Windows errors immediately after reinstall

[WDHIII]

Customer wanted a reinstall on Toshiba Satellite P105-S6177 with Vista 32. He stated that he was losing sound only during Youtube videos and that Windows Explorer would give him an error that it stopped working.

I backed up his data and did a format and reinstall of Vista Home Premium 32-bit. After the install I noticed that the display had odd colors and was a bit jittery with some text jumbled together on web pages. I installed drivers and I ran offline updater to get the Windows updates. After reboot I got an error 'Windows Explorer has Stopped Working' and the display problems continued. Internet explorer is crashing as well.

• hard drive tested good
• RAM tested good
• Did the reinstall with a spare hard drive, SAME issues
• External monitor, same issues

Is this motherboard going bad, or should I try different media to install from??

 

[dannyd]

Have you checked lcd cables are secure, also reseat wireless card, and check temp of cpu, and ensure their is no dust in fan. other than that might be the mobo.

 

[WDHIII]

I totally got tunnel vision and forgot about dust/cleanliness. This is a 3+ year old lappy, I will take it apart and clean it.

BTW, no video problems in safe mode.

Also noticed the sound has a lot of static.

 

[loaner]

why not just repair the sound problem and explorer problem?

 

[WDHIII]

why not just repair the sound problem and explorer problem?

Well, the customer explicitly asked for a reinstall of his OS. After doing so, the issues still remain (only in Windows, not Linux). So, basically that is exactly what I am trying to do.

 

[ZenTree]

If it's in windows but not linux, and doesn't appear in safe mode, your odds are on software.
Though to cover yourself, have you checked what temp the laptop is running at?

 

[Paul Rodgers]

Bad CD?

Filler..................

 

[Appleby]

I had a similar issue after a nuke and pave on a desktop one time. I reinstalled multiple times with the same issue. Someone mentioned a bad XP disc or a bad DVD drive. I got my hands on another disc and plugged in another DVD drive. Worked like a charm but I still don't know which one was the problem or if it was a combo of both.

 

[WDHIII]

I did try 3 different Vista discs with same result. The temperature was hovering around 52 degrees, I don't really know what is normal for the dual core T2250.

Most of the symptoms went away after I changed the "performance" options to "Adjust for best performance" which turned off all of vista's visual features.

I am leaning toward a failing graphics chip or processor?? I have never had a processor fail, so I don't yet know the symptoms.

 

[ZenTree]

Do you get the graphics artifacts on the screen before it loads into windows? If you do then supports your theory, if only in windows then bit more vague.
I would try stress testing the graphics chip via a live cd if possible, see if you can get it really working.

 

[AdamsAPlus]

You said that you do not have a problem with linux or in safe mode. If this is the case I would say it's software related. If it was hardware related then you would have the same problem with linux and in safe mode (as longer as your temp are the same in normal mode as in safe mode and in linux)

Linux uses different drivers and safe mode doesn't load all the drivers. I would lean to your drivers. Or it is something that is starting up when you start up windows in normal mode.

Go into your msconfig. Turn off all your start up programs and your services. See if you still have the problem. If not then you know it's one of the things you turned off. Then you just got to narrow it down.