Both audio and video distorted

Hi,

The problem I have concerns an old computer (~ 2001), and it's about
playing audio and video files. The symptoms are pitches and crackles
in audio playback (not only in mp3's or audio CDs, but even during the
Windows log in sound, or the "click sound" when using the mouse). The
video problems appear when playing any kind of video files, with any
video player, the image being of low quality, with interrupted
vertical colored bars (mostly yellow). The problems appeared after
physically installing a DVD writer (I think, if it's related, that
they've started some time ago, when the mic started to be noisy). The
problem is of hardware nature, as it persists after a clean reinstall
of the OS. I've also unplugged the power cable of the DVD device and
I've loaded the BIOS default settings, but without success. DirectX
reports no problem. In the device manager all it's OK. My *guess*
is there is a hardware problem (after all, nothing changed after OS
reinstall), and, based on common denominator thinking, that it's
located somewhere at the motherboard / CPU / power supply level. Oh,
I've also (gently, of course) manually checked the cable connections
in the box.
I'd be thankful to anyone giving me a clue on this (the kid this box
belongs to is going to be very upset in the morning hearing the things
stay the same). Thank you.
The specifications are: ECS K7S5A SiS735 Motherboard, on board sound,
nVidia Vanta video chipset, no name 256 MB RAM, 1050MHz CPU, WinXP

On Sep 11, 12:41 am, adriatikus <adriati...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The problem I have concerns an old computer (~ 2001), and it's about
> playing audio and video files. The symptoms are pitches and crackles
> in audio playback (not only in mp3's or audio CDs, but even during the
> Windows log in sound, or the "click sound" when using the mouse). The
> video problems appear when playing any kind of video files, with any
> video player, the image being of low quality, with interrupted
> vertical colored bars (mostly yellow). The problems appeared after
> physically installing a DVD writer (I think, if it's related, that
> they've started some time ago, when the mic started to be noisy). The
> problem is of hardware nature, as it persists after a clean reinstall
> of the OS. I've also unplugged the power cable of the DVD device and
> I've loaded the BIOS default settings, but without success. DirectX
> reports no problem. In the device manager all it's OK. My *guess*
> is there is a hardware problem (after all, nothing changed after OS
> reinstall), and, based on common denominator thinking, that it's
> located somewhere at the motherboard / CPU / power supply level. Oh,
> I've also (gently, of course) manually checked the cable connections
> in the box.
> I'd be thankful to anyone giving me a clue on this (the kid this box
> belongs to is going to be very upset in the morning hearing the things
> stay the same). Thank you.
> The specifications are: ECS K7S5A SiS735 Motherboard, on board sound,
> nVidia Vanta video chipset, no name 256 MB RAM, 1050MHz CPU, WinXP



Episode 2 (for anyone who may be interested).


The box, finally, cracked. Powering it up got a half of beep (like the
speaker was suffocating -- obviously not a standard error beep
message), power and HDD LEDs were continuously on, the CPU fan was
spinning, but no image at all on the monitor, and no keyboard LED
lightning (like on the standard booting). So, I've started checking
components. Booting with only HDD and mobo powered, yielded the same
result. Switching the PSU from an old computer of mine, the same.
Switching RAM, the same. Booting without video card or without HDD,
nada. The same for removing the CMOS battery and shorting the clear
jumper. Booting without RAM suppressed even the half beep. Finally,
I've powered the MB with the CPU removed - zero (I mean no error beeps
at all). So it has to be either the MB, either the CPU. But since this
one has an AMD platform, and mine an Intel one, that's as far I could
get. I'm suspecting the MB, but who nows.

I admit, I've went into brute force in the end. But after trying the
more safer tests I could think firstly.

In conclusion the kid will happily have an waited upgrade. And my
elderly box will revive for a bit until this will happen (his
generation is deep into messenging on a daily basis).

I thank anyone who has read my first post thinking he could help.