corrupted bootscreen

audiolover · 12 May 2009

I have a strange problem. I installed W7 on a fresh partition, install went smooth but during the install (when I need to input name, pc name, keyboard etc.) the screen got corrupted (I can barely read where to click yes or no). As soon as W7 is started the screen is perfect.
Booting W7 the screen looks good at first, the splashscreen (3 moving objects) looks good, then the W7 bootscreen is corrupted and after clicking on my loginname W7 starts normally.
Whenever I need administrator rights for something and the dialog pops up the screen is corrupted again, I click "yes" in the corrupted screen and I am back in the faultless screen of W7??!! I tried several reslotions but it does not seem to solve the problem.
VGA card is NVIDIA 7800GS, problem is with default W7 driver and with NVIDIA WHQL driver. Monitor is recognised properly and connected via DVI and resolution is set to "native".

I did a fresh install twice but with the same result, the 64bit version too.

torrentg · 12 May 2009

Could be the card is having hardware problems, like a component is failing.

Check your refresh rate. Make sure it's something compatible with the monitor, probably 60 Hz.

audiolover · 12 May 2009

does W7 use the same refreshrate during boot as the refreshrate set in W7 or can I set (force) a different refresh for boot?

Captain Zero · 13 May 2009

It's going to boot into 60 Hz from your BIOS post, so yes, it's the same as your desktop by default. Any/Every NTSC monitor does 60 Hz.

audiolover · 13 May 2009

just discovered that booting in "safe mode" has no corrupted screen?

dwelche · 25 May 2009

Hi

I have the same card - NVIDIA 7800GS AGP - I have the same problem

Don't think about a hardware problem.
I have the problem at :
- Boot windows screen : at the 'welcome"
- Closing windows screen
- Choose user screen : after the screen saver

audiolover said:

Whenever I need administrator rights for something and the dialog pops up the screen is corrupted again, I click "yes" in the corrupted screen and I am back in the faultless screen of W7??!

I 'lower' the User Account Control and the dialog pop up for 'I need administrator rights for something' are not corrupted

Sorry for bad english

Barman58 · 25 May 2009

This may seem obvious but I would check your Drivers for the video card.

The points that you are getting the corruption appear to be related to the Aero interface - changing mode.

One way to investigate is to "turn down" the UAC to the bottom but one option so that it still prompts but does not apply the screen lock, (screen darkening).

The fact that you do not have the issue in safe mode owould also suggest driver issues

It could also be a hardware issue where the mode change is not being handled correctly but I would check driver first

audiolover · 25 May 2009

The problem happens with the default Windows7 driver and with the latest release of the NVIDIA driver so what else can be done about the driver?

Barman58 · 25 May 2009

The only thing I can suggest is to try a slightly older driver from nVidia or see if the actual card maker has a driver tuned for the card.

Video drivers change so often that sometimes merely waiting a week or so will solve issues when the next driver appears.

toviz · 25 May 2009

I also have the exact same issues with the bootup/login screen and the administrator rights pop up.
In my case I have a Nvidia 7300 GT AGP card.
I got the Nvidia driver softeware updated, but made no difference.

I have also noticed that if you right click on the desktop quickly after reactivating the screen from sleep? (blanked out), you also get a corrupted pop up box. If you wait a few seconds before right clicking on the desktop its nice and clear. Thats got to be a clue...

I don't think it's purely a graphic card or driver issue, because I found this under the Heading
Designing for a wide range of hardware

Due to technical constraints in Win7, boot is always displayed in our recommended minimum resolution – 1024x768, regardless of the system’s native resolution. Today, most hardware is set to stretch the boot sequence to fill the screen, as opposed to centering it. Consequently, the boot animation is usually stretched on screens that are of different aspect ratio than 1024x768;

My native LCD screen resolution is 1440 x900, which means that its stretched as stated above.

Link to article: Engineering Windows 7 : Engineering the Windows 7 Boot Animation

*edit. I forgot to mention that I had the beta version running previously on the same video card, and monitor (although it was a different motherboard and processor back then) and did not have any problems, so really am thinking its not the video card.