"Bosconian" wrote in message
. ..
I have a 4-year home-built PC running Windows XP SP2 which contains the
following:

P4 2.8MHz
Gigabyte GA-8IK1100 motherboard
LeadTek 6800 GT 256MB AGP graphics card
1 GB Corsair memory

The machine has operated flawlessly until this morning when video garbage
started to appear on the screen. It will now only reach the desktop (with
video garbage shown on the startup screens) and then immediately proceeds
to reboot.

I examined the inside and noticed the chipset fan was not spinning. I'm
not sure how long the fan has been dead, but I ran out and bought a
replacement. At first the new fan appeared to have solved the problem
(video garbage gone, no more involuntary rebooting), but soon after it
started acting up again (even with the spinning new chipset fan.)

I tried leaving the machine powered off for a long while. At first this
seemed to help for a short time (which might suggest a heat-related
problem), but now garbage appears immediately on bootup--even after a long
cool-down time. I'm wondering if something has now become permanently
fried.

The machine previously never ran hot and lives in a temperature-controlled
room. The inside of the case is cleaned regularly. I tried reseating the
video card, but it didn't make a difference. I don't have access to
another AGP video card to test with.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience something similar before and what
you did to solve it.

All comments/suggestions sincerely appreciated.


False alarm. Turns out it was just corrupt video drivers. Shame of me.

I jumped to conclusions and immediately assumed it was a hardware issue. The
dead chipset fan (which has probably been dead for a long while) was just a
coincidence, but diverted my attention and took me down a wrong path.

Anyway, sorry to have wasted everyone's time.