What the hell, Desktop?

[Voon]

My PC's prone to problems and its getting on my nerves. This time, I was just trying to get my pics into the PC from my iPod while browsing a website. It was a bit slow today and all of a sudden, it froze. Force shut down, start it up again and the next thing I know is that something funny's happening to my PC. Glitchy screen. Again. Even when it starts to boot up. I think its my graphics card doing this but then again, the PC's not responsive whenever I tried to exit the disk-check. So, probably some asshole just stealth installed something in the PC. What's going on?

Quick edit: oh yeah, I didn't visit a virus site that time

[JohnnyK]

Overheating?

[buemba]

Could be a software conflict. My old PC used to do that because I had 2 incompatible video codec packs installed.

[Voon]

Could be. But how would that suddenly freeze the PC? Maybe it did overheat. The fan's louder than usual that time.

Oh, I forgot to mention that after the loading screen, when the PC's booting up, it went blank and giving me that 'no signal' sign, but I was still able to hear everything else. I just can't see anything

[JohnnyK]

If the mobo has a temperature threshold set, the PC will reboot above that threshold. If the gfx card is overheating, artifacts and no signal can ensue.

So check the temps to find out if it is an issue.

[Feldspar]

Might be worth reseating your graphics card (and checking the wire), probably won't help, but it's the sort of thing you want to do before you take drastic measures.

[Odeon]

Yep, artifacting - especially during POST - and a No Signal message from your monitor puts your GPU into high suspicion. Try the re-seat and cable unplug/plug in, but also check for dust build up on your video card. You can also try leaving your PC off for a while (at least 30 minutes) to let everything cool down, which is what re-seating/re-plugging/dusting your card and/or case (especially for dust) should give you. If you don't have any issues at boot-up, then start to get problems again after using your PC for any graphics-intensive stuff (video, games, etc.), it's almost certainly going to be the GPU.

Barring all of that, is your card still under warranty? It may be time for an RMA or replacement if none of the above makes a lick of difference.

[Voon]

Yep, artifacting - especially during POST - and a No Signal message from your monitor puts your GPU into high suspicion. Try the re-seat and cable unplug/plug in, but also check for dust build up on your video card. You can also try leaving your PC off for a while (at least 30 minutes) to let everything cool down, which is what re-seating/re-plugging/dusting your card and/or case (especially for dust) should give you. If you don't have any issues at boot-up, then start to get problems again after using your PC for any graphics-intensive stuff (video, games, etc.), it's almost certainly going to be the GPU.

Barring all of that, is your card still under warranty? It may be time for an RMA or replacement if none of the above makes a lick of difference.

No warranty and its been a couple of years since I've purchased the damned thing. Maybe it was the graphics card. I'll try reseating it. If it still artifacting, then a replacement would be more than welcome.

[Odeon]

Good luck! It would be nice not to have to spend any money, but it sounds like it's time for an upgrade anyway. :)