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Screen artifacts up on boot

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MRD

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2003
NF7-S v2, Barton XP 3000+, not OC'd atm. Processor good, np in other system. Graphics card good (BFG 6800 GS AGP 256 MB). 2x512MB Corsair XMS at stock (known good also).

Swapping graphics cards fixes the problem for a few days usually, but then it recurs. Swapping back to the other card then fixes it again, but again, it recurs.

When booting into win 2k, I get to the startup screen, the blue bar moves across, then the screen just goes into gibberish and artifacts completely.

Gentoo boots normally and I can use X (posting from it now), but I've had times when X artifacts also, so I do not think it's windows (i.e. software) based.

Only thing I've noticed that's possibly abormal is that the CPU is running a bit hot. The north bridge fan is broken. Could this possibly cause this type of problem? North bridge controls AGP transfer, so maybe it's getting borked from the heat?

Any ideas what to look for or try to get this working?
 
It could very well be your Northbridge fan. My friend's AGP rig did the exact same thing. Once he swapped the fan out, it cleared itself up.

This was on an older style motherborad with no heatpipes, etc. Just a standard old NB small block/fin style heatsink with a tiny fan attached.
 
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