Hi there,
I'm hoping someone can give me a hand with a problem I've been having that I can't pinpoint. I have read quite a bit of stuff here before - just never posted. If you wouldn't mind bearing with me here...
It started about a week ago, I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary just using the internet, and the monitor started going off - bizarrely when I scrolled my mouse it would flick off. It would come back on and go off seemingly at random. Then after a while it just stayed off and I couldn't do anything about it. After a while I got a message on the screen 'Out of range'.
When I tried to reboot, the screen would come on normally until the 'Windows Loading' part - then it would go black again. I'm fairly sure it loaded Windows but I couldn't see it.
After a day or two of trying whatever I could think of to work out what was going on - I tried another monitor and cable and the same thing happened - it just randomly started working again, with no indication of it ever having happened.
Today, after about 3 days of normal functionality, it went off again - just straight off, no flickering or anything. So far I have only managed to get it to come up with anything for a second or two during bootup. Interestingly, it doesn't say "Out of Range", it now says 'No signal input'.
So, the things I could think of that might be the problem -
- gfx card - GeForce 7600GS - ~5 months old
although with 3 days of doing everything normal - games, etc. not sure if this could be the problem - but it seems the most likely...
- something else overheating - it was a very hot day today
but now its cooled down and everything's been off for hours and it still doesn't work so maybe not.
in terms of what else I've got - the CPU heatsink and fan I replaced a few weeks ago, and with a rear fan installed at the same time my case is a lot cooler than it used to be, so I'm a bit skeptical about that as well.
- power supply??? if they are faulty could this sort of thing happen? i really know very little about power supplies but it is one thing I haven't tested (don't know how)
- windows installation - the initial boot-up thing interested me (boot up normal until windows loading, then black) - but that doesn't happen anymore, but if anyone thinks a reformat might fix something I'm willing to try!
- HDD - in a seemingly unrelated problem, my old HDD (i've got 2x 250 GB) - the older one of the two sometimes disappears from My Computer, and is generally unreliable. - Obviously I'm not suggesting a faulty hard drive is causing the screen to no longer function - but I thought I'd mention it anyway just in case...
Other things I've done just for the sake of it - RAM tests, reducing the monitor refresh rates (when I could see what I was doing), stuff like that. Most of my system is fairly new (~6 months) - apart from the old HDD, and the CPU.
Thanks for getting to the end of my ranting, and I hope there is someone who has some ideas...
Cheers
Rob
I'm hoping someone can give me a hand with a problem I've been having that I can't pinpoint. I have read quite a bit of stuff here before - just never posted. If you wouldn't mind bearing with me here...
It started about a week ago, I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary just using the internet, and the monitor started going off - bizarrely when I scrolled my mouse it would flick off. It would come back on and go off seemingly at random. Then after a while it just stayed off and I couldn't do anything about it. After a while I got a message on the screen 'Out of range'.
When I tried to reboot, the screen would come on normally until the 'Windows Loading' part - then it would go black again. I'm fairly sure it loaded Windows but I couldn't see it.
After a day or two of trying whatever I could think of to work out what was going on - I tried another monitor and cable and the same thing happened - it just randomly started working again, with no indication of it ever having happened.
Today, after about 3 days of normal functionality, it went off again - just straight off, no flickering or anything. So far I have only managed to get it to come up with anything for a second or two during bootup. Interestingly, it doesn't say "Out of Range", it now says 'No signal input'.
So, the things I could think of that might be the problem -
- gfx card - GeForce 7600GS - ~5 months old
although with 3 days of doing everything normal - games, etc. not sure if this could be the problem - but it seems the most likely...
- something else overheating - it was a very hot day today
but now its cooled down and everything's been off for hours and it still doesn't work so maybe not.
in terms of what else I've got - the CPU heatsink and fan I replaced a few weeks ago, and with a rear fan installed at the same time my case is a lot cooler than it used to be, so I'm a bit skeptical about that as well.
- power supply??? if they are faulty could this sort of thing happen? i really know very little about power supplies but it is one thing I haven't tested (don't know how)
- windows installation - the initial boot-up thing interested me (boot up normal until windows loading, then black) - but that doesn't happen anymore, but if anyone thinks a reformat might fix something I'm willing to try!
- HDD - in a seemingly unrelated problem, my old HDD (i've got 2x 250 GB) - the older one of the two sometimes disappears from My Computer, and is generally unreliable. - Obviously I'm not suggesting a faulty hard drive is causing the screen to no longer function - but I thought I'd mention it anyway just in case...
Other things I've done just for the sake of it - RAM tests, reducing the monitor refresh rates (when I could see what I was doing), stuff like that. Most of my system is fairly new (~6 months) - apart from the old HDD, and the CPU.
Thanks for getting to the end of my ranting, and I hope there is someone who has some ideas...
Cheers
Rob
