I'm having an office computer issue that has dragged me through the dirt for a least a week now. I dont want to take it to anyone for fear of it being somthing simple that I just missed and have to pay X ammount of dollers!
Anyways, the problem started when the user of the computer complained to me of the comp just black screening mid-day around the same time of use and having to wait 10 or so minutes until he could boot it back up properly.
My first thought was the Vid card overheating as I had just had the same problem with my home comp a few months ago. Then he told me that the files he was working on durring the black out were starting to become corrupt. I thought it may be due to him having to manualy restart the system, but I ran a virus scan anyways. everything checked out.
So after a fews attempts at reinstalling video and mobo drivers I decided to just wipe the computer. I used the windows disk (XP Professional BTW) to erase the partition and start over. Setup went smooth and it connected to our network right away as it should. I installed drivers again making sure they were the latest (from internet) and restarted again. The problem now became that the resolution wouldnt adjust. It was stuck at 480 x 610 or sumthing along those lines and when I went to adjust it in the properties the screen would go black for longer than normal and come back the same resolution.
The LCD display recommended 1280x1024 so thats what I was trying to set it as. I also tried 800x600 and some others and finally got it to change...at 1600x2180 or sumthing rediculous up there. Naturally this wouldnt work because I couldnt hardly see anything and the display kept blacking out telling me 'Not Optimum Resolution'. This became very irritating and I tried using different drivers and such to no success.
Finally I decided to wipe again (I know, not very smart, but I was getting impatient) This time I pulled the Vid card out (Radeon 9250 - 128MB) and used the onboard graphics. WHen I was installing drivers after setup, which went smoothly, the computer just went blank like before in the beginning.
Now the computer makes it through POST and the the windows loading screen for about 5 seconds then goes black and nothing after that. I checked all the BIOS settings everything seemed in order accept that the CPU was running very HOT for not running windows yet (47C) and I dont really know the average boot up temp is, but I know that the comp would run idle at 27C before this whole ordeal.
Do you guys think that the CUP is overheating durring Windows Startup?
I really need sum input, my firm is loosing precious time because of this problem. Let me know what you guys think and get back at this post. Thanks a bunch.
Yes sir that was it. Trial and error today prooved that it was indeed the monitor that Had gone bad. Thank you so much for your help. One question though....was that the first thing that came to mind from reading my issue? Just seems like you might have had that problem before or somthing. Anywho, thank you very much!
Glad you fixed it!
I had lots of videocard problems but your symptoms sounded different to the usual videocard symptoms, they were also different to the usual CPU/bad memory symptoms - so, just by eliminating all other possible causes, I ended up suspecting some weird LCD monitor problems.