Weird Display Appearance

[pmaddock]

Forum,

A strange thing has been happening to my Gateway computer lately. A few weeks ago, I turned the computer on and the display totally distorted with verticle/horizontal lines and a general blurry appearance. The computer either boots up and freezes or goes into reboot cycles, never getting to the desktop. I hold the power button down for 10 seconds in order to turn the computer off (this is the only action that allows me to turn the computer off during this monitor distortion frenzy). I let the computer sit for a few days and power it back up successfully; however, a few hours go by (or even only a few minutes sometimes) and the problem returns. I hooked the Gateway monitor up to my new build system, with no visual problems at all (so I know the monitor is okay). I thought maybe some sort of IRQ conflict was doing this to me (although I don't know if IRQ conflicts are a problem in WinXP systems), so I started disconnecting some of my devices. I disconnected my firewire drive and cable from the computer, to no avail - the display was still distorted. I next planned on disconnecting all of my USB devices (I have several of them), but first I tried something else (which solved my problem). I have an Adaptec scsi card in my Gateway system, which has a cable attached on one end to the exterior of the scsi card, and on the other end to nothing (I used to have an Orb removable drive attached to it). I just allowed the un-terminated scsi cable to lay on my computer desk, amongst my monitor, external hard drives, and other devices. I completed disconnected this cable from my computer and success - the problem went away. I'm guessing that the un-terminated cable was giving some type of interference to my monitor, video card, or system in general. I just wandered if any other forum members out there had experienced this problem before or could enlighten me as to why this happened. I look forward to your usual insight and observations.

PMADDOCK

[Tuf]

I can't say that I have seen exactly what you are describing but leaving a SCSI cable unterminated can cause all kinds of crashes. It doesn't surprise me that it causes you problems while booting. I am going to guess that it has something to do with how your mobo distributes or regulates power. If you are not using the SCSI card you should probably remove it and free up the IRQ.

[pmaddock]

Thanks for the reply. I knew that scsi devices needed to be terminated (unless they are self-terminated, especially if they are the last one in the string), buy I never dreamed that an open cable would cause havoc in my system. Live and learn. Thanks.

PMADDOCK

[homer15]

well, the way scsi works, the signal flows all the way to the end of the cable, and then the terminator allows it to bounce back. even with an empy, bare cable, the terminator is needed.
it's odd that it caused the problems it did though. glad you got the problem solved.