Odd problem!!

[Starfishy]

I built my friends a computer about a month ago. It is a pretty nice rig, its got the DFI LP NF4, 3200 venice, 6600GT. I cheaped out on the PSU as I always do, and got them a generic 350W that came with the case. When they phoned me wondering what had gone so terribly wrong with it, I immediately thought of the PSU, but now that I have seen I am not convinced it is the PSU.

Here is the problem. It doesn't load windows. It will load in safe mode, but not normal.

The BIOS menu and when the lanparty logo screen are showed, it is completely screwy. There are exclamation marks all over the screen, all the characters are screwed up (an "e" is replaced with another letter). The screen looks like it is split in places. It is pretty wierd, that once I boot into safe mode the problems with character interpretation seems to go away, under safe mode the computer is normal (other than it being safe mode).

Thenks in advance for the help, I will be gone for a few days, but the people I built the computer for will be checking this forum for the advice. I will flash the BIOS when I get back from vacation, but if you guys could let me know if you have any ideas that would be great... thanks.

<b><font color=red>Go date P4man or something, bye!</font color=red><b>

 

[endyen]

Since memtest86 runs in dos, that would be a good place to start. It would be handy if the hdd maker had a disk checking utility that worked in dos as well.
Maybe they have a virus (other than windows)

 

[Crashman]

Hmm, sounds like a RAM or video card problem, probably caused by a voltage spike. First thing I'd change is the Power Supply, to prevent it from happening again.

Oh, check the board for failed caps. There are lots of mid-grade capacitors being used that can't handle such spikes.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>