Weird characters, lines, etc in bios, OS not booting

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Hank Hill

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Nov 29, 2013
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10,510
Hello I've been having some issues with my ol' comp and was hoping somebody has some insight for me. She's around 6 years old, I had to replace my original Xfx Gtx 295 (lifetime warranty, woo) and they sent me a 6950.

Here's the specs:
Mobo: Asus p6t deluxe v2
Gpu: Xfx Radeon Hd 6950 2gb
Cpu: Intel i7 920 bloomfield @ stock speeds
Psu: 850w Corsair
Ram: 3X OCZ PC3 12800 2gb

Alrighty, now the problem.. The other day I cleaned out the pc, took out ram, and gpu. Sprayed some air into the ports. Took off the cover of the gpu and cleaned the fan and the heatsink. Reassembled everything and seated everything nice and smooth (only the 1000th time I've cleaned it lol) to have this on startup

I've reseated things. I dont have any other pcs lying around so no parts to test it on..

Any help would be appreciated. I can always post more pics too

Thanks
 
Solution
Dom_79
This seems to be a hardware issue, no crashing/freezing or error messages when gaming, browsing etc? It's too bad you don't have access to another pc (or GPU or Ram) to test things for a more definitive answer. It's probably not the suggestion you or anyone else in a similar situation would want to hear but it may just be time for a new rig, I include myself in that :)
On the bright side you could still use your PSU, case, Ram( if it's not the problem/ one of the problems) and GPU (same conditions as ram) and HDD(s). Just to throw this out there, you could get a decent i5 LGA 1150 (there's a few) for +/- 200$ (Canadian, less in states of course) and a decent/ good board for around 120-150 (since you don't OC) and then upgrade the i5...
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Dom_79

Dom_79

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Question: If you had a lifetime warranty on an NVidia GPU, why would it be replaced with a Radeon? That seems weird.
If you really have taken everything apart 1000 times (or just more than 10-20 times) you may have started stripping the gold plated contacts off your ram or connector slots (for ram and GPU) on your Motherboard.
You can visually inspect the ram chips but the mobo slots are tricky.
P.S. I didn't see any links to pics ;)
Cheers
 
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Hank Hill

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Nov 29, 2013
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10,510
Hello there, thanks for the response.

I had the same reaction, I guess at some point xfx stopped producing Nvidia cards and started producing radeon. In their warranty it said "graphically equivalent", so not much I can do about that :)

I've taken it apart several times, not thousands of course. I was just trying to emphasize the point that everything seemed to have gone normal. It's around 6 years old now so I'm not too sure exactly how many times I've done it.

Here are the pics I didn't upload :eek:



In Bios





Starting up





This is after windows "boots"



I'll get in there with a flashlight and see if I can see anything..

Thanks again
 
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H

Hank Hill

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Nov 29, 2013
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10,510


Newegg shows my order on 8/5/2009 Lol

Any solution that isn't throwing it out and buying a new one :(

Lol since it's so old seems like they're pretty expensive.. grr
 
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Dom_79

Dom_79

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Nov 4, 2012
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This seems to be a hardware issue, no crashing/freezing or error messages when gaming, browsing etc? It's too bad you don't have access to another pc (or GPU or Ram) to test things for a more definitive answer. It's probably not the suggestion you or anyone else in a similar situation would want to hear but it may just be time for a new rig, I include myself in that :)
On the bright side you could still use your PSU, case, Ram( if it's not the problem/ one of the problems) and GPU (same conditions as ram) and HDD(s). Just to throw this out there, you could get a decent i5 LGA 1150 (there's a few) for +/- 200$ (Canadian, less in states of course) and a decent/ good board for around 120-150 (since you don't OC) and then upgrade the i5 to an i7 later if you wanted to.
Older parts = more expensive in computers. I've never liked that but I get it from a sales point of view.
 
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Solution
H

Hank Hill

Honorable
Nov 29, 2013
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10,510


No crashing, or error messages. Just decided to clean it and royally messed something up :( lol

The Ram is triple channel.. that still around? lol, I haven't looked at any computer parts, or have kept up with what's coming out since I built this one. I know I could still use the PSU, CPU heatstink, Case, and the video card atleast.

I tried searching around and found this, http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792 Do you think this might work for my Mobo? Perhaps through my cleanings I've broken some solder.

Thanks again
 
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Dom_79

Dom_79

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Well if this guy (and a few others I checked after seeing that thread- BTW wow! I never would have though of that :) ) got that kind of a fix and you're gonna scrap it anyways might as well try. If it was me I'd want to check the ram and GPU somehow first... I just can't think of a way for you to do it without access to another computer (or other ram or GPU).
The thing about this type of a "fix" is the temp. 375-390 is the temp the SOLDER needs to liquefy. When they solder bathe these boards at the factory they aren't in nearly that long (7-8 minutes!?!), preventing the components from being exposed to those temps for prolonged periods. ( I'm saying this because I "temp'ed" in a PCB shop for a couple weeks and saw the process myself).
Just to point something out about the pics the guy posted. I noticed the stickers didn't even have any browning at the edges. Paper has an autoignition point of 424-475F. 375-390 is pretty close and I would have thought there would at least be some browning or curling. Makes me suspicious if those were pics of the actual board or if he actually did it.
P.S.: I don't think they do much Triple channel ram but you can still buy it. Probably manufacturers are going to quad channel to provide more performance than dual. Also if the issue is stripped contacts this won't help. The material is gone, not broken or cracked ;)
I'm curious to know how things turn out if you do this though. Update the thread if/when you do this with results AND take pics or video WHILE you do it and prove this to everyone!
Cheers!
 
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