HELP! Something really bad happened to my computer.

When I left the room to make the candied yams I had a couple windows open, a word document open and a Norton scan running.

When I came back catastrophe had struck, the screen was all patterns and random squares and colors. The mouse worked, but there was nothing to click. I tried ctl + alt + delete and nothing. I rebooted, still the same screen, I unplugged and rebooted to no avail.

The kids have papers due on that computer, how can I make it go again?

I'm going to check the turkey and come right back.

Please advise.

What version of Windows are you running? Can you boot into safe mode?

and nothing appears on the screen so no to booting into safe mode.

Do you have a third-party video card installed? If so, try taking it out and running your monitor through the on-board video card.

I'd think its most likely motherboard, cpu, or memory related...

No, it is a Dell with original card.

If you've powered down the machine and powered it up again and get only gibberish like that, its a hardware issue. It'd be really tough to diagnose which component it is unless you've got experience doing that. In other words, I'm sorry to say but you may not be able to get that machine up again easily.

Got your XP CD?

Yes,
I have this CD.
Sould I try to boot with it?

and follow the options for repairing. Could save a lot of work...

The XP cd allowed me to boot up, but the screen sort of fades, and degrades. Like now the screen is half red and the rest is open but resoultion is gone. Does this sound like a hardward problem? How could I tell. I will be out for about an hour.
Thanks for the help.

One that you know works? Its more likely that your monitor is starting to bite the dust than your video card...

Hi,
I don't have a spare monitor, but I did hook it up to a portable. The one I'm using now and the monitor workes fine. Is there any way to tell if it is the video card or something more serious?
Thanks,

Thats what my screen looked like when my monitor went.

the problem comes back when I open Internet Explorer.

Did you check for a loose cable? Open the box to see if the card is securely mounted?

Maybe try a little IE maintenance. Purge the cach, reset to defaults.

The problem seems to be in IE since it comes back when it is opened.

try to boot off the XP cd...

Really important question, are you getting anything happening on boot before it gets to Windows loading screens? I'm talking about the BIOS screens

Nortons on one of my mothers pc had her screen looking like it was behind bars. Try booting up without Nortons running.

Wow,
This sounds just like my screen. How can I get out of norton, everytime I restart all I see is jibberish, like behind bars. Any suggestions.
Thanks for your help.

Thanksgiving and all...does it come up to the start menu at all? or when it boots do you get a line that gives you I think 3 options before windows comes up?

Try these sites: Go to http://www.PCworld.com and try their search engine. Also, go to http://www.pchell.com and see if there is anything there.

Try to enter the computer's BIOS. Usually you need to hit Delete or F1 or ESC as soon as it restarts. If you're able to get to the BIOS config screen, you at least know that the video card hasn't gone bad.

If you're able to get to the BIOS, then next, try booting off the Win XP Pro CD. If you're able to do that then you can probably repair your Windows installation.

UNTIL AFTER YOU BACK UP YOUR FILES.

If you don't know what you're doing, you can wipe out your profiles and all documents and databases therein. If you can't figure it out, take it to a repair person and have them pull the drive and back up the files before you start playing with restoring the system.

so many problems I don't understand how people keep wanting this resource hog on their computers. The real question is why do they pay money for all these problems. Norton has been turning the average computer users into computer techs the hard way for years.
Computer help forums have hundreds of pages of Norton problems.

From Google: Results 1 - 10 of about 87,100 for Norton sucks.
From Clusty: http://clusty.com/search?query=Norton+Sucks
From Msn: Results 1-15 of about 23,566 containing "Norton Sucks"

And what antiviral do you suggest?

Use MSCONFIG to turn off Norton to see if it helps. See this site to get into MSCONFIG. Once there, select the "Startup" tab and uncheck any Norton programs. Reboot and see if that helps. (If it makes no differece, you can always go back and recheck them.)

For protection, I use the firewall in my router - setup is a pain, but I haven't had any problems on my new laptop. I don't know what anti-virus software to recommend, but I STRONGLY recommend that you do not use Internet Explorer. (I like Netscape myself.) Most of the attacks on your computer get in through Microsoft security holes. Plug 'em by avoiding Microsoft when possible.

Good luck and Happy Turkey Day,
Make7