Computer won't boot - video problem?

this is long.  perhaps it didn't need to be this long.  Please read it anyway.

So, I have a Radeon AIW 8500DV, on an ECS K7S5A board, Athlon XP 2000+, 1 gig of RAM, blahblahblah. Connected to a lovely mitsubishi LCD, the model of which i couldn't tell you at the moment, since I'm at work and it's not.  Running Windows XP SP2

Anyway, my problem.  I was in Windows yesterday, watching a video (the card was in theatre mode, so i saw my desktop with the windowed video on my monitor, but full screen video on my tv).  Suddenly, the computer locks up, and the display is distorted hardcore so that it looks something like this.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b62/xandir/050804-0043.jpg

I thought "hey, that's lame" and rebooted.  The system hung during boot, with a black screen.  Rebooting fixed it.  It worked okay for a while, but in the process of that crash, an external drive had gone wonky. (It's not relevant to the problem in question here, but is necessary to mention, for timeframe).  I mucked around with it for a while trying to fix it, and then the video fucked up again.  Booted back into windows no problem.

At this point, I decided I needed to jump into knoppix to fix this drive, so I booted from my knoppix live cd, and did stuff for an hour or two (it's about 4 hours since the original graphical distortion/system lock up).  While running dosfsck on the drive, the system hung and the display distorted into those vertical lines again.  Rebooted back into knoppix, no problem.  Decided after a while that I needed to be back in Windows, so I rebooted.

Then it all hit the fan.  First, I could get the XP loading screen, but when it tried to load the Welcome screen, it would hang, either with a black screen, or with those vertical lines, or sometimes "check boards".  The more I tried to reboot (hoping it would randomly work at some point), the faster this crash/distortion occurred.  Next, it would happen when switching to the XP loading screen.  Next, it would happen immediately after the memory test.

I left the computer off overnight, and tried again.  I thought maybe the video card was just overheating, as it was hot, and the computer had been on all day.  This morning, I tried again, this time booting into Knoppix.  It got as far as loading my window manager, and then the screen blanked and the system hung.  After that, it was always mid-boot at best, immediately after the memtest at worst.

So, my question to you: wtf is wrong?  Did my AIW crap out magically?  Is it a mobo/RAM problem?  Is it just heat, or is the card actually fucked?

I can't find anything on google, most things with "Vertical lines" end up being display corruption, but they can still boot up, and stuff. If I could do that, I'd be so pleased, right now.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

Hmmm.  For the most part, you've tried everything I'd have thought of.  Unfortunately, to me, it looks like you're in the phase where you find a cheap vid card that verifiably works and try it.  Emphasis on cheap.  For all I know, after all, your mobo could have cooked your vidcard b/c of a failing power supply surging into it or some other such zaniness.

Frankly, though, I'm a little reluctant to place blame on your vidcard quite yet.  The poor Radeon may be a victim in all this.  The progressive worsening of the problem may also be indicative of a failing hard drive doing wonky things with the power supply.

Ultimately, I'm grasping at straws that you'd clearly be able to figure out yourself, though.  I'm just sad to say that my initial prognosis for your box isn't good.  (And it's doubly depressing b/c your box is so much better than mine)  Good luck with this, and be sure to let us know what was wrong when you do figure it out.

In windows, after the first reboot, I checked the event viewer.  It showed something to the effect of "The device, \Device\Harddisk2\D, has a bad block."
Now, since numbering starts from 0, that would be a third drive, which would be the external drive, which is fine, cuz at the time it WAS buggered.
Once it became clear that I couldn't boot into an OS anymore, I decided to unplug the external drive completely, in case it was somehow causing it.  Of course, the problem still exists, even with no connection to the external drive.
I've checked the SMART information on the physical drives, (when I could still boot to an OS), and the SMART information claimed the drives were fine. Couldn't check the SMART information on the external one.

I would pick up a cheap card, but the problem is, it would need a DVI output, as my monitor is DVI (and any sort of vga->dvi converters are impossible for me to find here in my shithole armpit of Japan town).  DVI output sort of negates the "cheap". -_-  I mean, I'll pick up another card, I just want to gather ideas first, so that if it's something else, I don't drop money on a card when the radeon is still <3ly.

Hm. The bad block thing isn't something to worry about, a "bad block" could be something mundane caused by failing to halt the system properly before powerdown.

In this situation, the time has come to begin testing each piece of hardware independently. It's time to get a geek buddy with some spare hardware to help you out. You're gonna want to try a new video card, a new hard disk, different ram, etc.

If your system supports booting from your external drive, first try removing your internal hdd and booting from something on the external drive. Disconnect all nonessential IDE devices, up to and including your floppy. If that doesn't do anything, remove all your RAM except one stick and try that. Then swap that stick for the other one and try that. Then remove all nonessential PCI cards.

At this point concede that your computer is fucked enough to warrant a reinstallation of the OS so kiss your pr0n goodbye. If this is unacceptable, I hope you at least have a computer repair store nearby that can test your equipment.

Some consolation at least is that there's no reason to suspect your video card any more than any other piece of hardware in your box.

Right, an update:
it was suggested that, maybe, the power supply was on it's way to dying.  I decided to try unplugging some unnecessary things and then trying to boot.  You know, that extra cdrom I never use, the secondary hard drive, the superfluous case fans, etc.

Yeah, if I do that, then it doesn't POST.
Now it's to the point where, sometimes, there'll be no video at all when it starts up, even though it's posting fairly normally (until it freezes trying to boot an OS), and when there IS video, it's only temporary, because the minute it gets past the initial memcheck/hardware detect screen, it'll freeze. 

I can still get into the BIOS... at times.  Often, when I'm lucky enough to have display on the POSt screen, and I press del to get into the BIOS, instead of the BIOS, I get the lines.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b62/xandir/100_0003.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b62/xandir/100_0002.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b62/xandir/100_0005.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b62/xandir/100_0006.jpg

I don't know if that narrows down the problem or not...

I mean, most of my important data is backed up someplace, either on my laptop, or on a dvd someplace.  The bulk of my data that I'd miss isn't on the drive with the OS, but rather the external drive that's currently fucked (alluded to, but not detailed in the original post).  And even the bulk of THAT is either easy to get back, or already on another, disused external drive.

The thing is, it's not an OS problem.  It's OS independent.  Knoppix is affected, winxp is affected, the BIOS is affected.

That doesn't change anything I said in post 4. You have a hardware problem. Do what I said in post 4.

A good start is to remove everything except the memory and the video card and see if the computer will POST consistantly without error. If it does, you've got bad IDE. If it doesn't, then it's memory, power supply, motherboard, or video card.

(alternate explanation is that the motherboard is mounted incorrectly and is shorting on the mounting bracket. Take a multimeter and see if your case is pushing current in excess of .2 volts)

I reseated the RAM, and tried them each seperately.  Had the same shit either way.  Reseated the video card, and all of the IDE and power cables, and was able to boot into knoppix first try.  Only went into knoppix first, because the CD was in, and was too shocked at the progress / afraid to touch anything in case it die (stupid, superstitious crap, I know) to take it out.  Went into Knoppix no prob, still there.  May just have been a loose vid card.

When I had the comp shipped here from Canada, I reseated everything except the video card, cuz I couldn't get it out.  It worked fine, so I didn't think much about it.  Maybe a month of use, and being jostled as I move the table about vibrated it loose. (shrug)

Or, more likely, this is a fluke, and when i reboot to try to get into windows, it'll start up again.-_-

Hunh.  Those lines remind me of refresh problems, though your problem is clearly more extensive than that.

I think that >>4 is right.  It's time to test everything with a known-good system.  I've never actually had the SMART technology work for me, so it doesn't surprise me that it didn't say anything, but I'm still mentally suspecting the power supply of frying other components.

Oh, and when you *do* tear things apart, don't neglect to consider the possibility of a fan causing the problem.  It took me months, and an RMI'd proc & mobo, to figure that one out on my computer a few years back.  It, too, was crashing as it tried to enter the BIOS.  When I had the chassis fan plugged straight into power instead of the motherboard chassis fan power/speed regulator, though, everything worked great.  I'm still using the same mobo and fan today.

Earlier I might have suspected a reinstall might help, but the timing of your frequent crashes makes that less and less likely.  I think you're looking at some sort of progressive hardware issue.

>>9

Whoops.  That's what I get for leaving the browser open overnight and not refreshing in the morning.  I hope it all works out for ya'!

Plug in a PCI POST code reader to find out where it's screwing up.  $49.99 at CompUSA and handy to have around.

>>11
Or about $10 on eBay.

It's funny cuz you think I'm willing to wait that long. 
Anyway, it didn't actually fix, earlier.  I rebooted to do a chkdsk (on off on off = time to do chkdsk, no matter what, i think).  partway through, the video fucked up, the comp locked, and it was fucked for another day.

Replaced the power supply today (through research, it showed that my old one REALLY wasn't sufficient, and it was luck that had kept it going that long).  Got a Torica Sei-3, 450watt.  I know, I know, people will complain that it's a cheapo noname, o no, I have doomed myself.  It's apparently a very popular one in Japan, and it came highly recommended.  In addition, it was about $100, so it wasn't a cheapo one by any means.

This allowed me to boot into windows twice.  I'm in windows now.  I'm not really doing anything, just gonna chillax and see if it blows up again.  I mean, it did last night after working for a while, it may do it again.

I have a new vid card, just in case.  If i don't end up needing it, I'll ebay it. Or I'll ebay this fucking ATI thing.  God i hate ATI.

I digress.  Thanks for your help thus far, everyone.

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