Characters corrupting in BIOS

[Rozzy85]

In my effort to try and fine out whats causing my computer to constantly freeze up I was in the BIOS looking for settings to alter when I started noticing weird behavior. Some characters in words were changing when ever I scrolled to another option. For example, the word 'Setup' changed to 'Satup' and $ signs were appearing where they shouldn't be.

Could this be caused by the graphics cards memory? I've never noticed it do this until now. I'm guessing the main memory could be responsible also or the motherboard but the graphics card has had issues before with image corruption.

I was wondering if there are any basic tests I could do on it to see if it could be responsible for the system crashes I've been having?

 

[d_brennen]

I'd be thinking video memory tbh, but could be system RAM if it's onboard. Download an ISO of Memtest 86 and burn it to disk, boot and run for a few hours

 

[chipps101]

i don't think the gfx card could cause the characters to change to different characters

 

[gmaan]

i don't think the gfx card could cause the characters to change to different characters

in my experience id say its is graphics card, i seen this( odd characters in bios) occur 3 times and each time it was resolved with replacing the graphics card

Glen

 

[chipps101]

the $ signs sound like graphics card but the changing of an e to an a doesn't to me.

are you seeing colour changes or small blocks of wavy lines or anything ?

 

[Rozzy85]

There were no colour changes or lines appearing. I just used the 'e' to 'a' as an example as many other characters in words changed to random characters scrambling up words with some appearing in areas they shouldn't. Some of them were blinking/flashing as well which I forgot to mention.

 

[chipps101]

well that does sound like the gfx card then

 

[Rozzy85]

Just wanted to update. I took a picture of the anomalies as it's better than trying to explain them.

The text with the >>>> was supposed to be red but got washed out in the photo.

Can I be pretty sure that this is the graphics card? It makes no sense as it will happily play a game for hours without a hiccup yet randomly screw up when it feels like it (usually at start-up).