Computer problem - any ideas?

[Psycho Smiley]

Well, I've suddenly hit a blank wall here. This morning, my computer was running fine. Since lunch, it's been another story.

My computer was in standby. I wake it up, it reboots. The DOS screen has some funky characters on it, but Windows XP Pro starts fine. Then I start getting graphical glitches, ending with a "your computer has been shut down by Windows..." BSOD. Reason given: something to do with the pagefile not being where it should.

So I reboot, and my POST screen is garbled, but it boots. Same results as above, but it's quicker. So I powered off for a few minutes. Didn't help. Now, 7 times out of 10, my computer won't POST. It just sits at a scrambled screen as soon as the first three lines of the POST are displayed. The rest of the time, I get into Windows quickly followed by Windows shutting itself down for what seem to be randomly chosen reasons. I don't think I've seen the same reason more than twice. The amount of time I leave it powered off doesn't seem to make a difference. Sometimes the BIOS info is immediately garbled, sometimes it doesn't garble at all, and Windows screws up. One time today, Windows reported on boot-up that my BIOS wasn't (4-letter acronym here, I don't recall at the moment) compliant. Never had a problem with it before.

My computer also has a computer-controlled power button, with a switch on the back. I mention this because, for about two minutes, it ignored my pressing said button regardless of the position of the switch.

This set of symptoms has me thinking hardware problem. While thermal issues haven't been ruled out, the system is less than a year old, all fans are working, and there isn't much dust inside. All connections are secure. Any ideas, or should I just take it in for repair?

[Crayz9000]

I'm thinking that your BIOS is corrupted. The BIOS is what is responsible for the POST screen, so if it was garbled and then simply wouldn't boot...

The first thing to do is clear the CMOS jumper. If you have the motherboard manual, it should tell you where the jumper is and how to clear it; otherwise, pull the backup battery out and leave it for a half-hour or so to clear the capacitors before putting it back in and attempting to reboot.

If that doesn't fix the problem, then your motherboard is dead. Get a new motherboard (new BIOSs are impossible to find). Or if your computer is still under warranty, send it in.

[phongn]

It could be the motherboard, CPU, RAM or video card by the symptoms.

[Psycho Smiley]

Thanks for confirming my suspicions, guys. As an added note, it won't do fuck all now.

Good thing it's still under warranty. Now I have to ship it back home to get it worked on. 2 weeks or more w/o a computer. yay.