Weird pattern on Gigabyte and WinXp loading screens - black screen after 15 sec

[novykiel]

Dear ComputerHope community...

First of all, my machine:

Mainboard: Gigabyte Ep35-Ds3r
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 So775 BOX
Graphics-Card: Leadtek PX8800GT TDH 512MB PCIe Retail  (not overclocked)
RAM: OCZ 2048MB KIT PC2-6400U DDR2-800 Gold GX XTC CL5
HardDrive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATAII ST3500630AS
Win XP home (fresh installation)


I have been fighting with my computer for most of the week. It started freezing when in 3d environments such as Tropico 3.


After that I reinstalled windows, updated it and the graphics card but the freezes happened again when opening Tropico 3, strangely the menu would open, but when in the first 3d 'room' (such as charcater creation) the freezes would happen again. The computer did also freeze in Modern Warfare 2 after about 2 minutes into the game. This has never happened before, both Modern Warfare and Tropico 3 were running fine on Monday and prior to that.

Now after the second reinstallation of windows the loading screens of both the gigabyte mainboard, as well as the black win XP loading screen itself show even patterns (see attached video link to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hoID7KrEDY showing the 1 minute start to freeze process). So now I can't even install anything because there's no time

The "Dos" startup screens are all displayed correctly.

I tried resetting the mainboard and load optimized defaults but no effect.

I enclosed two screenshots:
-one of the first reinstallation of WInXP after just having applied the newest nVidia driver.
-one oif the current boot sequence where you can see the pattern in detail on the mainboard loadoing screen.

Here's the movie again so you can follow the whole boot sequence to the crash...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hoID7KrEDY

Anyone out there who can tell me what''s wrong with my machine?

Thank you guys very much in advance

NovyKiel

[Saving space, attachment deleted by admin]

[patio]

How old is this video card ? ?
I suspect it may be on it's way out...

[novykiel]

I bought it in May 2008, so it has been almost two years now...
do you think swapping video cards with a friend will solve it? Then I'd just return my old one before warranty runs out.

[novykiel]

both the startup sequence as well as the desktop are perfectly normal, at least until the blackscreen...

only the two loading screens are corrupt

[patio]

I bought it in May 2008, so it has been almost two years now...
do you think swapping video cards with a friend will solve it? Then I'd just return my old one before warranty runs out.

This would certainly be worth the effort...
Remember to remove all power sources and take anti-static precautions.

[novykiel]

Hey Patio,

thank you for your answers. I did build in an ATI card from a friend and you know what happened... the computer started fine and normally like it always has...

So if any of you get these funny patterns and blackscreen after booting, check your graphics card

Thanks again, now all I have to do is wait for the spare card they have promised me

[patio]

Good news...
Thanx for stopping back to let us know...