Alright guys, my PC is messed up and I need some help. I could have sworn there used to be a PC help thread but I'm not seeing it, so this thread is the best option.
On startup this morning the computer prompted me with the option to start in safe mode telling me my computer did not shut down properly. This was pretty odd considering I shut it down normally last night. Anyway, I started up normally everything worked fine etc. 15 minutes later the computer crashed to a blue screen and then restarted, I wish I checked what the error was but I didn't really pay attention. This time when it got back to windows, after going through the normal startup it gave me a black screen when windows loaded up, all that was on the screen was the mouse icon. So I hit the restart button.
This time throughout the boot screens for the mobo and everything else, there were these little bits all over the screen. I tried loading to safe mode this time, which worked(no bits on the screen in safe mode). Computer was running in safe mode so I tried a system restore, but this did not work. Since the system restore I can't get safe mode to work either. Safe mode loads but all i get is a black screen with the mouse working. If I load in normal mode it starts loading windows, but gives me a black screen, except now there is not even a mouse icon. And, there is the issue with the little bits all over the screen during boot up, and they even show up in the bios screen.
I'm thinking its either a GPU issue, either with the drivers or the hardware itself, or Windows is completely bust. Probably both.
So what is my next step at this point? I was thinking of grabbing the windows disc and trying to repair windows, or grabbing an old GPU and plugging it in to test. Any ideas? I have Windows Vista btw.