PCTech Forums

Ok,here we go ...long post so bear with me....My computer is acting up ..I had a vbs virus ,now my graphics are screwed up.don't know if this is coincidence or if it fried the video card(actually I don't even know if that is possible). I noticed my monitor had wavy scan lines like the refresh rate was wrong but it was the same as always when I checked it. The icons on the desktop are pixelated,the maximize ,minimize,restore and close buttons are all just black squares. The start menu only half shows...or sometimes looks like a ladder(sorry that's the best way I can describe it). So I fdisked the hard drive ...then when I tried to reinstall windows xp I couldn't update or install any vid card drivers...invalid sytax or rpc was missing....those were the errors. So I took it to a computer shop and the guy said he had it working properly ...the reason I couldn't install drivers or play internet checkers/reversi was because of the intel apps accelerator I had installed....anyway 2 headaches and 50 bucks later I'm still having the same graphics problems ,,,however they disappear when I reboot...this only occurs on the first boot after the machine has been cold for awhile.. a few people have told me I need a new graphics card.. is this the case or is my comp really screwed??? please help...
intel d845pesv mother board, 80gb hard drive,512 ram, evga geforce mx/mx 400 graphics card,windows xp home,....also now sometimes my cd-rom drive says that certain disks I insert are corrupt and unreadable ,however when I put them in my cd-r drive the work just fine?.... please help !!! I am super confused....
thank you for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for any help I might recieve!!!

its probably the video card.---you could try downloading the drivers and see if it works ok.

The "intel apps accelerator .' thing is for hard disks over 137gig--it won't mess with your video card.

Your error messages sound like you have a hardware issue. Swap out the video card and see if the problems with your cdroms are still there.

The other issue could be a bad hard drive. A bad sector or two can play havoc.

My hard drive actually crapped out on me about 4-5 months ago ...it was still under warranty so they rebuilt it for me and it seemed fine till now...that's interesting....so should I do the video card or have the hard drive checked first? I'm a bit strapped for cash and all the comp shops around here charge a $60 bench fee before they even get to work...thank you for the reply.