characters popping up on screen

[centrespot]

What would cause an XT clone to randomly insert characters around the screen

 

[obaltus]

A computer virus? Such the Ping-Pong one?

 

[MasawVx]

Hydra virus?

Malware Example: HYDRA_II.COM : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

An example of an MS-DOS-based virus, now removed of its destructive capability but leaving its messages.

archive.org

Screen Virus

Malware Example: SCREENMI.COM : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

An example of an MS-DOS-based virus, now removed of its destructive capability but leaving its messages.

archive.org

 

[dabone]

Bad ram on the video card?

 

[Chuck(G)]

Boot from a floppy containing only the virgin MSDOS system files. Do you still get random garbage? Also, clean the edge connector on your video card. A soft cloth and some IPA should do the trick.

 

[Trixter]

What would cause an XT clone to randomly insert characters around the screen

Bad RAM on the video card.

A photo of what it looks like might help diagnose further.

 

[centrespot]

It was a faulty video RAM chip