Having a computer problem... any ideas?

[gshelley61]

My PC is beginning to act up on me lately. It will freeze up or stutter, causing on screen anomolies like smearing or incomplete graphics. Sometimes the display will suddenly go dark, come back up, then go dark in rapid succession. Often, this condition will pass if I just wait a couple of minutes while the computer recovers... but other times I must do a hard shut down and re-boot (sometimes more than once) to get it to work properly again.

I've got AVG anti-virus, SpyBot, Registry Mechanic, Spyware Doctor, and even have access to AOL's Safety and Security software. Everything checks out clean, so I don't think I have a virus or other malady.

I have noticed that my boot drive is fragmented and the defrag process doesn't seem to be able to effectively clear it up. Lots of fragmented files remain on the drive even after several defrag sessions.

Is my boot drive going bad? Any ideas what the problem might be?

Thanks!

[Bodyslide]

Could be just your graphics card is going bad. Can you swap out another graphics card to see if yours is bad?

[redwudz]

Part of that sounds like a graphics card problem, but then it shouldn't affect the operation of the rest of the computer that much.

It could be a flaky RAM module. Can you trade them around?

And check your memory usage. If you are running XP check the Task Manager for CPU and memory. You can leave it up while you run the computer. If it were a virus or similar, it should show up in memory or CPU usage to cause the problem.

If you have another graphics card, you might trade it around.

That's the common things that come to mind. Many other possibilities, but the only way is to eliminate a few possibilities. To me it seems more of a hardware problem than software. Maybe even power supply problems.

[Bodyslide]

Might even be a bad motherboard, lets hope not...

[gshelley61]

I'll check into those things, thanks!

[Skith]

It could also be the monitor, my old Sony G400 did something similar, shortly before it died. That was a CRT monitor though, and I am not sure if the same type of symptoms would occur on a dying LCD (if you use an LCD that is).

If you have another computer you can borrow a monitor from, that is an easy way to rule out a dying monitor.

[nelson133]

From an old hand, power supply is the first thing to do this. I have had a bad motherboard give me such problems tho, I dicked around trying to get it to work until it failed completely and took out the cpu too. I learned not to
scew around when something starts to go bad. No insult intended, but computer manufacturers and home builders tend to cut corners where they can and some power supplies can be cheap and still work. That doesn't mean that they are the best choice. Nyah Levi

[anitract]

I've had a monitor die that did something similar. Try wiggling the connections for your monitor...see what happens.

If your computer is actually freezing though, then its likely something hardware-related. I'd swap video cards first & go from there. It could be anything.

[Dv8ted2]

If you feel brave enough, look for a bios update to your motherboard.

[thevoelk]

I'm going to guess it's a motherboard issue. We had a whole line of Dell's do the exact same thing you're describing. If you feel brave enough, open your PC and look at the board. Check to see if you have some swollen capacitors. They normally have a slightly indented top surface with a crosshairs (for a lack of a better term). If it's either pointing up or swelled around the sides, your motherboard is pretty much dead. If some burst, look for a rust colored stain on the board.

From my experience, which is more than some and less than others, bad RAM, most workstations don't recover as you describe it, they either freeze completely or blue screen.

[zoobie]

i just replaced a video card that had most of those symptoms

[handyguy]

Coul d be the power supply. On the other hand, we don't have any idea what kind of computer this is or what specs it has.

[ROF]

Based on what you've posted my first idea would be a problem in your graphics sub-system. This could be a hardware or software based issue, but given the periodic blackouts and freeze ups I'd say it sounds like a graphics hardware issue.

My first suggestion is to fill out your system profile for these forums. This will help everyone to determine what type of system parts we are diagnosing. It will also help us in the future if you have other questions.

[gshelley61]

I installed a new graphics card tonight and the problem seems to have been fixed. Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions, and for keying in on the video card as the likely culprit!

[Bodyslide]

Your Welcome. Glad we all could help out...