Dear Listers,

Recently I've noticed some artifacting (discolored pixels in various areas of
the screen).  The spots aren't the same, usually black dots while playing
free cell or solitaire, and aren't necessarily in the same area all the time.  It
would go away after a reboot only to appear after several minutes.  Now, when
I reboot or cold start, right after the "press escape to enter setup" the
boot screen is all scrambled.  There are letters and symbols all over the screen.
 The best I could describe it is like watching the starting scenes from The
Matrix.

I am able to boot to safe mode.  I removed the videocard and went to standard
display adapter.  The artifacting went away but the boot screen was still
scrambled.  Reinstalled videocard and adapter and couldn't boot to desktop - -
the screen would remain black.  Only one control - alt - delete and the comp
would reboot.  Artifacting wouldn't appear all the time, only in certain
programs.  The windows screen will have five pairs of black vertical lines (almost
like jail bars) covering it.

I removed the case cover, air dusted the complete inside.  Left the cover off
and cold booted.  Boot screen was still scrambled but not as much.  I could
get to desktop after some delay.  I'm wondering if the problem is due to the
videocard overheating? or, could the card be going?  I'm running Win98se on a
2.4Ghz P4 512 Ram with a ASUS P4S8X mobo with an Asylum GeForce4 Ti4200
w/128DDR.  No new programs/software has been installed except for Adaware updates and
NAV updates.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Kevin Nowicki

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