Sudden Black & Green Lines

XxSaberxXXxSaberxX Singapore
edited March 2010 in Hardware
This happened twice today already, though there's like a 10 hour interval between the 1st and 2nd times of occurrence. It's just all of a sudden, regardless of what I was doing, the screen suddenly changes into a black and green vertically striped screen, and a constant electric buzz can be heard over the speakers. Both times I'm forced to do a reset because the system does not respond. The lines are really slim, unlike the ones you see on TV, and are alternating in color between black and green.

Please help me shed some light on what's wrong. My PC's just 2-3 weeks old!

I'm running an Intel i5 750 Quad-core processor with 4GB DDR3 RAM on a Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS. Video card's a Gigabyte Radeon HD5770 1GB DDR5. I'm guessing it is either a RAM or Video card problem..

Hope you guys can enlighten me because if it's a particular piece of hardware, I'm still covered by warranty to exchange it. :D

Comments

  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited March 2010
    I wouldn't worry yourself about it. Just RMA the whole thing and get a replacement. Something is broke but if it is under warrenty send it back and let someone else worry about it! :D
  • XxSaberxXXxSaberxX Singapore
    edited March 2010
    Erm, Thing is, I need to know what's wrong here. LoL. I didn't buy the PC as a whole. Fixed it myself by getting the parts individually. Could it be that the applications I was running at the point of time were not compatible with a 64-bit OS?
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited March 2010
    Ahh. OK.

    Unless you have spares to take out and remove parts it could be difficult to know for sure. I would start by looking at GPU then motherboard. Make sure you have up to date 64bit drivers. I have not had this hapen to me but if I did then I would start looking there.

    May be try a bare boot by removing all the components from the case and setting them up on a non conductive surface. Sometimes taking the whole thing apart and putting it back together can solve these things.
  • XxSaberxXXxSaberxX Singapore
    edited March 2010
    hmmm...ok
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    It's either RAM, your GPU, or an underpowered PSU. Likely in that order.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Thrax wrote:
    It's either RAM, your GPU, or an underpowered PSU. Likely in that order.

    +1. To test that, use Memtest86+ (let it run for an hour or so to get a few passes in, if anything is red, something is wrong with RAM or somewhere between RAM and mobo), ntune or atitool (for whichever card you have), and I don't know of a software program that can test PSU, but you can get electronic testers for 10-20, depending on where you look.
  • XxSaberxXXxSaberxX Singapore
    edited March 2010
    underpowered PSU? Hmm...i've checked my power supply with the hardware i'm using. I've still got quite a bit of surplus power....

    the checks on RAM and GPU shows no problems as well....
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    How did you check those components?
  • XxSaberxXXxSaberxX Singapore
    edited March 2010
    RAM i used MemTest....GPU I used ATI Tool as suggested. For the power supply, I've checked with the vendor that I've bought the parts from. He calculated and told me that my power supply generates more than required.
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited March 2010
    This wont test the power supply. This only means that if the PSU is working correctly it will have enough power. If it is faulty then it may not be provideing sufficient power for the system to run stabley. The only way to test a PSU is with a multi meter. How many passes did memtest do? I would let it run over night then look at the number of passes and the number of errors.
  • XxSaberxXXxSaberxX Singapore
    edited March 2010
    30+ passes with 0 errors on each RAM stick, meaning total of around 70 passes on both RAM sticks I have currently installed - 0 errors.
  • XxSaberxXXxSaberxX Singapore
    edited March 2010
    Ok. It's been 14 days since i've started this thread, and it just happened again.Green and Red lines this time round. In the past 14 days it has NOT happened even once......
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    XxSaberxX wrote:
    Ok. It's been 14 days since i've started this thread, and it just happened again.Green and Red lines this time round. In the past 14 days it has NOT happened even once......
    Well, then it may be that your PSU is not outputting stable power. How old is it? You might also want to run something like Prime95 to test CPU (just in case), while also running ATI tool to stress the PSU from all sides. Other than that, uhhhhhh :confused2
  • MrTRiotMrTRiot Northern Ontario Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    XxSaberxX wrote:
    Ok. It's been 14 days since i've started this thread, and it just happened again.Green and Red lines this time round. In the past 14 days it has NOT happened even once......


    Are you overclocking at all? If you are, you can get something called "Artifacts" if you do it too quickly and not test it fully...

    Artifacts can give you a colourful light show...and blue screen errors.... :-/
  • XxSaberxXXxSaberxX Singapore
    edited March 2010
    I don't think i'm overclocking. I change any overclock settings since I've built this rig myself. Unless you're saying that the CPU i bought comes overclocked by default.

    As for the question 'how old is it?', it's pretty much a month old?
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Try running Prime95 to see if you got a dud CPU. There is a torture test option. Make sure BIOS settings are all on default, for now.

    This seems silly, but did you check that all your cables are secure? Like, ensure that the monitor cable is secure to computer and secure to monitor. It may also be a case of PSU outputting power with fluctuation.
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