I'm having a bit of a problem with my video. When going into my bios all of the screens are scrambled with odd characters to the point where that they are almost unreadable. The same thing is also happening in the linux(ubuntu and xandros)start up screens. Now linux will not boot up. Even a windows boot disk will show the same symptoms. My machine will boot into windows just fine though the screen will freeze up for a couple of seconds from time to time and then continue. I have so far replaced the cmos battery and checked the memory. Now I'm leaning towards the video card which is a Gainward GeForce3 Ti200. I've also noticed that the pre-post screens are legible which make me believe that it's the card. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Thanks in advance,
mpo

Sounds to me like you overwrote something in the video bios you wern't suppost to overwrite. Did it start happening right after you ran some new program or updated the bios?

Thanks for the reply.
I haven't tried to overwrite or even update anything related to the bios, either on the motherboard or the videocard (at least deliberately). This machine is used by other members of my family and as usual no one knows anything about what caused this. As far as when it all started I can't say exactly, best guess is in the last few months. I can say that if the machine is allowed to cool off completely and then turned on that the screens will be fine for a few minutes before the scrambled letters begin to appear.I know this sounds like a heat matter but the computer doesn't really have a chance to get too warm (I checked and all the fans are working) before the scrambling begins and as I mentioned in the original post windows will run with out too much trouble. When I go into Xandros now all you see is '99a' repeated half way down the screen and Ubuntu will just hang.
Do you think flashing the bios will do anything? I've resisted this idea so far because of the inherent risks.
Again, thanks for your reply,
mpo

Well I was finally able to try changing my video card and that does seem to have taken care of my problem. I had suspected this was the problem but believed because windows was able to run that it must have been something else. Oh well, live and learn.

mpo