video display

my friend called me thinking his computer had a virus. i took a look at it and it's showing random ascii characters all across the screen. im thinking its one of three things, bad monitor, bad video card or possibly a bad motherboard. does anyone have any suggestions of what this could be and perhaps a way to fix it.

thanks.
j. stone

 

Does it work OK in Safe Mode?

If it does, try another video card driver.

If it doesn't, then it's more than likely failing hardware.

 

Where exactly does the ascii characters appear, the background, where text in windows should be, or etc.

 

most of the characters are across the bottom of the screen but the honeslty appear in completely random places. i had thought about booting in safe mood but i mean the instant i turn on the computer and even runs the memory scan, BIOS check, etc...it starts messing up. and it's a new computer and worked fine for most of the time and then this week just started to do that.

 

If it's doing it during POST, then it's likely to be failing hardware.

Try resetting the CMOS (and check the Bios settings), and if you have another video card, try swapping it.

If the PC is new as you say, I'd be claiming warranty.

 

how do i go about resetting that? just restore the defaults? ill try a new vid card but also when i say new....well...new to him...its an old computer, but was restored...but ill try all of that stuff.

 

I doubt if it will do anything, but I have come across this once where it did help.

There should be a jumper on the motherboard that will reset it.

If you are unsure, go to the manufacturers site and check the manual, or remove the battery for a while then put it back in.

Then go into the Bios and make sure everything is displayed correctly.


I would also check the monitor cable and make sure none of the plug pins are bent or pushed in.

This could really be anything from a video card to motherboard, so you will have to go through a process of elimination.