Machine finally died!

[jimbob99]

Hi hope someone can help me fix this extremely frustrating PC problem. Please excuse my lack of PC know-how, but I will try to explain my problem as best I can.

For some time now, our main desk-top PC has been crashing out randomly, and displaying a black screen. "No Signal" appears on the monitor, the tower still runs and fans are running. The only way to recover the PC was to pull the plug and re-start.

I have investigated the problem on and off for more than a year. I have checked all connections, etc, and at one point fitted new RAM, because I read that that can cause black screening. I also removed and re-fitter the graphics card, checking the slot for dust.

What I found is that after taking the machine loose, the PC would then sometimes run for several weeks without crashing.

I went through the same procedure yesterday, and removed and re-fitted the graphics card. The machine got as far as the blue log-in screen and then crashed. Now it has got worse, so that it goes to black screen immediately after the RAM is displayed, every time!

Any clues?

I suspect the graphics card (the PC originally ran on on-board graphics) If I remove the graphics card, and use the old graphics connector, the monitor just displays vertical stripes! How can I get back to my on-board graphics as a test?

When I boot the machine, I get a single "beep", RAM is displayed, then BLACK!

Please help before I go completely insane1

[daveanne]

sometimes the main power connection was not functioning well that need to be change with the new power plug or power adaptor.

[eager]

Check to make sure that your memory is installed correctly. Remove and re-seat DIMMs. You might also want to run a memory test like memtest86. (On-board graphics chips use main memory. Stripes may mean invalid data from memory.)

[habarnas]

Hi hope someone can help me fix this extremely frustrating PC problem. Please excuse my lack of PC know-how, but I will try to explain my problem as best I can.

For some time now, our main desk-top PC has been crashing out randomly, and displaying a black screen. "No Signal" appears on the monitor, the tower still runs and fans are running. The only way to recover the PC was to pull the plug and re-start.

I have investigated the problem on and off for more than a year. I have checked all connections, etc, and at one point fitted new RAM, because I read that that can cause black screening. I also removed and re-fitter the graphics card, checking the slot for dust.

What I found is that after taking the machine loose, the PC would then sometimes run for several weeks without crashing.

I went through the same procedure yesterday, and removed and re-fitted the graphics card. The machine got as far as the blue log-in screen and then crashed. Now it has got worse, so that it goes to black screen immediately after the RAM is displayed, every time!

Any clues?

I suspect the graphics card (the PC originally ran on on-board graphics) If I remove the graphics card, and use the old graphics connector, the monitor just displays vertical stripes! How can I get back to my on-board graphics as a test?

When I boot the machine, I get a single "beep", RAM is displayed, then BLACK!

Please help before I go completely insane1

I have a Gateway that did the exact problem you described, It turned out that there was poor crimp connections on a power supply 4 pin connector next to the cpu heat sink. There was heat damage to the connector due to excessive heat.
Here's what you do to find the problem, remove one by one each power connector from the mother board and closely examine each wire to the connector for discoloring(heat damage) of the wire at the connector point. You should be able to quickly find the culprit this way.
My quick and dirty fix was to bypass the connector with a jumper wire. Yes I removed the mother board and soldered one end to a 12 volt point on the bottom of the mother board and spliced the other end to the plug wire from the power supply. (I could not find a correct replacement plug set anywhere. both the male and female pins sides of the plug were heat damaged)
Let me know if Gateway needs a good at home tech support person.
Hank

[berniecallis]

I had the same problem on a machine I built. I finally swapped out the power supply and that cured the problem. I think the original ps was borderline relative to required output for the computer components. When I added a couple other things, I started having problems. Perhaps adding the graphics card and a little age caused the ps to become unstable and crash your machine. I hope this is helpful!!

Bernie

[el gizmops]

Hi hope someone can help me fix this extremely frustrating PC problem. Please excuse my lack of PC know-how, but I will try to explain my problem as best I can.

For some time now, our main desk-top PC has been crashing out randomly, and displaying a black screen. "No Signal" appears on the monitor, the tower still runs and fans are running. The only way to recover the PC was to pull the plug and re-start.

I have investigated the problem on and off for more than a year. I have checked all connections, etc, and at one point fitted new RAM, because I read that that can cause black screening. I also removed and re-fitter the graphics card, checking the slot for dust.

What I found is that after taking the machine loose, the PC would then sometimes run for several weeks without crashing.

I went through the same procedure yesterday, and removed and re-fitted the graphics card. The machine got as far as the blue log-in screen and then crashed. Now it has got worse, so that it goes to black screen immediately after the RAM is displayed, every time!

Any clues?

I suspect the graphics card (the PC originally ran on on-board graphics) If I remove the graphics card, and use the old graphics connector, the monitor just displays vertical stripes! How can I get back to my on-board graphics as a test?

When I boot the machine, I get a single "beep", RAM is displayed, then BLACK!

Please help before I go completely insane1

Hi,
I had a similar problem a couple of years ago.
Initially I thought it was the PCI graphics card. I removed it an d connected to the mobo graphics. This partially fixed the proble, Ongoing further random crashes happened.
I then noticed a lot of dust and clag around the heatsink and cpu fan. This was dismantled and vacuumed out using a small paintbrush to release the muck.
Problem solved.
Hope this hellps, good luck