On random and thankfully rare occasion. occasions, the screen of my computer goes completely black. The computer is still running, but doesn't appear to be doing anything or to respond when I attempt to manipulate it. This has not happened when it's been making sound or playing a game, so I don't know if it continues. It's not overheated and it runs OK after manual power off and rebooting. Any suggestions about possible causes or fruitful invesigation would be gratefully recieved.
If your computer's a laptop, I'd look at the lid-close switch malfunctioning. Mine did the exact same thing, until I specifically disabled the switch.
If not, I'd guess it might be a slightly marginal component, probable a loose solder connection somewhere. Otherwise, are you certain the computer's still running? Have you tried pinging it, or SSH'ing into it from another machine?
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
It's not a laptop.
No idea how to do the other.
The front light and fan are still on when it occurs.
Check the Monitor's power cord, and the DVI/RGB cable connecting the monitor to the Graphics card. You might also try reseating (removing and putting back in) the Video card. If none of that works, than it's likely not just something loose in the mechanism, and something's starting to fail on you.
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The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."
>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI
Check your power saving settings (under windows in the control panel) and check what the turn monitor off time is. Way back when there was a problem with hibernate/suspend where it couldn't recover and get back to running. It's supposed to be fixed but the same thing will occur on certain driver or hardware failures.
At any rate the above suggestions of a loose video card or cable are more likely.
As for pinging the machine, you'll need another computer and you will need to know the address/name of the computer that is down. When the computer blackscreens go to the other computer and create a command window (start->run->Type "cmd" and hit enter. in the new window type "ping 192.168.1.2", substituting the IP with whatever the real IP is of course.
The above instructions assume windows, if you are running linux I might be able to help more.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
The cables are tight. I've tried pushing the video card in (but without taking it out first), but I don't know if it's worked yet. It's definitely not the monitor turn off. I've only got one internet connection, so can't ping.
What kind of monitor? We had some problems a few years ago with HP 20" widescreens that would burn out without warning (to the point that several were dead out of the box). Sometimes, unplugging the power cable from the monitor and plugging it back in would fix the issue, but often we would just have to replace them. We ended up changing to View Sonic monitors after a few bad batches.
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It happened again.
The screen was not completely black, but had dim vertical stripes on it.
It may be assioated with a slight jog from me moving around.
The computer seemed to be completely frozen and not just not displaying.
Further deliberate jogs had no effect.
A power off and reboot cleared it up.
Sounds like a loose joint somewhere inside. Possibly a loose connector, or a cold solder joint that's cracked.
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"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
Since your computer completely froze, it's likely your Motherboard or one of your expansion cards (i.e. video cards). Basically, there's a sudden change to the way your hardware is behaving that the operating system can't cope. My bet is on the motherboard (from prior experience in similiar issues). One thing you can do is to make sure all the little power cables (the little square 4-pin ones) are solidly connected. You may want to go a bit further and literally disconnect everything and reconnect it back together to eliminate the possibility of a loose cable or connector. Have a can of compressed air handy. (Watch out for static electricity and water too. I killed a computer by the air can freezing and dripping water onto the motherboard once. Oops.)
In general, intermittent problems like yours are the hardest things to troubleshoot, so don't get too bent out of shape over any difficulty figuring this one out.
It happened again. I fiddled with my memory and pressed the CPU cooler. It wouldn't boot up at all. I took the memory and CPU out and put them in again. Started working. This strongly implies that's where the fault is and the CPU socket was the fault source previously. If it continues to happen I'll order a new motherboard.
No visible dust at all. The computer is less than a year old, draws air in through a foam filter and I keep my house pretty clean.
if it's less than a year old, it might be worth it to check on warranty status.
But then again for an intermittent problem, that may be more hassle than it's worth.
-Terry
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"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
It's self assembled so not so easy and I've already done the warranty on the motherboard once which was a complete pain for both me and the company.
I'm using its bigger brother, the P8Z68-V PRO, I'm happier than a fanboy at a convention. I paired it with a 2600k, a Corsair H100, and 16gb of ddr3.
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Take the graphics card out and carefully use an aircan on it's slot and gently wipe down the contacts of the graphics card with a dry cloth, then reseat it. My old (old old old) Asus board had similar problems because of an el-cheapo case and so stuff didn't fit as snugly as it should, so over time connections would loosen slightly.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Given that I don't currently have an ASUS motherboard and joging the graphics card has no effect and jogging the processor does, I'm not sure that advice is helpful.
You know how to stop a computer showing an intermittent fault?
Order a replacement part.
Installing it is optional.
Not well enough.
I'm planning on swapping my motherboard today.
I replaced the motherboard.
Found out I had to do a clean install of windows - but I hadn't backed up my bookmarks or email recently, or my wallpapers and screen saver.
Getting it working.
GOT THE ORIGINAL ERROR.
The motherboard wasn't the problem after all!
And this happens at totally random times, not just when the computer's under heavy load?
It could be the video card, or possibly the power supply. Do you have an integrated graphics card on your motherboard? If you do, try using that for a while, just to see.
If the problem doesn't show up again, that'd tell us that it's either your graphics card, or the power coming into it that's the problem.
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