GPU going out or something else?

[Siya]

GFs 970 is showing these white lines/dashes that go across the screen during start up which usually go away after the PC has booted into windows, however it has persisted for half a minute or so after start up but it seems to be mostly contained to start up. Is this the sign of a failing GPU or something else? Initial thought was GPU but figured I'd double check before RMAing

[Kalmado]

Possibly hard drive or SATA controller? I'm just going off of a similar problem here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/71...ft-hand-corner

I would take the gpu out and test start up with the on board graphics. If it's still doing it test your hard drive by running chkdsk, s.m.a.r.t., etc. If the hdd checks out it could be the motherboard.

[Siya]

That post isn't exactly what is going on. This is multiple lines/dashes (20+) running from the left of the screen to the right, all the way from the top to the bottom (almost like it's raining sideways). Her CPU does have onboard so I'll give that a shot though and see how it goes.

[xerodok]

Try having her update all motherboard drivers, most importantly chipset / BIOS. Also, have her try onboard graphics vs. GPU graphics to isolate the issue. This would mean plugging the display cable into the motherboard rather than the graphics card (I'm sure you knew that just offering some clarification!)