My computer shut down, and when I restarted it, it booted up to a black screen filled with exclamation marks and unreadable text. For example, instead of windows safe-mode it might have said weopiws sbgf-npef. If you click on anything it restarts the computer. I was wondering if was a bad hard drive. I reinstalled Windows Xp, which I think reformated the hard drive, and it worked fine that night. The next morning it was back doing the same thing. So I was wondering if it might be a bad hard drive or something.
when i boot up the HP screen comes up, then the black screen and exclamation marks come up. and I can barely make out what the words are, kinda like they are jumbled. But like I said I put windows xp back on there and it worked that night but it quit the next day
If the screen is jumbled when installing from the CD then it probably is not the fault of the hard drive. Sounds more like a defective video card/chip.
I suppose a power supply that is feeding the wrong voltages could cause problems like that also.
If the computer does that when it is totally cooled off then that should eliminate overheating. Although a defective CPU cooling fan or improperly installed heat sink could allow almost immediate overheating.
Open the case and first look for axcessive dirt/dust that could impair the fans and the cooling. Then try starting and see if the fans are all rotating as they should, especially the CPU fan.
Could be a bad video card/chip or could be a corrupt BIOS. When you 1st bootup, do you see a brief prompt saying “Press F2 to enter setup”? Pressing F2 will get you into the BIOS menu.
Sounds like either corrupt bios or bad video card.
First try booting in safe mode by pressing F8 at startup, if it loads, then change your monitor or display settings to a default monitor and reboot. If it loads ok, then reinstall your monitor drivers.