red blocks on post screen

[starbuck]

PC was running fine until the other day.
Now when it boots, there are 2 layered blocks all over the screen This happens until I get to the dual boot screen(to boot xp or win7).

I occasionally get BSOD when booting saying the display driver was stuck in a loop. I've now uninstalled the ATI drivers for my 2900xt on both xp and win7 and used driver cleaner to get rid of any leftovers.

Managed to install the XP drivers ok, but win 7 keeps saying I have no display driver installed as the display driver was unsigned and won't install it.

When I get the XP boot screen, it is now covered by blue blocks(made up of rows of 4x4 pixels). XP then gets BSOD saying the device driver got stuck in an infinite loop and lists ati2dvag.

Before this happened, I had not installed anything to change graphics driver(last update was october).

Seems to work ok in safe mode, which makes me think it is the driver rather than the card causing the problem.

Any ideas?

[kalniel]

Seems to work ok in safe mode, which makes me think it is the driver rather than the card causing the problem.

Yet you're having problems before you even get to the boot screen, so before any drivers have loaded?

Check that the card is seated okay, fan spins and not clogged up with dust etc. but I think the card could be on the way out.

[starbuck]

I took the card out to reset the bios(as the cmos reset is covered by the card), so I know it's seated ok. Checked that the fan on the cooler is working ok(it's an arctic cooler I think) and everything else seems ok.

Trying not to have to buy a new card as bit strapped at the moment.

[GoNz0]

its had it then, try refitting the cooler just in case

[kalniel]

Try underclocking it by a chunk - if it's on the way out it might be enough to keep it stable.

[starbuck]

If it does fail on me, any suggestions on an equivalent replacement(as cheap as possible but still able to play games)