Blue Background And Bar...no Windows?

Hi, I just encountered this problem on a site I was on. When I went to the site the screen color was distorted. The Autumn background (in XP wallpaper) should have RED leaves, but instead it is GREEN now. I checked the color settings and the settings for the video card (ATI Radeon 9600 or 9800 128MB). I compared the settings to another machine also.

The computer is a Dell GX620 using Windows XP. It has a CRT monitor using a DVI adapter to plug into the Radeon video card. I swapped the whole monitor and DVI adapter by using another computer and the color distortion (GREEN instead of RED) is still there. The other computer is working without any problems when using the monitor from this computer. So it's definitely not the monitor or DVI adapter. I already replaced the video card and the same thing happens. The device manager doesn't show any conflicts either

The more weirder problem is the blue background I get sometimes. When I boot up I get a blue background and a light, mid-sized, blue bar in the top middle of the screen. Strange thing is that I could actually move that bar. I could also right click and get a context menu (Cut, Copy, Paste...etc.), but other than that, I can't do anything else on it. If I press the power button to shut it off, it will actually show the window (middle of screen has small window) saying Windows is shutting down (still has that same blue background though ).

I restarted a few times already and most of the times it will just give me that color distortion problem. The blue background however does return occassionally. I took it to the office and the darn thing won't give any signs of the problem anymore

What could be the problem? They do have a heat/radiator on the wall which is where the computer is. But can that cause all these problems though (especially that blue background with a bar)? If they don't find anything wrong still on Monday, I'll have to take it back to the site. Hope someone has some ideas here...

Thanks.

 

 

 

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Man admit it - your Monitor's breathing it's last Chuck it out of your 10th floor balcony - if you want to see a glorious end accompanied by fireworks

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for the blue background try running the task manager (alt ctrl delete) and click the applications tab, press new task and type explorer.exe
that works for me if for some reason my pc freezes and then i get a blue background.

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Yeah, m^e, was going to do that as well, until I tested it out with another working monitor. Again, this monitor for the problematic pc does NOT cause any problems on another computer. So I have to rule out the monitor problem...

@HellFire121 - that's definitely not normal though. Hopefully it won't happen again. I'll try bringing up the task manager if possible...

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Oh what a spoilsport ... I was hoping you'd do that and put up a video for us

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Heat can cause erroneous behaviour of electronics. You may be right with your intuition about the heat radiator --- was it very hot? Graphic cards are pretty vulnerable to heat, as you know. It may have been prevented to operate correctly, thus sometimes stopping at bluescreen and not further booting, or displaying in crazy colors.

Other cause could be like loose connection/insertion of the video card into the PCI/AGP slot. It is also possible that it has been corrected when you have changed the graphic card to another one and changed it back.

Otherwise, a worst case scenario is like the motherboard is about to fail.
Scan (with your eyeballs, i mean) over the motherboard and see if there isn't any condensor starting to blow out browny electrolytic solution liquid.

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try to wiggle your DVI/VGA port, I tried that before on my old school's PCs, people vandalized it, so I have to keep wiggle until I get the correct colours back.

Also, as stated above, remove and reinsert your graphics card and check is there enough ventilation available in your computer.

xboxrulz

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I'll double check everything again tomorrow when I bring this machine back. It can't be a loose dvi adapter though since I tried it on another machine and vice versa...same problem.

Yep, happened even after I swapped it with another video card (same brand and model).

If heat plays a cause in that blue background and color distortion then I'll have to tell them that (it's in a tight office area) and figure out what to do. The insides look ok and should have more than enough ventilation. Strange it didn't happen earlier though because the user got this computer in November and the problem didn't happen till early last week.

Thanks for all the feedback.

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Just want to post a followup on this situation in case someone else encounters this problem also.

What happened in the end was a complete reinstall of Windows. The guys in the office just got fed up with the whole machine since they basically swapped out every single part of the machine already and it still comes back with that blue background LOL.

What they are thinking, and I agree, is that it could have been a bad driver. I have no idea why Windows would install a ATI Radeon driver automatically because I replaced that video card and it should have detected new device. Actually now that I think about it, would Windows detect a "new" device if I replaced it with an identical video card? I remember removing the drivers already earlier...but then again, I could be wrong LOL.

Whatever it was, it's gone now

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lol ok. now i know what to do if i ever have that problem when i upgrade my computer

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