Video woes

Krak

I've got a problem. Lately my system is crashing, and 4 times today. Its driving me nuts (for all your haha/Mac replies see this post). I have the latest drivers for my motherboard, video, and sound. Not that it should make a difference, nothing in my system has changed. About a month ago I was having some hard drive issues, but I am pretty sure they were resolved. My fan on my video card went out a month or two ago and I just finally got it replaced. It was running warm, but never got too hot. I was constantly monitoring the temp whenever doing something video intensive, and I have put off gaming till I got it replaced.

Any ideas?

This is what happens

The computer completely locks up and the screen(s) do that.

WallPhone

I worked on a computer that did something similar, except only the top inch of the screen was pattened like that. Swapped everything out and it still happened... turned out the fan on the CPU was screwed in so tight it never turned properly.

Monitoring the temp? on the CPU or on the video? (both?)

Since it locks up solid (music stops playing? then it probably isin't video), I would guess CPU or memory, or worse--motherboard. Hopefully its a heat issue and things just need a bit of dusting off.

Would also suggest booting off CD, some Knoppix distro or what not to help rule out software.

WallPhone

Oh, does the screen pattern move, or is it just solid?... in my case it was a solid pattern.

Krak

Was monitoring the video temps. I've monitored the CPU temps before and my system has always been relatively cool.

I have had the system for a long while and never had it this bad before. I forgot to mention I got a new keyboard last week. Didn't think that it was the issues because I was having this issue before the new kb, but who knows. I dusted everything off when I got the new keyboard, got some canned air while I was there. The new kb is a Logitech G11, which is a USB kb.

The pattern is solid, doesn't move, and the kb/mouse doesn't respond.

MySchizoBuddy

Its the systems way of saying. "let me die quietly. get a new one"

Krak

No way, the whole thing (minus the video card and sound card) was upgraded March 05. If anything I would lean towards the KB or video card.

I will play with the KB and its app to see, but the card is running at a nice and steady 37C. And my proc is at 32C. So its not heat.

leason

Make sure that all the hardware is seated properly. I would remove all unnecessary components and PCI cards and boot the machine up as bare as you can get it. Go single monitor if you can. If it fails like that all stripped down then you can start trying to test individual components by replacing them one at a time. Otherwise, if it works, start adding stuff back one at a time until it fails again. I have found that nine times out of ten just removing everything and cleaning out the insides will do the trick. If you had to do maintenence in there for your vid card, it is possible you jarred something else and this process should catch and correct that.

Krak

The other day I took everything apart, cleaned it all. I mean everything, and reseated it all.

After the cleaning I left it on. It has been on since, and no crash. Hopefully dirty contacts, and just not being seated right was the culprit.

TomTester

It was probably your video card OR your screen saver kicking in at a resolution that's not
supported for your card (or not on dual monitors) or bad drivers to put them to sleep (asve
energy). Had similar issues, changed screen-saver, updated to latest video drivers, and
problem went away..