Green squares all over my screen after a few hours of trying to figure out what is wrong.

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TIGERshanked

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Sep 28, 2015
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So this is going to take a lot of lead up to my real problem, so bear with me. I recently purchased an internal hard drive (WD 1TB) and installed it with my other two hard drives. (3 total) But it wouldn't get recognized in my computer or disk management, but it would show up in device manager and BIOS. I concluded that it was a faulty drive after a few days of trying to get it to work, so i returned it. After messing around inside my comp I noticed a lot of dust, so I air dusted it. Plugged it all back in place, did some homework until about 11:45pm and then noticed Borderlands 2 was on sale so I bought it and installed it. I played for about thirty minutes and then went to bed, turning off my computer. I woke up and wanted to get some HW done before class but couldn't get my computer to turn on. (now for the problem at hand) It got stuck at boot menu where I can press del or f2 or f11 for bios options. And thought that's weird, usually this happens when my xbox controller in plugged in, but it was not. I then unplugged my wireless headset USB and my web cam USB (usually i could these in on boot, but i thought why not). After I did that it went past the boot menu and straight to a black screen with a blinking cursor/underscore. I read some forums with the same problem that had solutions, that I tried, but to no avail. Also during all of this my mouse and keyboard would freeze up when I got into BIOS making it useless because I couldn't navigate to anything, BUT I could hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, which didn't make sense to me. So I restarted my computer (for the 1,000th time) only with my keyboard and mouse unplugged. And now it gets to the windows startup screen with just the windows symbol in the middle, goes black, and then this shows up all over my screen (http://imgur.com/VmnSBaz). When all those green squares are on my screens I can hear the windows startup noise but I cant do anything. Now I'm here. please help.

my specs:
processor: AMD a8 quadcore
motherB: Asrock a75 pro4/mvp
GPU: EVGA Geforce GTX660
Power Supp:Fatality 550w
Ram: 2x4gb Patriot (8gb total)
HardDrives:2x500gb seagate (1000gb total)
Disk Drive: ASUS bluray disk drive
mouse: Logitech G402
keyboard: Saitek Eclipse.

I am running Windows 10.
 
Solution
photonboy
1) Shut down PC.
2) Remove video card (anti-static bag if possible, grounding protocol if possible)

3) Attach monitor to motherboard to use iGPU (in APU)
4) Fine? Then:

5) Attach video card back again and test.

*I am suspecting a damaged video card, specifically the video memory. Probably a static issue but since you have two GPU's in your system this is the way I'd recommend testing things.

Other:
Freezing?

If that's still present I'd run MEMTEST www.memtest.org

It could be something else but you've presented multiple issues so we need to eliminate some of them (like video). I'd also look for freezing when the dedicated video card is removed as an issue with a damaged card can cause freezing.

Other:
Next time please try to...
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T

TIGERshanked

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Sep 28, 2015
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I have removed and put back my gpu and still nothing. And I only put that whole problem with my hard drive in the thread to give you guys the whole picture. If you guys read just past that you will see the real issue.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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1) Shut down PC.
2) Remove video card (anti-static bag if possible, grounding protocol if possible)

3) Attach monitor to motherboard to use iGPU (in APU)
4) Fine? Then:

5) Attach video card back again and test.

*I am suspecting a damaged video card, specifically the video memory. Probably a static issue but since you have two GPU's in your system this is the way I'd recommend testing things.

Other:
Freezing?

If that's still present I'd run MEMTEST www.memtest.org

It could be something else but you've presented multiple issues so we need to eliminate some of them (like video). I'd also look for freezing when the dedicated video card is removed as an issue with a damaged card can cause freezing.

Other:
Next time please try to simply things, perhaps some point form. To me it read as a run-on sentence. I found it difficult to read through.
 
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Solution
Zerk2012

Zerk2012

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Oct 6, 2014
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I never said put it back in.
 
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Zerk2012

Zerk2012

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Right click "Computer"
Click "Manage"
Select "Disk Management"
Right click "Disk Management" and select "Rescan Disks"
If it's not showing up then change the SATA port, swap SATA cables with a known working one like the disc drive along with the power cable, from their I would say DOA drive.
I have had SSD's not show up and unpluged all the drives but that one and booted using the OS disc and got it working after that without installing the OS on it but just letting it format it. I would try that before just saying DOA!
 
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G

GearUp

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Feb 19, 2010
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A new drive would likely show up as "offline" and need to be initialized. You may have had to do a rescan or show hidden devices. You might check the Microsoft list of compatible motherboards but if this is the first time you have noticed anything odd the initialization would be the problem. If you are getting detection in Device Manager of the drive it should be Uninstalled there before you shut down to remove it. It would be a good idea to do that with the Video Card as well.
That is before having done as described later so you may have to proceed from the start, hopefully without a clean install. If you have a restore point it should be used with the appropriate hardware connected.
 
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T

TIGERshanked

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Sep 28, 2015
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So i am going to say your comment is the answer to my problem because that would have worked. But i figured it out. Due to my rooting around inside my case trying o figure out what was wrong with my hard drive that i bought and then returned. I must have damaged my PCI slot that my GPU was in. because i switched slots (luckily i have two on this MB) and it worked. but my BIOS screen was freezing up because my GPU would work for just an instant and then freeze the image but everything else was still working. which is also why i could hear the windows start up noise when the green squares were on my screen.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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Okay.
So damaged PCIe slot for video card.

I actually tell people not to remove graphics card if possible. Just use a bit of compressed air with the PC off. It takes a LOT of dust to make a difference in performance.

I've seen a lot of people forget about the LOCK MECHANISM for the card, break it, then seating the card securely can be problematic.
 
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