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Solve : Funky polka-dot screen!?

Answer» Problem:

There's a bunch of dots on the screen during computer boot-up. They are approximately 1 pixel big, and evenly spaced around 4 or 5 pixels. There is the occasional spaces where there is no dots. When it reaches the XP loading screen, theres a bunch of vertical purple lines running down the screen, evenly spaced apart. When it goes to open XP, the monitor shuts off, like it WENT to sleep mode. Moving the mouse, hitting keys on keyboard (including the often-used Ctrl+Alt+Del, Esc+Del, and Alt+F4), and turning monitor off and on does nothing. After about a minute, the computer will either restart or shut off. However, going into Safe Mode, it will work fine, without all those dots and lines.

Additional info:

-No new hardware or software has been added. Problem just came out of nowhere!
-I have tried 3 different monitors on the computer. All of them do the same thing, and other systems on all the monitors work fine. Not a monitor problem.
-Currently running a RAM-checking program to test memory and standard test show no errors, running thorough test right now.
-All cards and components are fitted securely and nothing is loose.
-Computer specs: GeForce 2 MX400, Pentium 4 1.7ghz, some other stuff that prolly isn't relevant. If it is, just shout and i'll GET the rest of the specs. (Not my comp, don't feel like looking up the parts.)Check the refresh rate and resolution. Possible mismatch since some cards are capable of providing more than some monitors are capable of handling.Not the problem, because it used to work fine with the same settings. I also ran it through a system restore and it still does the same thing.At what point in the boot do the dots appear?
Check your video drivers in your device manager.Is the videocard overheating? Is the fan working?

Excessive dust build up might cause it to overheat, resulting in graphical corruption.The dots appear as soon as the computer turns on, like during memory test, BIOS and CMOS, etc.

The videocard should be fine. It runs fine in Safe Mode so it COULD be the drivers, but I dont think it WOULD do that during bootup because the drivers arent even loaded yet at that TIME. There was a ton of dust in the computer, but after cleanup and checking the video card fan, it runs fine. I'll have to try sticking in a different video card. Any other suggestions?This one is going to be tricky.  

So in safe mode you get the dots on the post screen but when windows loads it's then OK?Are you certain that the dots dissapear, they may simply be hard to see due to the low resolution and colour safe mode uses.

Is this an LCD monitor?I replaced the video card with an old GEFORCE2 MX400, and now it boots up fine. Seems there was something wrong with the video card after all. The weird thing was Safe Mode completely worked fine without any hint of those dots. Video card's fan crapped out so I'm going to have to replace it. Thanks to whoever suggested it.Good to hear that resolved it.

If the fan needs replacing, it was most likely overheating.

If you add a new fan, remove the heatsink and add new thermal paste to the chipset. Reattach heatsink afterwards.


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