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Windows crashing at startup, Video Card Problem?

Tags:
  • cpu psu gpu graphics green lines crash windows 7
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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December 23, 2013 10:24:37 AM

Windows 7-64 bit
8 bg ram
3.2 ghz AMD cpu
500 watt psu

I built this pc about 2 years ago and there shouldn't be a problem with insufficient resources.

In the past my computer has randomly rebooted, sometimes when I'm playing a game and sometimes for no apparent reason (more rare). A few days back the computer crashed during a game and pretty much crapped out. It started windows but was basically unusable so I reinstalled the operating system.

This morning something different happened, and much worse. The computer will get to the black "starting windows" screen and then reboot after a few seconds. It will not get to the blue "welcome" screen. Safe mode does work, but if I reboot the computer it just crashes again on normal startup. The reason I suspect a GPU problem is that there are green lines on the screen going up and down, but those lines are actually made of little horizontal green lines.

I just finished reformatting and reinstalling Windows again, but the problem persists.

Can anyone give me advice on how to fix this problem?

Thank you

UPDATE: Pulled the GPU and got my wires sorted. Windows is starting up as normal (except poor resolution from having no GPU). I'll get Windows updated and see how it goes.

More about : windows crashing startup video card problem

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December 23, 2013 10:40:34 AM

some more information would help get an answer for you- what kind of HDD/SSD is in your computer, what graphics card are you using, etc.

first and foremost if you have a discreet graphics card, try using the onboard to see if it boots. if you have an onboard graphics card already, its a little more difficult to troubleshoot. if you have a spare graphics card around, that would be best bet.

stating that your computer would randomly reboot in the past is very telling. something like this could be power supply related, if one of your drives is shorting out the PSU it would cause random reboots at first then become more definite over time, like recurring reboots after the windows splash screen. if you have a spare power supply around, replace it to see if it helps.

if your hard drive was slowly dying, it would give you results similar to what you described.

if a memory module went bad, it could also give you similar results.

so it could be a few things, but the more info you provide the better.
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December 23, 2013 10:46:45 AM

Try to borrow a PSU from someone to test.

If you have onboard graphics(VGA), then try that, make sure to pull out the GPU, and connect the monitor to VGA port of MB.
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December 23, 2013 11:23:56 AM

kewlguy239 said:
some more information would help get an answer for you- what kind of HDD/SSD is in your computer, what graphics card are you using, etc.

first and foremost if you have a discreet graphics card, try using the onboard to see if it boots. if you have an onboard graphics card already, its a little more difficult to troubleshoot. if you have a spare graphics card around, that would be best bet.

stating that your computer would randomly reboot in the past is very telling. something like this could be power supply related, if one of your drives is shorting out the PSU it would cause random reboots at first then become more definite over time, like recurring reboots after the windows splash screen. if you have a spare power supply around, replace it to see if it helps.

if your hard drive was slowly dying, it would give you results similar to what you described.

if a memory module went bad, it could also give you similar results.

so it could be a few things, but the more info you provide the better.




Hard drive is a Samsung spinpoint 1 TB. In the recent past I've run hard disk scanners to see if there were any problems and they came back with no errors.
The GPU is EVGA GTX 460, might still be under warranty, but I need to determine if that's where the problem lies.
Power Supply is Corsair Builder CX500.
RAM is 2x 4gb G.Skill Sniper sticks.

I do not have spare parts lying around that I can test, unfortunately.
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December 23, 2013 11:31:40 AM

lonewolf7 said:
Try to borrow a PSU from someone to test.

If you have onboard graphics(VGA), then try that, make sure to pull out the GPU, and connect the monitor to VGA port of MB.


Just tried doing that and had some trouble. The monitor cable is VGA by default but I have a DVI converter. Oddly the converter won't fit into the motherboard slot. I'm taking a pretty good look at it and don't see what the problem is. I took off the converter and put the VGA cable into the motherboard VGA slot and it wouldn't work. The screen stays blank with the "no signal" message and the computer made a series of beeps on startup (unusual). I can't tell if the computer booted properly because I can't see, lol.

Sadly I don't have a spare GPU available.
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December 23, 2013 12:59:19 PM

Did you tried another PSU ? MB beeps can mean something like this, error beeps are MB independent :

1 short: System boots successfully
2 short: CMOS setting error
1 long, 1 short: Memory or motherboard error
1 long, 2 short: Monitor or graphics card error
1 long, 3 short: Keyboard error
1 long, 9 short: BIOS ROM error
Continuous long beeps: Graphics card not inserted properly
Continuous short beeps: Power error

There are types of DVI, 1. Single link DVI 2. Dual link DVI 3. Single link DVI-I 4. Dual link DVI-D, make sure what is the converter like.

And try to borrow a GPU from someone to test. Else how would you troubleshoot ?

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December 23, 2013 1:57:45 PM

lonewolf7 said:
Did you tried another PSU ? MB beeps can mean something like this, error beeps are MB independent :

1 short: System boots successfully
2 short: CMOS setting error
1 long, 1 short: Memory or motherboard error
1 long, 2 short: Monitor or graphics card error
1 long, 3 short: Keyboard error
1 long, 9 short: BIOS ROM error
Continuous long beeps: Graphics card not inserted properly
Continuous short beeps: Power error

There are types of DVI, 1. Single link DVI 2. Dual link DVI 3. Single link DVI-I 4. Dual link DVI-D, make sure what is the converter like.

And try to borrow a GPU from someone to test. Else how would you troubleshoot ?



I've pulled out the card and am using the VGA for now. I guess I need a new video card.
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December 24, 2013 7:15:00 AM

So far so good, let us know. Good luck.
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April 17, 2014 9:07:55 PM

You’re experiencing this problem due to some unsupported device drivers. Fire up Device Manager and remove malfunctioning, unsupported devices. This will fix-up the issue.

Check for New Windows Updates:
1. Click the Start button.
2. Type “Windows Update” in the Search Box.
3. Press ENTER.
4. Click “Check for Updates” button.


Delete Cache Contents:
1. Click Start button.
2. Type “Disk CleanUp” in the Search Box.
3. Press ENTER.
4. Select a disk drive, click OK.
5. Clean all temporary files, cache contents from that drive.

For diagnostic purpose you can use this patch as well.
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