Monitor goes blank after few mins

ne0 · Joined: Jul 21, 2009 Posts: 16

Dear friends,

I have been facing a wierd problem since last few days. After booting my PC, monitor would go blank in few mins. The monitor light would be green which shows that monitor has not lost power . But there would be nothing on the screen. It would be completely black. Moreover when I press NumLock key on my keyboard the NumLock light doesn't turn on which means that computer has stop responding and is hanged up. I am not able to work due to this problem. FYI, I haven't installed any hardware or software recently. Hope to get solution from you guys as soon as possible.

Additional info:

Motherboard : ASUS A7NVM266
Processor : AMD Athlon XP 1800+
OS : Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition.

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2657

The first thing you do to troubleshoot is try another monitor. If the 2nd monitor does the same thing, you know it is the computer. If the 2nd monitor does not exhibit the same behavior, then you know it is a problem with the monitor.

If you don't have another monitor to try, then you need to ask your friends to help you troubleshoot this.

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 964

The first thing that crossed my mind (until you mentioned the key press) was, what are the power settings? - I'd still check, just to totally rule them out.

They could be set to shut things off after a given amount of time. Thus what you describe would take place... BUT, (& this is where the key press comes in) they SHOULD "wake back up" when you press a key or move the mouse. (much as a screen saver) - try pressing other keys & moving the mouse. If it wakes up, the power setting is the problem.

Personally, I HATE the crap & find it serves no useful purpose at all on desktops. So I turn it ALL off. (set to NEVER) On notebooks & netbooks, I set it to the minimum necessary to monitor the battery.

Also, suspend & hibernate (or whatever) is a disaster waiting to happen (IMO) so I NEVER use those either! - I asked myself "self, which is more important to you, your sanity or the battery life"? My "self" answered "my sanity" so I'd use a bigger battery on NB & not worry about a tower. I just shut them off when I'm done...

ne0 · Joined: Jul 21, 2009 Posts: 16

@ zlim ........ I had attached my monitor with another cabinet to check if monitor is working fine. And monitor did worked fine with that cabinet so I guess there is no problem with monitor. See if you can get a solution further from here. Thanks for replying

@ Baby_Tux............ The power settings are already set on never because i have a habit of putting on the download and go to sleep. So all the settings are such that no matter what nothing will get turn off after specific time period. Thanks for reply and looking forward to hear from you.

Guys one more thing is what I noticed yesterday. That occurred for the first time. Previously the screen generally used to turn blank but yesterday it had went black with blue vertical stripes. I have took out the RAM after that and refitted the RAM. But then again when i again put on the PC after some time it went black again (without the blue stripes though). I don't know what is happening to it.

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 964

With the power settings "good" & the monitor working on another box, my next suspect would be the video card. IF you can get it to display long enough you could run a diag on it. If not, & you have another one, you could swap out the cards & see. If the one you have is on the MB, just disable it in the BIOS & add the other card. - make sure to touch something metal on the box (like an unpainted part of the box) to get rid of any static you may have in you first.

BTW: (an additional thought) does this machine pass POST correctly, giving the proper beep(s)? (assuming that these "new" ones still beep) Wink

goretsky · Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 4:41 am Post subject:

Hello,

Given the age of the system, I suspect one of the following might be the cause of the problem:

Video card has begun to fail
AGP port is no longer receiving enough electricity to power the video card (inspect capacitors around AGP slot for signs of rupturing)
Power supply has begun to fail
System is overheating

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Dshrive · Joined: Oct 14, 2005 Posts: 3

Surprised no one mentioned the screen refresh rate. It is critical on flat panel monitors.
Right click on your desktop, click on properties, settings, advanced, monitor tab and make your refresh rate is set at 60 hertz. Any higher will make most flat panels to go blank and do other nasty things.

Don S

ne0 · Joined: Jul 21, 2009 Posts: 16

@ Baby Tux........... I had an alternate graphic card but it was not working somehow so I had shifted to on board graphic card since few months. I will buy a new graphic card and check it. And yes machine pass POST correctly. Yes it beeps. Smile

@ goretsky.... I will check the video card. The capacitors are fine and power supply is also working fine. What do you exactly mean by system overheating ? Because as far as I know if system overheats the system shuts down. And I have that option in BIOS.

@ Dshrive....... I don't have flat panel monitor but though I have checked the refresh rate and its 60 hertz.

Thank you everyone for replying. Hope to get it resolved soon.

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 964

All I can say at this point is, if you are going to BUY a card, make sure of the return policy so you can take it back if it doesn't cure the problem. (unless you don't care to take it back)

I have to wonder about the POST - evidently, the card (if it IS the card) is failing afterward, like a heat problem within the card itself.

Have you ran any diags on it? Or won't the video stay long enough?

goretsky · Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:34 am Post subject:

Hello,

When a system overheats it generally becomes unstable before crashing or powering down, and typically it is one of the thermal sensors on the motherboard that detects the overheat condition, which only started to become common about ten years ago. Video cards manufactured in the last several years have thermal sensors as well, but those are still not as common as motherboard-based sensors, which are not necessarily going to detect that a video card's processor, memory or discrete components are running at a higher temperature than thsy should be.

If the video card has a fan on it, you might want to verify that it spins freely, then turn the system on and make sure it spins up.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

ne0 · Joined: Jul 21, 2009 Posts: 16

Guysss.............. It seems like my problem is about to be solved. This is the error due to windows. My windows seems to be corrupt and due to that I am facing this problem. I was told by one of the hardware vendor to check on SMPS and HDD and I found that it was HDD. Thanks a lot for your assistance.

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1629 Location: Central FL, USA

We (I personally) have discussed HD, CPU and GPU overheating many times right here on this forum.

I run my computer a lot and pretty hard at times and I have no central air conditioning, so it can get pretty warm in here. I live in Florida.
For several years, way back when, I lost at least one HD a year to heat exhaustion.
"Heat Kills" electronics and especially when mechanics are combines with electronics.
A transistor can typically stand temp's in the 300+ degree F range, but the bearings in a HD cannot. Temps like that will fry them.

After much experimentation, I developed a HD cooling technique that has worked very well to prevent me from ever having HD's die by overheating, ever again.

Most computers, except some home-made ones, have solely insufficient air flow over, around and past the HD's.
I've not only added extra fans to my PC case to greatly increase the air flow through the PC, but I've added 'Two-Fan' coolers to every HD.
Since I run three SATA II HD's inside my system, the heat buildup without added air flow would be very significant indeed.
But with all my added coolers, I can lay my digital heat sensor (first finger) on anything inside my PC, from the HD to the CPU and NO device is above slightly warm to the touch.
Any device that makes you say "Ouch!!!" when you lay a finger on it, is way too hot and probably out of spec.
Currently, there are 13 fans running in my desktop computer.
Loud? NO, but nice and cool.

Here is how I apply a Two-Fan cooler to each of my HD's.

The standoff with 1/4" spacers is necessary for proper air flow.

In this picture, I've replaced the failed cooling fan on this video card, with a much larger fan, glued to the top of the GPU heat sink.

<<-- click to expand

In this pic, you can see the added case fan that I've put in the upper front case panels. My main HD sits on spacers right behind the red fan in the top 5.25" drive bay.

<<-- click to expand

Two more case fans are mounted in the steel frame, behind the lower plastic face plate. (just to the right of the coffee cup)

Again, I can't stress enough, that with proper cooling most computers will last a very long time.

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor Cool

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 964

Nice "coffee maker" (last picture) Laughing

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1629 Location: Central FL, USA

Oh, I wish the PC could make coffee.
But alas, I have to go to the kitchen and make it myself. Crying or Very sad