This has happened twice - the first time (which I didn't see), when my sister woke the computer up from sleep mode, it was showing only half of the login screen. She couldn't do anything except punch the power button. Later, it booted up normally when I tried it.

The second time it happened was several days later, at startup - the first thing I saw was a bright horizontal line across the middle of the screen. Then the bottom half of the usual text appeared below this line, above it was black. I turned it off and back on 3 times before it started normally. This was a couple days ago, it hasn't happened again (yet).

I'm guessing this is a hardware problem, which is why I'm posting here. Anybody recognize these symptoms? My first thought was that the video card is starting to fail - it was re-used from a previous computer, it's really old. Once it's up and running I can't find anything wrong, any help with diagnosing this would be appreciated.

Video card, though first thing that sprang to my mind is the monitor. If you have any spare monitors plug it in and see fi thats the problem.

I concur that it sounds like the video card. Predator's suggestions are correct.

The monitor's pretty old, too; but restarting the monitor changed nothing, only shutting down and restarting the computer helped. Like I said, I figured the video card is going, but I thought it would be a good idea to get the opinions of some knowledgeable people (like you guys).

So far it's just an occasional thing, so maybe have a little time to shop around yet. Can't say I'll miss this old 8Mb card at all. It will be so nice to be able to actually stream video... Gonna be a strain on the ol' budget, though. :hello:

Well, it happened again, and this time it was final - no amount of restarting helped. Turned out I was wrong about the computer being unresponsive; when my sister said she couldn't do anything, she just meant she couldn't see the buttons, when it happened to me the first time I didn't wait for it to finish booting before I punched the power button. Actually, the buttons were still there - it's just that everything on the upper half of the screen was compressed into a thin line. I even managed to shut down Windows by clicking the right spot on that line.

Anyway, tried hooking up another monitor - and it works fine. Much sharper display, too; I knew that old monitor was getting a bit blurry, but I didn't realize how bad it had gotten.

Well, it happened again, and this time it was final - no amount of restarting helped. Turned out I was wrong about the computer being unresponsive; when my sister said she couldn't do anything, she just meant she couldn't see the buttons, when it happened to me the first time I didn't wait for it to finish booting before I punched the power button. Actually, the buttons were still there - it's just that everything on the upper half of the screen was compressed into a thin line. I even managed to shut down Windows by clicking the right spot on that line.

Anyway, tried hooking up another monitor - and it works fine. Much sharper display, too; I knew that old monitor was getting a bit blurry, but I didn't realize how bad it had gotten.

**** shame your half-way round the globe. I've got a 17" and 19" flatscreen sitting around doing nothing (both our system's now have 24" monitors) and if you were closer it'd only cost you postage.

Maybe someone in your neck of the woods can help out?

Cheers :hello:

Well, it happened again, and this time it was final - no amount of restarting helped. Turned out I was wrong about the computer being unresponsive; when my sister said she couldn't do anything, she just meant she couldn't see the buttons, when it happened to me the first time I didn't wait for it to finish booting before I punched the power button. Actually, the buttons were still there - it's just that everything on the upper half of the screen was compressed into a thin line. I even managed to shut down Windows by clicking the right spot on that line.

Anyway, tried hooking up another monitor - and it works fine. Much sharper display, too; I knew that old monitor was getting a bit blurry, but I didn't realize how bad it had gotten.

I thought I was right. Sorry to hear that.

Knew that monitor would go soon, so it's no shock - and it happened there was another monitor sitting around. My younger sister was given a computer by her former employer at the motel, after they sold the place. Thought it just needed a new modem - but installed a modem, can't get it to work. Until that problem gets worked out, this monitor has nothing else to do, so we're using it on this computer.