Strange square blocks during startup screen (XP)

[Towley]

Hey Guys,
         I have a problem that I just have no idea how to solve! When windows is booting up, during the screen where theres the windows sign and the blue dots are moving from left to right, the screen is covered in small blue squares from top to bottom, evenly spaced out and slightly see-through.

After talking to some people about it I decided to wipe my pc and install a fresh version of windows... but its still there! It also started appearing on the windows desktop but after installing new graphics drivers I got rid of the squares on the desktop but they're still there during startup and theres also a small rectangle above and below my cursor which follows it around constantly flickering.

Just wondering if anyone could possibly help me out cuz I'm out of ideas!

I have a NVIDIA nForece 2 motherboard, Radeon 9700Pro, 1 gig of memory and I'm on Sp2. Thats all i can think that you might need to know.

Cheers guys,
Will

[Richenstony]

Can you post a screenshot of these mystery blocks please?

Many thanks

Tony

[contrex]

Rich, how does he take a screenshot of the Windows loading screen? I'd like to know myself, it would be very useful. If it happens at bootup during the Windows load process, it points to video hardware, I think. I'd check that the video card is properly seated in its slot, and that any power connectors are correctly and firmly connected. Flickering blocks round the mouse cursor are very suggestive of a display card problem. Has it been allowed to overheat? Is the fan choked with dust? Is this a new build or is it a computer you have used for a while without problems?

A quick Google on "Radeon 9700 squares" told me

the most common answer being the card is overheating

Check video card heatsink for looseness... Consider aftermarket heatsink + fan... Just a few ideas.

[Richenstony]

Well i use my digtal camera to take pictures of errors when my computer boots ........ or my mobile ..... ive been hunting around for a way to screenshot upon boot , and it appears there isnt a way as far as ive searched ....