HP Support Forum

[#1]

Hello,

I have a Pavilion a1750e (see details below) that suddenly produced a pinstriped (vertical stripes) screen this morning while sitting idle. I was listening to AOL radio while balancing my checkbook. Now it will not boot normally; I'm writing this post in  safe mode. I've tried restoring to five days ago with no resolution to the problem. I also get a black screen that's full of exclamation marks as it tries to boot normally; afterwards it goes to a blank screen. I've also tried updating the graphics driver to no avail. There is an info screen (full page/screen) that pops up for less than two seconds before the screen goes blank - not long enough to read or take a snapshot. I used my digital camera to record the video in "movie mode". I'm going to transfer the video to my DVR & try to pause it for a good read right after I send this post. I've installed a few Windows updates recently with no apparent problems, and other than an occasional slow to connect to websites problem, everything's been working well. I went to the Microsoft site to use the automatic update check feature, but for some reason that's not working. Please advise if you've heard of this happening, or if you can otherwise shed some light on the problem.

Model #: a1750e
Product #: RP826AV-ABA070107#32#203211022006
Serial #: MXG70603L4
Software Build #: 71NAv3PcA3
Service ID #: 032-308
PCBRAND: Pavilion

Thanks,

PCFly

[#2]

Hello All,

I'm not sure if I'm going about this the right way, but I feel compelled to follow up on my last post. To that end, the comment I made about the symptoms of my PC failure aren't exactly accurate. My monitor screen did suddenly produce a series of vertical pinstripes, grouped in sets of four or five stripes with the current desktop graphics still showing. Afterwards, within a few seconds, the screen went black, & was peppered w/what appeared to be white exclamation marks. My first thought was that the graphics card had failed. A check of Windows Problem Reports & Solutions revealed a prompt that read: "Video hardware error", "Files that help describe the problem... sysdata.xml & version.txt". I had the option of viewing the files, but did not after reading/heading the warning - "If a virus or other security threat caused the problem, opening a copy of the files could harm your computer." I ran an update on all related drivers & tried several restarts to no avail - I ultimately ended up w/a black screen. My youngest son suggested I hit the local Fry's store for a new graphics card. I did, found a better card (on sale!), installed it, and all is well. Incidentally, Windows auto update is working just fine. I know graphics cards just don't fail that often, but they can & do fail like anything else electronic. I also picked up a 1 gig simm & upgraded my RAM from 2 to 3 gig since I had the CPU cover removed anyway. I'm a camper.

Happy Computing,

PCFly