Freezes then shuts itself off

Ok so a while back my comp started freezing and shutting itself off anytime I would get into anything such as designs in photo shop or even just being on the net for a bit.

So I figured it was just overheating. I went over to a buddies house to use some spare parts to see what the problem was (it took about a month before I did this so it sat for a while). When we plugged it up it went to the sign on screen but then we noticed that we didn't hook up a mouse so we did and restarted the comp.

(Bare with me Im a graphic design and just love case modding as far as actual computers go Im not the best with what goes on inside.)

Anyway Im not sure the name of the screen but when it shows you what drives you have hooked up and what not it freezes there and then all these colorful blocks pop up with different symbols inside like smiley faces, spades, hearts, Spanish letters, a lot of weird stuff.

Im not sure it could be a virus because it never happened before and the computer was never used since it started crashing and it had already once made it to the log in screen about 5 mins prior. And I didn't even think the hard drive "kicked in" or had anything to do with this part.

Anyway It sucks and since I run a design/print studio there is a lot of stuff on there I need and I dont know really what to do.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the lengthy post.

The best way to trouble shoot a problem like this is remove everything you possibly can while still being able to boot up to windows. You may even want to print out a list of keyboard commands for windows and leave the mouse out (by the way, is it a USB or PS2 connection?). I would take out all PCI cards and use the on-board graphics and sound (if available), unhook any extra hard drives that don't have the OS on it, maybe even take out all but one stick of RAM (look at your motherboard manual to see which slot to use for single stick), unplug the CD-ROM drive, and anything else that is attached. Try booting up then, if the problem persists, try going into BIOS (press delete during the first screen after you power it on), and resetting the BIOS to default, if that doesn't work, try resetting the CMOS following the motherboard manual's directions, if that doesn't work throw it out of a window.

If it works with everything detached, you just start adding one component at a time until the problem returns and you will know where the problem originates.

My first guess is the PSU. But lately I've been experiencing somthing similar and it turned out to be the latest nvidia drivers...

thanks a lot I will def try it out once I get back from traveling for the holidays.

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Originally Posted by TheDingo

Anyway Im not sure the name of the screen but when it shows you what drives you have hooked up and what not it freezes there and then all these colorful blocks pop up with different symbols inside like smiley faces, spades, hearts, Spanish letters, a lot of weird stuff.

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Sounds like bad video memory to me. Try another video card.