Wierd color display when I turn my PC on

[CDestroyer]

Ok, I've got this wierd problem, and I'm stuck on it. I need it fixed before its too late for me to return my new parts, in case thats whats causing it.

Anyways, I just upgraded my PC to an Athlon 1800+, an iWill xp333 mb, 128megs of DDR ram, and a Philips 109s moniter. I used the rest of the stuff from my old PC, which include a cd-rw, a DVD-rom, a GeForce2 GTS, and an SBLive Value. I'm running Win98SE with all the drivers, but since it happens before anything is even loaded, its got to be hardware.

Anyways, here's the problem. About half the time I turn my PC on, I get this wierd color display. You can make out what is supposed to be displayed though (ie, when its not acting wierd you see the iWill logo. When it is acting wierd, you can make it out through the jumble of colors).
I havent a clue how to describe it so it can be perfectly understood, but the only other time I've seen something like this is when, on older games, I set the display adapter to something other then what I had. When I did that, the display acted all funky, but I could still sort of make out what was being displayed.

Anyways, something is either getting fried, I have some setting wrong, or something is just loose. This also happens when I restart, and sometimes when windows turns my moniter off to save power. The only way I know how to fix it is to shut down the PC and restart it...which sometimes fixes it and allows me to use the PC properly.

Oh, and nothing is overclocked...everything is set at what they should be for default performance. CPU temperature at loading is about 44C.

[lildude]

sounds like either one of two things.

1. ur cable from the card to monitor is not connected properly.

2. ur card is not seated properly in the socket or it is bad.

your drivers might be corrupted as well.

[designplace]

have you re-seated your gfx card in the motherboard to make sure its 'in' fully

I would suggest trying another gfx card with the same monitor and then trying your gfx card with a different monitor, and try to troubleshoot specifically where the problem lies, that may point you closer to the problem

:)

-Matt

[designplace]

lol@synchronous posting

[chodi25]

I would suggest going to the manufacturers site for your video board and reinstalling or upgrading your video driver. The one you are using may not be worable with your new cpu and motherboard chipset. It may not work but it never hurts to have the latest driver for your hardware. You may also want to check the motherboard manufacturers site for bios upgrades.

[Ammok]

In bios there is "Splash Logo Show" or words to that effect that should allow you to disable the Iwill logo.

This won't help if yopur problem is hardware related, but will save you a few seconds boot up time.

Check for a bent pin on your monitor cable at the vid card connector end.

[frank5]

How about a bad monitor cable? Did you try another monitor on the system? Some cables can be replaced , some can't.

[CDestroyer]

Thanks for the replys guys :D

1) The logo doesnt display in a splash screen, it's in the upper right corner when the system settings get displayed (ie, cpu speed, ram test, etc). If there was a splash screen, I would have already scoured the bios looking for ways to get it off ;)

2) It's not an 'all-the-time' occurance, so I doubt it's the moniter cable. With the moniter cable being bad, I'd get the impression it would do this everytime I try and turn the computer on. As it is, it's sort of like: Turn on computer...whoops, funky colors. Power down and back on...whoops, funcky colors. Power down then on, ah, normal. Still look into it though.

3) I'll reseat the card right now...hopefully thats it. I'll also check to see if there happens to be any dust in it.

4) Well, I'm glad of one thing. I was worried that I'd get a large, or at least some, amount of people telling me a certain part of my PC is getting fried. **wipes forehead**

[CDestroyer]

1) I just took out the card, blew any dust out, and put it back in.
2) I already have the newest drivers for the GeForce2... Nothing from the site who I bought it from, I cant get their site to load (Absolute Multimedia).
3) I doubt it's the moniter, because if I just leave it alone and dont restart, then the next time I actually get it to start without the screwy colors, the settings are all wierd and sometimes it even loads in safe mode...

**sigh**

[Bellbus]

I don't think its a driver problem, because the driver doesn't 'kick in' until Windows starts to load (and you said your getting this on immediate boot up).

I would have gone with the previous hardware entries, but if they don't work, you could try these. They're long shots, but:

1] check the CMOS to make sure the 'VGA Snoop' option is disabled (if it even exists on your board).

2] try enabling or disabling the 'Assign IRQ to VGA' option.

3] Change the 'Boot up speed' option to slow.

[Antix]

Check to make sure that your PSU is AMD certified. This is important to the operation of AMD CPU based systems, may explain these hiccups.

Are you running a 300W? You may be spreading the wattage a little thin. A 350W PSU is recommended on AMD TBird/Duron / Morgan/XP computers.

[BipolarBill]

Just last night I had a similar display corruption issue. When I opened the PC, the ATX power connector was loose in the motherboard. I vote for a power problem and second Antix's suggestion.

[CDestroyer]

Great googly moogly, I never even thought of the power supply. And when I say that, I mean when this problem occured, and when I was even upgrading. I'm running a 300W power supply right now, and I have a GeForce2, 2 CD-roms (well, 1 DVD-rom and one CD-RW), and a few other cards. Yeah, I'm sure it's being spread thin.

Thanks a lot guys. Even if thats not the problem, it's something I need anyways, and'll at least save me from more problems when I add more stuff later on. I'm going to get me a new 350W PSU as soon as I can, probably tomorrow, and see if that works. I'm also going to check out to see if my bios has anything Bellbus just listed.

EDIT: I just checked for those options. VGA snoop was already off, but I tried enabling it...it didnt work. I couldnt find how to assign or disassign an IRQ to VGA, so I didnt get to test it. Also, boot speed being fast or slow didnt help. I'm going to get a new PSU then.

Does it matter what brand, or can it be any generic 350W PSU. And what about 400W...are they out there, and would it be better to get one of those? Out of all the hardware on my PC, the PSU is by far the one I've dealt with the least >_<

EDIT2: Now that I think about it, this might also explain why neither my DVD nor my CD-RW will read any of my backup CD's...

[dna_level_c7]

have you o/ced it???? also have you put a new HS??? check everything...:confused:

[CDestroyer]

I just went out and got a new 350W PSU...first time loadint it up, SAME THING HAPPENED. It didnt help :(
It's not OC'ed either, and I've got a great HS.

This really ****ing sucks...

EDIT: Ok, I've got it figured out now. I went to my motherboards website and found a forum there, and I looked around. Apparently some people are having trouble loading their PC's (Not wierd colors, but just not loading). Some of the people there recommended to take try it without their DVD player...since that seems to be a problem with the motherboard.
I took the DVD player out and tried restarting it about 7 times...everytime worked perfectly, no colors. Now I may be wrong and just lucky, but 7 in a row is too lucky for me. Im pretty sure thats it.
I updated my bios but that didnt fix it. I'm going to check out the forum, see if there is any estimate release date on a fix to this problem...if not, I'll see if I can return my DVD player and just get a fast CD rom ;)