Well, this is another one of those problems that can be hard to find the cause, let’s see if the Lounge can help.
Sometimes when I reboot the PC in question (Start>Turn Off Computer>Restart), it reboots OK, I can see BIOS POST (or in my case an Asus logo), I see Windows load indicator, but instead of Welcome Screen (or Desktop) next is a “scattered display”. The screen is a mess of coloured dots, BUT mouse cursor is working (and PC has not hanged). So when I move the cursor around this mess of dots I can find the link in left corner of Welcome Screen to reboot the machine or turn it off.
There is a second version of this; after POST or Windows load indicator a completely black screen. This one is a hang, since Caps Lock on keyboard isn’t working, Num Lock light goes out after some shifts. If I wait for some time and at last press the reboot button on PC case, I, after reboot get the Windows “black screen” with options for Safe Mode, Last known good, Normal Mode etc.
In both above cases, and sometimes even when loading OK, during the Windows load indicator screen there is a short “flicker”, I don’t know how to describe this since English isn’t my native language, but most of the time the lower part of the screen (load indicator) gets sliced and jumps, then goes back to looking normal.
After I built this PC 3 months ago I did a test installation and ran it one week. Mostly to test different tools and drivers that came with the new hardware, to know what I later wanted to install. During that period I used the Nvidia driver from vendor on CD, Forceware 84.21 WHQL from March this year. When thinking about it, I can’t recall that I did see this behaviour then. At final install I, however, chose the later 91.47.
On this PC there has been very few programs installed. On the other hand I saw case 1 from above on the second day after install during update installation. I don’t use MU/WU, in this case patches was/is installed from HD. After installation of 913580 (number 31 of 46 updates that day!) and following reboot, the screen looked like case 1. After some reboot to Safe Mode etc. etc. (this is 3 months ago, can’t remember everything) it looked OK in Normal Mode. I thought this was a one time glitch at the time, especially since it was a massive update install and at this point 3-5 reboots following each other.
I cannot see any pattern; some hours before a reboot today, I installed an old non-security patch, 920872, for audio related files. The forced reboot went OK, but a later reboot didn’t (case 2). This is an old patch, and there hasn’t been any issues related to it in this context. Some have had other problems with it, but not related to this.
What could cause this? Can it be related to graphic drivers? Today I was actually preparing the PC for some new software (WMP11, etc.), but instead have to decide if I’m going to uninstall Forceware 91.47 and go back to 84.21, or even hope it works better with the latest 93.71. But then again, every driver has some non-solved issues. Then also decide if to use some driver cleaner software, or if it’s OK to follow Nvidia’s advice and just uninstall … sigh.
Nothing found in Event Viewer.
Any help & comments is appreciated.
Leif is not thinking! 
But now I’ve installed the latest WMP, HA! so no more RA for a while (since many of my preferred sites use WM/changed to WM). Sorry, had to rant a little after some bad days with RA.
