randomly losing video. have tried other known working monitors to establish that monitor is OK. have replaced agp video card with a new video card to establish video card is OK. now have replaced the agp card with a new pci card and an still getting same results.

So with different monitors & different cards you get the same result?

What happens when you "lose video"? (details; errors? how do you restore it? etc.)
Any new software/ hardware? etc. New problem?

This is a possible try to reset your drivers:

boot safe mode options

Boot the computer to "Enable VGA Mode".
Go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs.
- Find your video driver package & uninstall
While in Control Panel, go to System, Hardware
Device Manager. Expand (Click +) besides Video
-Any devices listed, Right Click, Choose Uninstall
Reboot the Machine - It will re-detect your video card
Re-install the drivers
Go back to Device Manager and change your monitor
definition to the correct vendor/model.


You can also check Event Viewer for errors:
Event Viewer

Same results with several monitors and have also tried different video cards, both agp and pci. With the video cards, I have removed drivers through the control panel and re-installed with the same results.

When video goes, it becomes smeary left to right on the screen and then produced vertical colored stripes. Sometimes if I restart I can get back into windows and sometimes it blurs up immediately.
No new software has been loaded in many weeks.

I recently smelled a little burning odor which I suspect is the power supply. I replaced it with another 400 watt unit. Now the computer will not boot up at all. I get a message "error loading os". I have reverted back to the original power supply and am still getting "error loading os". At this point I am ready to format the hard drive and start over. I have gone over all the connections on the motherboard and not found any obvious errors but still cannot get the computer to boot. Does all of this sound like hard drive corruption to you? I maintain virus protection and update often.



Any help would be appreciated.

Is everything ok in the BIOS POST? Hard Drive recognised?

Have you tried booting your XP CD?

Is "error loading os" the full message? Are you getting this after POST clears?

What is your Hard Drive make & model?
Also computer & Motherboard, if you know, it might be helpful.

I have gotten past the loading error. For some reason my C drive was not being recognized. I disconnected the second drive from IDE and power, restarted and I get into windows. Still having the video problem. At this point as soon as I get past the "starting windows" screen the video goes sour. Can't see a thing - flickering but in windows. A message is appearing but I cannot see it at all. I restart by pushing the reset button but always get the same results.
Hard drive is a Maxtor 80 GB 7200 rpm. Computer is home built. Intel 2.53 processor and the motherboard is Intel 845 series.
I have been trying all night to eliminate the video problem. AGP and PCI video cards, switching power supplies and monitors. Always the same result. Sounds like next I need to boot XP CD as you indicated. I cannot think of anything else to check out.
Any other ideas?

Thanks, Frank

Did you try booting into VGA mode? (post #2)

Have not tried booting into VGA yet. Will try this next.

Thanks

Got into VGA mode and came up on Windows and the screen was clear. My screen/video problems seems to occur randomly. Sometimes I can get into the bios clearly and other times the screen blurs up. I recently got so frustrated that I formatted the drive and reinstalled XP. Previously I have tried different video cards, AGP and PCI, new power supplies, various monitors - both tube and flat panel and even replaced the motherboard with the same model (Intel). All of these changes have given the same results. Sometimes OK and sometimes blurry screen. Since I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled XP I have had a few hours of "clear vision" so I proceeded to load my printer drivers and reinstall some software that I had on the machine previously. I felt that cleaning the hard drive must have solved the problem. Not so, the blurry screen is back again. At this point I am stumped.
Tonight was the longest time I have run the computer since I reinstalled XP and the first time since I formatted the drive that the screen became blurry and also the first time I have had the cover on. Could a heat issue be the problem?? I built this computer about 2 years ago and have never had an issue with it before so I am not sure about the heat having an effect on the system. There is a front fan, power supply fan, fan on the processor and a fan on the video card.

Any ideas.

Thanks

Sounds like you have the fans you need. Maybe try running without the cover; feel around for heat etc. Very strange that all these different components give the same result

I found this in another monitor thread, fwiw:

Look at the buttons or the menu on your monitor for a degauss function and
run it. Look in your monitor manual for help. You either have something
magnetic, such as unshielded speakers near your monitor, or you got the
monitor near a magnetic field when you moved it. This is what caused the
colored hue. You can't have anything that has a magnetic field near your
monitor.

I just started the computer up again. Now, everything is clear on the monitor for now. I just reset everything on the monitor to default settings. The monitor is about 1 1/2' from a speaker. That seems to be far enough away to me to eliminate any magnetic interference problems. There is a portable phone nearby but I don't believe that it could cause monitor problems.
Well, I just looked at the other monitor and it did not last 5 minutes. All vertical colored lines already. Is there anything else I should try?
I am going to remove the cover to see if heat is becoming a problem.

Thanks