Windows 7: Various problems, currently something with my display.

Reading around some threads here I have found a host of useful information, but I am still having problems with my computer.

I built the computer a bit over a year ago, and it worked flawlessly until about a month ago. It started by giving me errors related to a very obscure problem involving core system .dll files (the solution others had come up with online didn't work) so I did a completely new install of windows.

The new windows install worked for a little while before I started getting errors associated with the hard drive. I was pretty fed up at this point, so I purchased a new hard drive and cloned the old one. So far it seems like that end of the computer has been fine, but now I am getting lines of various kinds shooting across the screen when I start up. This seems like it would be a video card error of some kind to me, but I don't see how that would tie in to any of the other problems I have been having?



Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Some of the core components are listed below, but if you want to know any more I would be more than happy to find out more.


Mobo: Asus P8P67
Video Card: Geforce 460
4gb Ram (2 x 2gb)


edit: This may be a ridiculous addendum to my post, but one area of computers that I just have no experience with is the bios. Not sure if this could be bios related, but if it was it is unlikely that I would have any idea that I'm doing anything wrong.

Do you think you may have dislodged the video card when changing out the hard drive?

I'd definately check the card is seated properly, as F5ing has suggested.

You might also check the cable. GTX460's typically have 3 or 4 connectors (Depending on brand). 2 x DVI, HDMI, D-Sub. You could check cable is firmly connected at both ends, try a different connector on the video card, or even a different cable.

If none of that helps, you can run some diagnostic programs on your video card to see if it has any errors. Furmark is one such program which can be downloaded from FurMark: VGA Stress Test, Graphics Card and GPU Stability Test, Burn-in Test, OpenGL Benchmark and GPU Temperature | oZone3D.Net

In my experience, Mini-HDMI connectors exhibit this problem frequently because of the location of the socket on the card, which is almost hard up against the PC case. And most 460's have Mini-HDMI.

Thanks for the replies guys, I managed to remedy the problem with some simple compressed air and a (second) reseating of the video card.

I am now experiencing something much worse, however. I debated making a new thread but don't want to clutter the forum. Here it goes:


In order to try to remedy the seemingly random BSODs and myriad other errors I have been experiencing, I updated my bios. I used the EZ Flash utility built into ASUS boards, and "successfully" updated the Bios. Upon restarting, however, the bios version reads exactly the same as it did before and I now hit a screen that states the following:

CPU Over Voltage!
CPU Overheating!

Press F2 to Enter Setup

(It is something along these lines)

When I attempt to enter Setup the screen goes black and becomes unresponsive. I am just at a loss as to what the hell is happening here. Any and all suggestions are appreciated, I'll be closely monitoring the thread as replies come in.

edit: Currently in the process of removing/reinserting the mobo battey to reset it.

Can you clear the CMOS? something like this: