Monitor goes black

[DarrellS]

I had to replace my power supply about a month ago and then a couple of weeks ago, windows froze and I had to push the power button to shut down. When I tried to restart, it would not boot. Checked BIOS and everything was good. Tried to recover Windows with the CD but it would not complete the install so I bought a new harddrive and reinstalled Windows.

Ever since, my monitor will randomly go black but the PC is still running. I thought it was power management settings or screen saver but I checked all that. I updated my video drivers and still no help. Is my video card dying? It is not overheating. My system is 30*C, the CPU is 27*C and the video card is 42*C. The card is an ATI HD2600XT and is about 1 1/2 years old. The monitor is only a few months old and I don't believe is a problem since it is on. It just seems to lose signal from the video card.

When I reboot the PC, everything is fine until it decides to go black again. Sometimes I can run it for hours or even a couple of days without any problems. It's very frustrating having to reboot the PC all the time. I've been googling for days but can't find any answers.

[Kaugustino]

When it goes blank does the monitor power indicator stay green, goes off or goes like its idle?

[DarrellS]

It flashes blue (it's a Samsung SyncMaster 2343BWX) and the top left of the screen shows the analog sign like it's trying to figure if the signal is analog or digital.

[aedipuss]

did you check the power connector for a snug fit? sounds like the card may be losing power.

does it happen while you are actively using it or when it's sitting idle?

another thing you could do is stress the card to see if it's heat related failure. "videocard stability test" might do it.

[DarrellS]

This card does not have a power connector. It usually does it when it is idle or if I'm reading a web page. It never does it when it is under load (watching or editing videos or working with Photoshop etc...).

[johns0]

Did you install the newest drivers for your video card?

[ocgw]

This card does not have a power connector. It usually does it when it is idle or if I'm reading a web page. It never does it when it is under load (watching or editing videos or working with Photoshop etc...).

This may sound odd but sometimes it works, clean the contacts on your gfx card then just snap your card in and out the pci-express slot about a dozen times, you might have dirty contacts

gfx cards and psus sometimes suffer from just not fitting right or dirty contacts, memory sometimes too

ocgw

peace

[DarrellS]

Did you install the newest drivers for your video card?

I tried to install the newest drivers but something was screwed up with the installer so I had to remove everything and download and install an older catylist (8.7) that did not use the new stupid installer that would not completely install on my machine.

[DarrellS]

This card does not have a power connector. It usually does it when it is idle or if I'm reading a web page. It never does it when it is under load (watching or editing videos or working with Photoshop etc...).

This may sound odd but sometimes it works, clean the contacts on your gfx card then just snap your card in and out the pci-express slot about a dozen times, you might have dirty contacts

gfx cards and psus sometimes suffer from just not fitting right or dirty contacts, memory sometimes too

ocgw

peace

I thought of that also. I'll give it a try.

[DarrellS]

Pulled the video card, cleaned the pins with an eraser and reseated the card. It ran fine until 4:15 this morning and it went black again. PC running but no video signal.

[Bjs]

Put monitor on another test system, if it stays good, then then your issue is possibly a faulty gpu

Try changing the psu ... an intermittent power fluctuation may be triggering the fault

[DarrellS]

I did a BIOS update but I think taking the front cover of the case off has fixed the problem. I've had it off since Sunday and the monitor has not gone black once. I'm thinking one of the buttons is sticking and causing the PC to go into some kind of standby or suspend mode. The case is an 8 year old TU-124 Supercase. I'll put the front cover back on and see if it goes black again

The power supply is a brand new 750w Corsair.

[Nelson37]

Could also be addtional airflow to the card, that is just an unusual symptom.

When you put the front cover back on, fire it up and then remove all the switch leads from the mobo. Wait a day or two and then put them back on.

It'll probably work fine with everything back to original position leaving everyone wondering exactly what the problem was. I hate it when that happens.

I just can't see any of the front panel leads causing what sounds like the system, or possibly just the Video card, shutting down or hibernating. Especially after over four hours of running. Even if the power or reset switches or wires were intermittently shorting, it should just reboot. You are CERTAIN you have checked ALL the hibernate, power saving settings, disabled the screen saver, set these, rebooted, and double-checked all values?

Do you have access to a second monitor? Does the mobo have onboard video?

Do you have a good quality surge protector? APC, Minuteman, PanaMax? You've had a power supply and a hard drive fail in a couple weeks. Now, either mobo or vid card is acting flaky. This could be a bad sign.

[fritzi93]

Do you have a good quality surge protector? APC, Minuteman, PanaMax? You've had a power supply and a hard drive fail in a couple weeks. Now, either mobo or vid card is acting flaky. This could be a bad sign.

No kidding, I learned that lesson the hard way.

I actually have several surge protectors, but one day cleaned the inside of my (former!) HTPC case and plugged the power back into a non-protected outlet. Just wasn't thinking. Sure enough, a few weeks later there was a surge and the HTPC died. Some components (psu, mobo, cpu, one hard drive) got fried; others seemed fine and I re-used them, but they failed too after not too long (memory modules, gpu and another hard drive). Trying to re-use them was more trouble than it was worth, considering time spent testing the components.

[DarrellS]

The surge protector isn't expensive but it wasn't real cheap either. It's a Woods True Protection. It's starting to get old in the tooth also but I haven't found a comparable one to replace it with.

The hard drive didn't die, the PC froze up and I had to hold the start button in to turn off the PC. When I tried to restart it, it would not boot, even after checking BIOS settings so I tried to recover XP but the install would not complete so I just bought a $40 dollar 160GB WD and reinstalled Windows. I gave it to my friend who needed a smaller boot drive (he had a 1.5TB partitioned) and he reformatted it and installed XP on it.

I put the cover back on this morning and it's run all day without any problems (I haven't shut it down since Sunday). I didn't see the above post so I didn't check the wires although it did cross my mind. It's a very weird problem that seems to have fixed it'self. Strange it would cause me all this grief for two weeks and then just stop. As for the fan question, I have a side fan that blows air straight onto the video card. When I first installed it, it dropped the GPU temps from 52*C to 42*C. Overheating has not been an issue. I have a Hyper 212 heatsink and fan for the Q6600 and I am not overclocking now. I have the side fan 120mm, two front 80mm fans, a 120mm top exhaust fan and a 90mm rear exhaust fan.

[Nelson37]

I just knew it would be one of those "disappearing" problems. Probably will come back in a few months for no apparent reason, and stay just long enough so you spend a few hours trying to diagnose it, then disappear again.
Gremlins.

Time for my surge protector speech. I'm a PC tech in an area billed as the Lightning Strike Capital of the World, Southwest Florida. Also huge amounts of new construction and an overstressed electrical grid. Surge protectors are absolutely mandatory, PC components can be fried by a Carpet Spark. I've had two Pc's and one laser printer that actually caught on fire due to surge damage.

Many brands have guarantees, most have disclaimers for direct hits or near misses. APC has no such language in their guarantee, and they pay. I HAVE SEEN THE CHECKS, often they are used to pay my bill. I have never seen a payoff check from ANY OTHER company, or even heard of one. Have NEVER had APC refuse a claim, they ALWAYS pay, and damage thru one of their units is much less common than with other companies. The type of unit used by the OP is better than nothing, but not by much.

They pay fair market value, I was told they average the selling price of 3 similar PC's on E-bay, or pay the repair bill, whichever is lower. They have never taken longer than 30 days to pay, one guy got his check in three days, usually less than two weeks. Including multiple unit claims, even one case where the power company sent 220 volt thru all the 110 lines in a remote building.

I include Minuteman and Panamax in the recommendation because SFAIK their guarantee is very similar, however they are much more expensive and uncommon in my area. APC has a distribution center nearby and they are very reasonably priced. I do not work for this company in any way.

Also, Fritzi's experience is very common, often the damage does not reveal itself right away on some components, usually the power supply is toasted, often modem or network card, but other parts will start having occassional oddball flakiness, frustrating PITA, you end up replacing the whole box.

[DarrellS]

How can a surge protector protect you from a static shock?

I had this happen to me before. That's why I built this PC. I ran to my computer to check the price of DVD blanks at CompUSA and when I reached for the mouse, a spark flew from my fingertip and the PC shut down. I tried to restart it and smelled smoke and shut it down. Took the PC in the workroom and put it on the bench and put power to it and saw a chip under the memory glowing red and smoking so I had to buy a new motherboard.

What really sucked was when I got down to CompUSA to check on the discs, the store had closed down. Man I was pizzed.