I am having a problem with my home PC but it has been tough figuring out. I'll list the symptoms: Whenever the computer restarts or is turned off then turned back on, I hear a beep followed by a series of beeps but nothing ever comes on the screen. I get to the part on XP where it lists the users of the computer but when I try to type in a password it freezes up then the screen goes black. Whenever I can get the computer to work for a little while the icons and everything on the screen becomes blurry and the mouse pointer turns into an opaque, .5 inch square which moves around when you move the mouse but it does not click anything when you try to. Sometimes when it is working the screen will freeze up and then the computer will automatically restart. Whenever I can get on and visit a certain site, such as ohhla.com, it does the same thing as above. Now I am thinking it is my video card. I re-seated my RAM and actually cleared whatever dust there was on the inside of the case but I try to turn on the PC and it still does one of the things listed above. My question is, would or could my video card cause all of that stuff that I listed above? Do any of you have any tips on what it might be? I have two hard drives so if you all do not know anything new to try I was going to do a fresh install on my other hard drive and se if the computer works but I want to avoid doing so if I could so that is why I am posting this. As always, thanks for any advice or tips you can give me.
You most likely have some sort of hardware problem and POST is giving you error codes (the beeps that you hear). You need to research your BIOS and find out what error code you are getting.
http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm herer are some error codes. Without hearing It I can't tell you what it means but if you look for your bios (possibly Phoenix) you should be able to interpret the codes.
When your computer first boots up, prior to the OS, the BIOS runs POST (Power On Self Test). You need to see what vendor and version of BIOS you are running. Typically you can see this in the boot up screen and if not, go into the BIOS setup and see if you can figure it out. Then go a look for it here.
Another thing I am confused about is that it only does that sometimes I mean most of the time it comes on just fine without the beeping at all.
If it is intermittent than something is most likely going out. It is difficult to diagnose something like that without seeing it really. If you know what motherboard that you have, you can probably research it online. I'd do a search for it and POST beep codes.
I really do appreciate the replies but I have another question. You say something is likely going out, could it then be the video card? I have been having trouble with my video for sometime now is the only reason I ask. Trouble I have been having is when the computer hibernates, and you move the mouse to restore the screen the monitor reads no signal/no cable attached or when playing a game the screen goes black and either stay black or will return to normal 10-15 minutes later. Those are a couple of the problems with video I have had.
It could be the video card but it could be something completely different. I always preface statements with "likely" or "it might be" because with as little information that I have, I don't want to say for sure it is something when it very well may be something else.
I understand that completely but now I won't feel bad for ordering another video card because that potentially could be the problem either now or later. I remember what R2K said about computer problems like these, unplug one piece at a time and interchange it if possible and see what happens.
Señor Pun... help us sort out your problems first by adding something descriptive on the Thread Title... every time I see "Computer Problem" on the title, I think, Oh, no... Pun again... and then I confirm by seeing it is you starting the thread... Anyway, I have the same thing you have. At times, the screen refreshes and the pointer turns into something similar to what you see (a blurry square). This happens with Java applets on web sites or Flash animations on others. The only thing I do is move the mouse pointer fast and it goes away. I know I installed the nVidia tools, and then all of a sudden all of this started happening. I can't just uninstall nVidia graphics tools for some reason... it doesn't do it from the add/remove applet... I get a "can't find the uninstall program" message for it... beats me. Anyway, see if when you go to your control panel there is a program that controls your graphics card's settings. It might be ATI or nVidia on the logo... but this controls some settings that Windows can't find. What make is your PC? Mine is an old Dell Dimension...
Swoly, it is a PC I built myself and had run great for almost two years until a few days ago. I have an ASRock mobo, AMD X 2.6 GHZ processor, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HD, 30 GB HD, ATI RADEON 9200 SE video card.
Open the machine and reseat all cables and boards, before dealing with BIOS. If it still happens, clear NVRAM (BIOS ROM) in your computers setup. Then re-run setup. If it still happen, try swapping out the video card with one you might have laying around.
Pun If pressed for a most likely candidate for your symptoms...Id start with the video card as you suspect. the other comments are right also...it indeed could be anything since sometimes a problem in one area of the computer could cause weird things to happen in reemingly unrelated subsystems. but...everytime I have seen similar symptoms as you describe...it was indeed video related...either corrupted drivers(check this first of course) or a bad vid card...it could also be a fault in the agp bus, or even memory problems. but you know my maxim....K I S S do your diagnosis starting with the easiest thing to fix...software.
Yeah here are two messages I got just a inute ago on my PC after start up: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/jakz34/error1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/jakz34/error2.jpg Does this further my ideas on video card or not?
just to give my 2 cents.. it could very likely be a power issue. and when you reset the power, the video card doesn't get enough juice so it errors out. if you never have issues except during a power on/off or reset situation... my money would be on the power supply.
I used the KISS method and the first thing I did was a system restore and that seems to have fixed things.
That's great. It doesn't provide root cause. You might want to reseat all the cables and boards anyway.
