multi-colored squares on POST

[Mill]

I have an Asus mobo P4PE BP that I first had problems with on sound.
Actually it has w2k on it and had started running more and more slow.
I couldn't find spyware or viruses and had good protection on it
(BitDefender,
SpyBot, etc.).

So I thought, what the heck, let's reformat and install a retail XP Pro.
I tried, but I no more than got it on and after a few hours, walked in was
surprised to see multi-colored rectangles all over screen. Well, it was an
old PCI video card so I figured that was the problem. But I did do a
restart,
and to my surprise, the multi-colored rectangles show up immediately even
before the POST. There are multi-colored letters and characters flashing in
the squares.

So I figure it is before the video card has anything to do with it.

Any ideas???

 

[GHalleck]

I have an Asus mobo P4PE BP that I first had problems with on sound.
Actually it has w2k on it and had started running more and more slow.
I couldn't find spyware or viruses and had good protection on it
(BitDefender,
SpyBot, etc.).

So I thought, what the heck, let's reformat and install a retail XP Pro.
I tried, but I no more than got it on and after a few hours, walked in was
surprised to see multi-colored rectangles all over screen. Well, it was an
old PCI video card so I figured that was the problem. But I did do a
restart,
and to my surprise, the multi-colored rectangles show up immediately even
before the POST. There are multi-colored letters and characters flashing in
the squares.

So I figure it is before the video card has anything to do with it.

Any ideas???

It is probably the video card. The video chip or the video card RAM has
probably degraded with age and is showing the signs of failing.

 

[Mill]

\

It is probably the video card. The video chip or the video card RAM has
probably degraded with age and is showing the signs of failing.

yep

 

[John Doe]

\

yep

Did replacing the BIOS battery prevent your boot priority settings
from being lost on reboot?

 

[Terry]

I have an Asus mobo P4PE BP that I first had problems with on sound.
Actually it has w2k on it and had started running more and more slow.
I couldn't find spyware or viruses and had good protection on it
(BitDefender,
SpyBot, etc.).

Maybe nothing, but I was trying to set up RAID on my system and
changed some bios settings to the wrong thing and this caused the
squares you speak of.

Try setting your bios back to factory settings. Try bios safe
settings next.

 

[Mill]

"Mill" <[email protected]> wrote:

Did replacing the BIOS battery prevent your boot priority settings
from being lost on reboot?

I'm still checking that John. I will let you know tomorrow. Still getting
over being sick and going to bed right now.

 

[Mill]

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:41:54 -0400, "Mill" <[email protected]>

Maybe nothing, but I was trying to set up RAID on my system and
changed some bios settings to the wrong thing and this caused the
squares you speak of.

Try setting your bios back to factory settings. Try bios safe
settings next.

I got a BIOS checksum error later so the mobo failed. The video card
also failed. It was very old so no big surprise. Naturally, I hate
coincidences
but I have no idea how failure of video card related to failure of mobo.