weird problem - monitor turns off
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Thread: weird problem - monitor turns off

  1. #1
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    weird problem - monitor turns off

    Hi
    What do you think about this one? XP Home on a HP Pavilion 533w. Recently the monitor has started shutting itself off at random times. Just started up last week. Usually after 5-15 minutes in windows, the monitor simply turns off.

    It happens with different monitors so I think its got to be something in the box.

    I tried a factory reset (I tapped F10 at boot up, then I chosen Format and reinstall.) It gets me a few minutes into XP setup, then the "crash" again.

    To me, I think this must be a hardware thing because I did the recovery and formatted the old harddrive. That makes me think we've ruled out virus/spyware. What are your thoughts? Anybody else have a different perspective on this one? Or any ideas?
    Thanks

  2. #2
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    Go to Control Panel>Power Options, and set "Turn off monitor" to whatever value suits you best.
    Nick.

  3. #3
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    sorry. it is turning off before i can get there.

  4. #4
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    I'm having the same problem...let me see if I can add some details.

    It started when I would visit websites, and happen randomly. The monitor shuts off, and the power light turns orange, as if it's not recieving a signal, but the computer power light is still on. Turning the monitor off and on does nothing, nor does hitting ctrl-alt-del...the computer doesn't respond to anything, so I restart it. It kept happening randomly, also happened when I used messenger, so I just disconnected the internet. That worked for awhile, but then it started happening anyway, and sometimes right when windows would boot up to the desktop. I updated Spybot search and destroy, Ad-aware, and Norton, and ran them all three, and it hasn't fixed the problem. Any ideas?

  5. #5
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    what kind of pc are you using? and what os?

  6. #6
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    Nov 2005
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    It's a dell, running Windows XP.

  7. #7
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    mine turns off almost immediately in xp, but in dos it stays on.

  8. #8
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    I've heard on another forum that it could be the videocard...or perhaps the mother board.

  9. #9
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    Dell have got some big issues at the moment with units crashing as a result of a faulty batch of capacitors...to eliminate whether your suffering the same symptoms you need to open up the unit and check whether any of capacitors on the motherboard are swollen with a roundish top...pay attention to the capacitors around the power supply unit and also below the fan assisting the processor...you'll get loads of additional information on the problem at
    www.badcaps.net if indeed you've been unfortunate to have suffered this problem...

    good luck.
    tf.

  10. #10
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    This one is an hp that has worked fine for about 3 years

  11. #11
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    This sounds like a graphics card problem, the fact that the monitor stays on in DOS but not Windows kind of gives it away. DOS graphics are different to the fully bitmapped graphics of the Windows UI, and use a different part of the graphics card. The first thing to check is to see if the card is overheating, Everest may give the temps, depending on your card and mobo:

    Everest


    Otherwise, just take the side off the case and blow a room fan at the graphics card and see if that helps.
    Nick.

  12. #12
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    Lightbulb The fans are stopping

    Well I opened the case and watched it go. It seems to be crashing right as it goes into windows - and when the monitor stopped, so did the cpu fan and the caps and numlock keys. As well as case fan. The power supply fan stayed on.

    As far as the graphics card - it is integrated to the mobo on this particular pc. Also, it does the same thing when I installed a pci video card.

  13. #13
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    I'll move this over to the Hardware forum, it's obvious that you've got hardware problems here.

    The first thing I would suspect would be the power supply. If you have, or can borrow, a multimeter, here's how to test a power supply:

    Testing PSU voltages

    Or alternatively you can buy a proper PSU tester, they don't cost much:

    http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=77003
    Nick.

  14. #14
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    Oops I missed post #12, that changes things. I agree with ssparks if everything shuts down as soon as windows starts its likely hardware problem.

    Start by checking the psu (there are already several threads on this forum about how to do that) if it's ok, then try installing one known good stick of ram by it's self, if that doesn’t do it, it's likely a cpu or motherboard problem, if this is a three year old pc, I would not bother with it just get yourself a new motherboard and cpu then reload windows. if you are not comfortable with that, take it to a local shop that can rebuild it for you. Or just try it yourself even if you are not comfortable, you have little to loose at this point., and if you get stuck you can always come back here.

    just my $.02 worth
    Last edited by onedaddycat; November 18th, 2005 at 12:29 PM.
    it's just a jump to the left....

  15. #15
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    Thing that keeps bothering me is that it runs indefinately in dos, but crashs immediately in windows.

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