Wont Go Past Boot Screen, Cant Boot Get Into Safe Mode Anymore, Artifacts on Screen - Hardware & Software

Right, so past few weeks my pc has been playing up. Every few days or so its appearance would randomly change from a mix of safe mode but filled with wierd artifacts, lines etc... and shit on the screen. Sometimes I could just do a system restore and it would be fine until it did the same thing the following day after day, and sometimes I couldnt get past boot and had to use the Vista disc to repair. But now, the artifacts are on screen again, I cant boot to safe mode, the repair, chkdsk and memory diagnostic do nothing to fix my problems. It simply boots up, displays the bios screen and then goes to black or if I attempt safe mode it loads a load of files on screen until it gets to windows\system32\DRIVERS\AVGIDSEN.sys and it just freezes on that for hours and doesnt budge. Ive ordered a new hardrive just incase if its the HD thats failing, but if it is failing, I could really do with getting back in to back up all my important files to an external I recently ordered too. The hard drive led is a constant red also. Really hoping its not the MOBO though. Any thoughts? What does it sound like is screwing up and whats most likely the problem?

[QUOTE=bootv2;30591301]since the hdd light is active at all times and you're experiencing file corruption(the artifacting is probably because of corrupt drivers) it's probably the HDD, you should boot into something like hirens boot cd and check the SMART status of your drive. also, are there any weird sounds coming from your HDD?[/QUOTE] Few days ago im pretty sure I heard some temporary clicking coming from it, but not since then. Kind of sounds like its working harder than usual. Never heard of that hirens boot cd, I take it thats just something I can purchase online?

Hiren's boot CD is free, but does require you being able to burn Iso's to empty disks.

Ahh, thats a bugger as Im surfing using my brothers netbook. No CD drive. The HD and new OS are at home (needed an excuse to jump to 7 anyway), I will install them tonight and see if it fixes the problem and report back.

Installed fresh HD and Windows 7. Still has me a bit worried though. Installed fine, restarted, upon starting up for the first time it does a few checks, the artifacts and wierd lettering that were occuring with the old hd were gone, then it 'checks video performance' and the wierd artifacts appear again and it gets stuck. Turned it off, turned it back on, this time it boots fine, register the OS and begin downloading all my programs etc....then the screen suddenly goes black and the monitor is just on the orange standby... Could it be a GPU fault? Ive noticed my cases main fan has stopped lighting up its LED's and spinning too, although that may be a faulty connection upon fiddling with the insides earlier, the other fan is working fine. EDIT: Restarted after black screen, artifacts are back again, i think we can rule out the HD being the problem. So could this be a gpu issue? Or is it more likely a mobo or CPU error? I can boot into it, but theres wierd swiggly lines everywhere and in a zoomed safe mode type view. [url]http://postimage.org/image/yguny0jo/[/url] [url]http://postimage.org/image/yii7aibo/[/url] [editline]21st June 2011[/editline] Ok...was just on the desktop and the artifacts/lines suddenly dissapeared, looks completely normal except the low res, which I can change. What the fuck? Case fan still off though, will see if its a loose connection. [editline]21st June 2011[/editline] Ran DXdiag, its not detecting the video card properly at all, just a lot of N/A, and the resolution is locked at 800 x 600. (Havent installed drivers yet, but the initial successful boot was at full res regardless) Any idea if this would be just down to the GPU? Or a result of something else. And...the lines/artifacts are back again. [editline]21st June 2011[/editline] Seemed to have fixed the problem, completely random but... In the boot priority, there was my HD, my DVD drive and an 'atapi CD rom'. That last one simply doesnt exist, have no idea where it came from. I disabled it and no artifacts on boot or bios screens, boots fine, everything full res, DXdiag recognises the GPU. Very strange...ill have to do another restart and tests to see if that was indeed the problem but it was literally: boot up -> bios screen covered in artifacts -> disable atapi cd rom in boot priority -> artifacts instantly gone and functions fine. [editline]21st June 2011[/editline] Multiple restarts and fan connectors reseated, everything is working great. Cant believe all of this was coming from whatever that 'atapi cd rom' was, and disabling it fixed everything.

Ok, so it worked great all evening. Woke up today, someone in the family turned it on, started browsing and suddenly screen goes black with the orange stand by light again. Turn PC off and back on, and the artifacts are back again all over the bios and every screen. So the hard drive and OS are ruled out. I doubt a PSU issue would cause the problem. So GPU or MOBO?

Seeing as you get weird artifacts, I'd say it's your GPU about to die completely.

[QUOTE=RixxzIV;30627565]Seeing as you get weird artifacts, I'd say it's your GPU about to die completely.[/QUOTE] I thought so, well ive needed an excuse to upgrade and prepare for BF3, now I have one. So my old HD is probably still fine, it be good to recover some files off it. Is there a way to connect it to my computer externally and just drag what I need off of it?

What I'm guessing is that your first harddrive broke and the video card at the same time. A video card issue isn't likely going to prevent you from booting. Keep using the new hard drive and when you get the new gpu working put the old hard drive in along with the new one and run a S.M.A.R.T test.

It was the GPU. Put in an old 7600GT I had lying around, works fine, all be it at a low resolution. Thanks guys.