Earlier today, whilst messing around on youtube, something odd happened. I loaded up a "maxed out left 4 dead" video when suddenly red lines appeared all over my screen. My computer slowed to snails pace and then froze outright. I restarted, and found that my bios screen was similarly distorted. (Blue distortion instead of red lines). Even the BIOS font had a few distortions in it. At the windows loading screen: same thing. Windows loads up, a blue screen with some computer jargon appears, and my computer restarts itself.

At this point, I take out my gfx card, spray out a meager amount of dust, and try again (in the second monitor port thing) same thing. I then dug out my old ATI X800 GFX card to see if I can just get the thing running until tommorow, but that didnt seem to work; as nothing appeared on my screen at ALL. (It's very old, its possible it could be just broken...) Scared, (having had dealt with this crap less than a year ago on my old mobo) I put my newer card in, (The 8800GT) and got a display again. Only this time an odd message appeared "Overclock settings FAILED, RETURNING TO DEFAULT SETTINGS (PRESS 9 TO DO SO) I press 9, supposedly return to default bios settings; computer restarts (distorted again) and thats that. I try booting into safe mode, it works, and I rolled back my computer to sunday. Distortions persist, and here I am asking... No: begging for help.

Here's my question.

Is this a graphics card issue, or a PSU issue? Is the 9600 a good replacement for an 8800GT? I cant get anything much bigger than my old 8800 because of my case's size.

Im heading out to get a replacement tomorrow, so if I can get some second opinions on this before then; I would be very very grateful.

Edit: Distortion also appears when I boot into safe mode.

It's could be a defective motherboard. You've tried booting without a GPU in, right?

The motherboard is less than a year old, but no I havent tried that. I didnt even know it was possible.

So what, do I just remove the graphics card and try to boot? What then?

Double POST

Well I tried uninstalling the drivers to see if that would do anything, no dice. Well; Ive been reading forum posts for the last three hours and all signs point to a faulty video card. Im going to get up early tomorrow before work and get a new card because I'm insane when it comes to this sort of thing.

sorry i should have been more clear. im typing on a wii now btw.

pc does not post at all w/ old gpu: but posts w/ newer one but distorted.


old card is ati x800

there is no port for monitor.,,
so i have no idea how to boot w/o gpu.

Thanks Goat, you're right. I did some reading before I went ahead and replaced the card. I went ahead and got myself a EVGA 9800 GT (the 1g variety). I got home, carefully unwrapped it and put it into my system (as well as adding a guard over an open port I've left open for far too long) I stared at my monitor when a miracle happened. It posted, without distortion. Yes for once a computer problem I've had to deal with has been resolved in a timely manner. But maybe it's too early to celebrate...

I just installed the new drivers and Im going to give left 4 dead a go. Hopefully, nothing else goes wrong. Thanks for all of the help.

As far as replacing the 8800GT, I'm going to do that now and sell the refurbished (?) or new one they send on ebay. If anyone wants a good deal on an 8800GT (Or if they ship me the 9800 GT) 515 mb, let me know.