8600: Garbled display in BIOS, Diagnostics & OS - Alien Alphabet

Question

Hello, My 8600 started showing wierd 'symbols' and 'characters' while in Windows. The problem got progressivly worst. The 'characters' would usually display in ordered, horizontal pattern. The same issue occurs in the diagostics and in the BIOS. Also the same issue occurs during a CD-ROM boot of Ubuntu Live. I'm looking at the BIOS setup screen now, the display shows about 10 sets of vertically arranged colored boxes. In some boxes, the contents are blinking. The characters look like they're from an alien alphabet. As I navigate the BIOS, the arrangment of the symbols change. When I exit out of BIOS, the display clears to normal but then the corruption quickly returns in another form. A call to Dell tech-support was a let-down. The young lady assured me it's a software problem - probably a virus, she said. Then she wanted to charge so Software Support can tell me what the problem is. I figure you guys can do me one better. Is this a 'virus'? What kinda virus could it be? Would a BIOS update solve this? Is it hardware? Thanks, Vik -- Dell Inspiron 8600 BIOS A02 NVIDIA GForce 4200 Windows XP Home 256MB RAM

AussieChris · Answer

Hi,

It is a hardware fault. In Bios, your computer doeesnt even care if you have a HDD fitted. Or read anything from it. Try a reseat of the video card, and see if the fault changes as you lift / move it.

Regards Chris

SumoSueWombat · Answer

Perhaps you install windows in wrong language

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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