Screen turns black and sound loops

saduser

Posts: 7   +0
my desktop screen goes black/blank all of a sudden like it's in sleep mode ( the power doesn't actually turn off at any point and there's nothing i can do to turn it back on except use the power button on the tower). if there is sound at the moment of the crash then it just loops rapidly again and again to infinity.

i first dusted the tower and thought that was it since there was a huge amount of dust inside and after doing it worked fine for almost 2 days when it started doing the same thing again. the fastest it crashes is when i tried to play WoW (only a few minutes) and play youtube videos (10+ min). my graphics card is a geforce 210 512mb and i've had it for about a year, worked fine all this time. when i took it out last time it was really hot, i'm not sure how hot it's supposed to be but it burned my fingers more or less.

i have the same system and components, i play the same games and run the same apps as i did before when it was working well ( i am not sure if i had any crashes of this sort in the past but i believe it did happen once or twice over at least a year). i don't play and high end graph games or anything that needs a better card.

i use vista 64 on a intel quad 8200@2.33 with 6gb.

do you think it's the graphics card or something else? what can i do to find out? Thanks for help!
 
"i'm not sure how hot it's supposed to be but it burned my fingers more or less"...
Replace the video card, but first check the fan on it if it has one. Make sure it is running
 
"i'm not sure how hot it's supposed to be but it burned my fingers more or less"...
Replace the video card, but first check the fan on it if it has one. Make sure it is running

it does have a fan, but how do i make sure it is running well? it is really close to the bottom and i didn't see a way to take out the bottom side of the tower, is there a way to do that? i did think about this but i don't know how i could check it.
 
Unplug the computer and remove the video card. Visually inspect the fan and make sure it is clean and free of dust. Gently flick the fan with your finger. A good fan will spin freely and jerk backwards a bit when it stops turning...
 
Unplug the computer and remove the video card. Visually inspect the fan and make sure it is clean and free of dust. Gently flick the fan with your finger. A good fan will spin freely and jerk backwards a bit when it stops turning...

i did do that earlier and it didn't move at all after the initial spin. i also used a turbo compressed air spray on it (that made the other larger fans inside the pc spin like crazy) and it didn't budge at all. as for dust i cleaned the blades and the part behind the fan then used the air spray and it looks super clean.
 
So the video card fan did not spin at all using canned air? If it didn't spin, the fan is bad and the video card may be over heating badly
 
So the video card fan did not spin at all using canned air? If it didn't spin, the fan is bad and the video card may be over heating badly

yes, it didn't move at all when i used the spray, which did surprise me since the much bigger fans were spinning a lot, it had a really strong burst. so can it be fixed or do i just get a new video card? thanks for replying btw !
 
Yes, the fan is bad, and a replacement fan may be hard to find. A new video card may be the only solution here
 
sad user is sad again /frowny face.

i got a new graph card and it worked fine for several days then other issues started happening again. before this the sound looped and the screen went black, this time the screen just freezes and the image stays on screen (no sound loop either) and like with the previous issue all i can do is turn off the pc then restart. it mostly happens when i am playing games (wow, civ4 - takes several minutes of play with civ while with wow you can go for hours without a problem ).

i also get quite a few random blue screens outside games (maybe 1/day or so). the new card is a geforce 8400GS and i updated the driver. my pc is dust free, i cleaned it really well a few weeks ago.
 
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