Computer help forum: Computer freezes, weird stuff on screen

"It does not happen when I start up in safe mode. "

If the problem goes away in Safe Mode it is likely that it is software rather than hardware even though the symptoms you describe are more common to a failed graphics card.

Try rolling back your video drivers to the original version that you had before encountering the problem.

It is also possible that if you have a system restore point shortly before the problem came up that a simple system restore to that point will take care of things.

This is a desktop. I have never seen a message like "bad ram." But somehting that has just only occurred to me is that our cable modem has recently been replaced. The problem did get better after that, but now it is worse. Could that have something to do with it?

Your heating question makes me wonder if there is something I could do to make that better. It is a desktop, as I said, and there is nothing around the fans, etc. How would I know that the video card or port are going through a bad patch? Can you give any advice on replacing them?

Many thanks,
Rob

Make, model, age, if you use canned air, and why you suspect a bad patch.

I don't use canned air and the only reason I suspect a bad patch ( I don't know what that means, actually) is because somebody else suggested it.

Read the next link to read another member's story on cleaning.
http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6122_102-569818/getting-ready-to/?tag=contentBody;threadListing

Bob

Safe mode doesn't push the hardware as hard. You can find folk reloading the OS when a simple cleaning is all that was needed.

I should have mentioned "video ram" already present on a video card. However, system ram can also be used even if a video card is present. Either video card or on-board video(port) uses system ram for hi-resolution video especially with LCD monitors. If driven too far or used "heat stressed" environment it starts to give-up the ghost.

Bad patch, may refer to a bad driver update or similar. It didn't take or was improper in some way or outright glitchly itself, it happens. Those would be areas I look at before elsewhere.

If you haven't yet, then do a good cleaning as a 2yr. old PC may have dust bunnies or a non-working fan so watch operation of all fans. gateway provides tips on this task, so check their support website and also look over their FAQ of basic problem for users. Place household fan and blow into an open case to see if that helps.

tada -----Willy