering that were occuring with the old hd were gone, then it 'checks video performance' and the wierd artifacts appear again and it gets stuck.

Turned it off, turned it back on, this time it boots fine, register the OS and begin downloading all my programs etc....then the screen suddenly goes black and the monitor is just on the orange standby...

Could it be a GPU fault? Ive noticed my cases main fan has stopped lighting up its LED's and spinning too, although that may be a faulty connection upon fiddling with the insides earlier, the other fan is working fine.

EDIT: Restarted after black screen, artifacts are back again, i think we can rule out the HD being the problem.

So could this be a gpu issue? Or is it more likely a mobo or CPU error?

I can boot into it, but theres wierd swiggly lines everywhere and in a zoomed safe mode type view.

View image: IMG00646 20110621 1951
View image: IMG00648 20110621 2018

Edited:

Ok...was just on the desktop and the artifacts/lines suddenly dissapeared, looks completely normal except the low res, which I can change. What the ****?

Case fan still off though, will see if its a loose connection.

Edited:

Ran DXdiag, its not detecting the video card properly at all, just a lot of N/A, and the resolution is locked at 800 x 600. (Havent installed drivers yet, but the initial successful boot was at full res regardless)

Any idea if this would be just down to the GPU? Or a result of something else.

And...the lines/artifacts are back again.

Edited:

Seemed to have fixed the problem, completely random but...

In the boot priority, there was my HD, my DVD drive and an 'atapi CD rom'. That last one simply doesnt exist, have no idea where it came from. I disabled it and no artifacts on boot or bios screens, boots fine, everything full res, DXdiag recognises the GPU.

Very strange...ill have to do another restart and tests to see if that was indeed the problem but it was literally: boot up -> bios screen covered in artifacts -> disable atapi cd rom in boot priority -> artifacts instantly gone and functions fine.

Edited:

Multiple restarts and fan connectors reseated, everything is working great.

Cant believe all of this was coming from whatever that 'atapi cd rom' was, and disabling it fixed everything.

Ok, so it worked great all evening.

Woke up today, someone in the family turned it on, started browsing and suddenly screen goes black with the orange stand by light again.

Turn PC off and back on, and the artifacts are back again all over the bios and every screen.

So the hard drive and OS are ruled out. I doubt a PSU issue would cause the problem.

So GPU, MOBO? or CPU?

Thanks guys, really need some help on this one so would be much appreciated!

 

[brinks]

It looks like a GPU problem, it's probably starting to die. You have to get your hands on another GPU to test it out to make sure.

 

[carnageX]

I'm going to agree with brinks and lean towards a GPU problem. Like he said, get a spare one if you can to test. Or just RMA your current one if its still under warranty.

 

[Method]

It was the GPU. Found an old 7600GT lying around and stuck it in. Works fine now, needed an excuse to upgrade the GPU for BF3, now I have one