Screen problem at bootup

Indieguy82

Distinguished
Jan 9, 2009
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18,510
Hi guys,

I recently purchased a new graphics card (Sapphire X1950 Pro) and it worked with no problems for a few months, then this week when I booted my pc up the screen was all messed up (horizontal lines and the rest of the display is scrambled. You can just make out the Windows XP loading bar).

Then the screen goes black. I've tried rebooting but it's the same everytime!!

I tried replugging all the plugs and sockets, even removing the card and putting it back in with no joy.

Any ideas?

If you need any more info let me know.

Spencer
 

dokk2

Distinguished
Jul 1, 2007
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19,310
If you have a floppy drive ??/bootable dvd/cd,, try booting into dos ,or whatever,this will eliminate the influence of windoze etc,plus it might indicate that the problem is either with windoze,bad drivers or maybe even the card itself ??:)
 

vegettonox

Distinguished
Oct 11, 2006
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Boot into windows safe mode. This is accessible by pressing the F8 key after the post screen goes by and before the windows logo shows up. Just hit the f8 key ocassionally after the system has been turned on. if you see corruption in safe mode your card is probably going.

If it looks ok in safe mode then inside safe mode find and remove your drivers and reboot into normal mode. if you get into windows this way. download and install the newest drivers.

My best guess is that the card is going bad though. since you didnt change anything beforehand and it just started doing this out of the blue.

The big telltale is going to be if you can boot into safe mode with no problems.

Also if you can try the card in another computer and see what happens.