Screen Goes Black

[MikeO5422]

my screen will simply go black and "no signal appears." (now both in games and on desktop) My computer is still on but obviously i cannot do anything and i have to push the button. There are absolutely no blue screens involved and i am 100% sure that it is not heat. Im worried it may be my psu as i recently got a new one and the problem began:(. My specs are as follows.

 

AMD Xp 3200 2.0 Ghz

1Gb Corsair Value Select DDR SDRAM

 

--POWMAX PSDE480 ATX --

 

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16817163017

 

----

 

Radeon X800 AIE @ Catalyst 7.8

Sound Blaster Live!

 

All drivers are up to date...except for my radeon ones as the new drivers wont let me launch ANY GAME at all...if i remember correctly they actually made me bluescreen when i booted windows :0

 

Its very difficult for me to troubleshoot this issue as there is absolutely no insight to the problem and it is so darn random. Some times i can play for hours or even days with no problems..other times i cant play for 5 minutes. Any idears =0. It started up pretty bad just today but it has been good for a month or 2.

[MikeO5422]

Maybe this will help =0.

 

 

 

http://www.geocities.com/morland2j/DSC04310.JPG

[CTskifreak]

I know this has now relevance but your CPU is at 50 degrees Celsius?!?! That is really hot, especially for an older CPU like an XP 3200. What type of cooling do you have on it?

 

Obvious advice 1: Make sure that the cable from tower to monitor is snug in both ports. If it was accidentally loose, it could affect it.

 

However, if you said it happened only after you put your new PSU in, that could be the culprit. I hate to be the "brand name guy," but I have never heard of POWMAX. You want a high quality one, from someone like PC Power & Cooling, Antec, or Thermaltake.

 

Did you replace your PSU for a specific reason???

 

AJ

[MikeO5422]

my comp usually runs that hot and i have no shutdown protection on it ^^. I bought a new PSU bc my old one literally fried ^^. I have been playing around a bit and i know its not my ram or my video card. I got other good ones i have swapped in and the problem still occurs. I suspect my psu is a pos =(

[Andavari]

One quick, cheap, and free way to find out if it's heat related is to take one side off the PC then use a house fan (table top or floor fan) to blow air into the PC.

 

Use it for a good length of time to see if that remedies the problem, and if it does you'll then know it's a cooling/ventilation problem and can then fix the issue with another set of cooling fans.

[MikeO5422]

i had a fan on it last night... it seems to be working ok..i guess i was 100% wrong ^^. I only said i was 100% sure it was not heat b/c it has always been that hot and i have never had a problem. But with a fan on it last night it was stable for hours while running any application.

 

Perhaps i should reapply the thermal paste if that helps? Im not really sure hehe. Ty for the help ill post back if i do find out its not heat related. Take care all. thanks again.

[Andavari]

Perhaps i should reapply the thermal paste if that helps? Im not really sure hehe. Ty for the help ill post back if i do find out its not heat related. again.

I've read online were people have removed the thermal paste not knowing what it was and that caused overheating problems. That's definitely a starting point.

 

Other ways if thermal paste doesn't fix the problem:

* Make more ventilation holes (or take the PC case to a professional computer shop that can do it without making a total f'n mess of the PC case)

* Buy a new PC case with much more ventilation.

* Buy more cooling fans (just make sure your power supply is up to the task of powering them first).

[CeeCee]

* Buy more cooling fans (just make sure your power supply is up to the task of powering them first).

How can that be done?

[Andavari]

How can that be done?

See what the power supply is rated at. So adding more fans doesn't put a drain onto other things, etc.

 

Another thing is to make sure a PC tower isn't inside of one of those run-of-the-mill wood looking computer desk holders for the PC tower (the type of desk that has a slot at the bottom near the floor for the PC tower to slide into). This is especially critical if the back of the desk isn't opened with ventilation port holes, or fully opened to allow for proper air flow.

[login123]

How can that be done?

 

I googled a bit and found a calculator: http://www.journeysystems.com/?powercalc

 

There are no values for some of the gadgets are installed on this machine, so I just made a best guess using the largest possible values.

 

Also read that if the power supply is failing, sometimes some hardware loses power but some does not, so maybe the power supply fails a bit at a time when it gets hot, leaves the vid card underpowered?.

 

Good luck, Mike.