Desktop boots up with distorted lines after vidcard related program BSOD

[maygem12]

Hello all. Things have been running rather smoothly for my computer until my computer got a BSOD while I was in the middle of a game(TF2). SO, I just restarted it without really taking good note of what the problem was, but to what I can recall I believe it was my Nvidia display driver which was caught in an infinite loop??? So I reboot the computer to see fuzzy lines and I find out that my computer will shut to a blank screen before windows fully loads up.

Here are the pics of what happens when I turn my computer on


this leads into this

and then I press F8 to go to this


With a little trial and error I was able to find the different safe modes, including VGA safe mode which is what I am using on my broken computer at this moment.After I pick safe mode I get one more distorted screen


Then everything works fine  with NO MORE DISTORTED LINES after that in the safe modes.

I have tried switching to multiple different video card drivers and nothing changes. I am guessing it is a motherboard problem or a video card problem. This also doesn't seem like a virus problem  but I am not an expert.

Here are some specs:
XP service pack 2
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
AMD Athlon 64  2.21 Ghz
1 GB ram

I use spybot, adaware, symantic, hijackthis. Thanks everyone.

[BC_Programmer]

Video card or motherboard. As you said.

Try another video card- if it still looks like that- then it's a motherboard issue... OR a BIOS setting related to your video subsystem...

[maygem12]

Video card or motherboard. As you said.

Try another video card- if it still looks like that- then it's a motherboard issue... OR a BIOS setting related to your video subsystem...

Have no idea how to get to BIOS when the screen looks like that snow. I would probably do more damage than good playing around there.

[BC_Programmer]

Honestly- I'd be about 80% it's the video card. I had an old ATI card that would kind of do this- but the computer refused to boot with it, and would just beep for missing video, and display a assortment of garble.

[patio]

One easy thing you can try...
Power Down.
Remove all sources of power.
Take off a side panel.
Remove the vid card from it's slot and clean the contacts with a pencil eraser and/or a swab with isopropyl alcohol on it.
While the card is out clean out the inside of the machine with a can of compressed air ( available at any PC store or Wally World ).
When blowing/cleaning out fans hold the blades in place with a Q-Tip.
After cleaning double check all cable connections including power and drive cables.
Replace the vid card making sure to use the hold down screw which acts as the cards ground.
Leave the side panel off for now so you can check all fan operations.
Power up and see if this improves things.