Mixed up letters in BIOS. "hlp plz"

[MatuC]

So I was working with my pc today when it suddenly froze, I restarted the machine and during startup I noticed that some letters were displayed wrong (like "A" where a "D" should be or "@" instead of a ".") and when windows started it displayed nothing understandable except the mouse that appeared to be normal. So i replaced all display drivers with new ones, needless to say it did not help. (Btw I could access windows through safe mode and there everything appears to be normal). So I thought maybe there is something wrong with the bios, took the battery out for 15min put it back in but no change is still displayed wrong letters and then I flashed the bios, still no change. When I start Windows normally it still displays scramble and a moving mouse. I´m using gigabyte ga-946-s3 motherboard with 1g ddr2, GeForce 8500 gt and windows xp
Any ideas on what might be not working?

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi and welcome to Daniweb,
As it works OK in safe mode it appears that there is something else loading in normal mode that is causing the problem. You could try disable all in msconfig and reboot and check, if all OK enable half and eliminate programs until you find the problem one.

[MatuC]

Thank you!
So I took youre advice and tried it... :( but nothing changed?
The interesting thing is that when I turned the pc on this morning it all appeared normal for an hour, then it froze and looked the same miserable missspell it did yesterday...

[phpbeginners]

run in safe mode then use the system restore return your pc configuration last month.

Accessories-> system tools - system restore

[caperjack]

So I thought maybe there is something wrong with the bios, ?

the computer froze/crashed you need to find the reaso for that ! like heat/ram, harddisk getting bad ,ect ect

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi,
I can't understand it working in safe mode but not with all disabled in msconfig, but.............
As caperjack said you have a problem that happens after a while, maybe from heat, look at your event log to see if there is a post there about something going faulty before it freezes.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427

[MatuC]

Thanks again...
Re-installed windows and it works OK now, so I was thinking along similar patterns and checked what were the heat parameters in my pc and what are normal heat levels for this kind pc´s. So now the levels are 39-45C, and it should be ok. Still when I turned my pc off for the first time it did not occur at all that something might be overheating, but now thinking back the heat coming from the graphics cards heatsink might have been too much. If it is a problem of overheating then it might have already damaged ram and graphics what means I have some investments to make. (there are some vertical lines running down the screen and bios is still not making sense) I´m keeping my pc case open just in case for now.

[MatuC]

Forgot... found some errors in event log, mainly like "Driver detected an internal error in its data structures for ." and "The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load: sptd"

[Odsh]

Hello,

I just wanted to say I have exactly the same problem: some vertical lines appear out of nowhere in Windows and the text displayed at startup and in the bios menu contains sequences of mixed up letters that make no sense at all. I fear I might have corrupted the graphic card's bios somehow; any help would be appreciated!

What I remember doing:
1) I install Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit on my machine. It previously was running Vista.
2) I want to control everything that windows installs, so I deactivate automatic updates.
3) I notice that aero isn't working, for example the feature that displays a preview of minimized windows with a mouse-over on the applications in the taskbar. My graphic card is a 8800 GTX.
4) It appears that Windows must first calculate the "Windows Experience Index" and verify the graphic card's capabilities before enabling aero.
5) I launch the calculation of the index. Windows crashes when testing the graphic card.
6) I download and install the driver for my graphic card suggested by Windows' automatic updates.
7) The calculation still crashes.
8) I install all important updates.
9) The calculation works and aero is automatically enabled. Fine.
10) Unfortunately, now Windows starts crashing on a regular basis for no apparent reason.
11) I manually download the latest NVIDIA drivers for my card and install them.
12) Windows now crashes immediately when starting up. It only works in safe mode. I also now have the graphic glitches described above, even in safe mode.

[MatuC]

I changed my graphics card and that solved the problem, but the reason was due to bad power supply that had caused the card to overload and get damaged. I recommend using some heat monitoring programs like "SpeedFan" or similar to keep the heat levels in check, as far as for the old card you probably need to change it, and the problem is not in software. If you are in doubt maybe you can borrow a graphic card from a friend and try it in your machine, to see if the problem is truly the card. If so then you should consider changing the power supply also.

[Odsh]

=the problem is definitely not software (anymore), as I still have the problem when reinstalling Windows from scratch (which now crashes at first startup - which I am not allowed to make in safe mode, so I'm screwed).

Yes, I will change the graphic card. I find it strange however that all this happens right after installing Windows 7 and/or the new NVIDIA drivers. Everything worked fine for over a year with the previous OS, so I don't believe the power supply or graphic card would suddenly stop working. Something must have triggered it.