Silverskater145

Alright, earlier on today when I was on the computer it shut down on me randomly after I had just turned it on. Atleast that's what I thought. The computer itself never rebooted or turned off. It was just my monitor, which acted like it normally would when I shut down my comp, into standby mode, or whatever you call it. Anyway I manually turned off the computer via power button and fired it back up again. It wouldn't even boot up now after the Windows loading screen. It would either reboot, or the monitor would just turn off, and I actually got a couple of Blue Screens here and there.

Now I took comp, laid it down, cleaned it out of all the dust buildup, and cleaned through the fans. Voila, I turned it on and it worked again. I opened up Avast! and ran a thorough scan and went to bed. Woke up a few hours later and the comp was still on, the 2-hour scan was done and nothing was found. So, I closed it up, put my comp back upright and went on to use it. As soon as I start trying to use it (open Firefox etc...) my monitor goes off again. So now I go through this booting process again and again. It keeps rebooting on me or shutting down.

At first I thought it could be a virus, but, virus scan turned up empty. Even then I wouldn't pass up the possibility of having a worm or trojan that went undetected, but then why would my comp boot up and work normally sometimes? Why would it work and then shut off after a couple minutes of using it with no warning? I started to think this was a Power Supply/overheating problem. I cleaned out all the fans a second time, tried to clean out as much dust as possible, and put the open case in front of a floor fan.

After going through the same problems, and googling them... I started to realize that it was actually my monitor that would keep turning off randomly. I never got BSoDs, or any sort of error messages, and my computer never actually "rebooted," rather my monitor would turn off, and then I'd have to manually turn the comp off. Occasionally, if I don't manually turn it off, it would automatically reboot after a few minutes passed by. So now I'm thinking, this isn't a virus, or a problem with power supply/overheating, but it's actually a problem with the Vid Card.

I took out Vid Card, cleaned out its own fan, and plugged it back in. Comp turned on again, no problems. Worked for awhile, but then eventually the monitor would go off again.

I talked to Chiefblackhammer about it and he said that he recently had this problem, and it was the Vid Card. He said it was normal for the computer to reboot as well.

I thought about there being a problem with the motherboard as well, but then that would mean I would be having problems with other things. As far as I can tell, everything seems to be working fine.

So, my question to all you computer-savvy people: wutz goin on wit mah comp? Is it a vid card problem after all? I just don't wanna go out and start buying new shit without making sure what exactly the problem is. Though being able to upgrade from my old 6600GT to a new 8500 or 8600 series card sounds nice. Maybe a 9 series card if it's under $100.

Thanks all.

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LenMiyata

Grumble Grumble Grumble

One thing that I would try to rule out first is to make sure the MONITOR isn't the problem. (Find someone with a laptop, and plug the VGA output to make sure...) A 6600GT card IS old enough to start having problems... (Last Month, I had a ATI 9800 give up the ghost...)

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Silverskater145

I'm actually typing this on my laptop. I tested out the monitor and that is working fine.

Nevertheless, I actually forgot to mention that lately there has been a fan that has sounded like crap. It's been going on for about a month maybe more. When I turn on the comp the fan sounds horribly loud and raspy. Sometimes when I turn on the computer, it doesn't happen. It seems to be sporadic and mostly goes away once the computer finishes booting entirely. I've heard this is one indicator of a bad power supply.

There's also a small Motherboard fan that has always sounded like crap. I've unplugged it from the motherboard for mostly the entire time I've had my comp. I've since plugged it back in today, but it won't even spin anymore.

Otherwise, all my other fans are spinning, including the Video Card fan.

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LenMiyata

Grumble Grumble Grumble

Do you have any 'Overclock' settings in the BIOS? A overheating motherboard chipset could cause this problem as well...

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Silverskater145

Didn't see anything like that. No.

EDIT: I started my comp after a few hours of rest, everything is working quite fine. No problems with anything at all.

I looked went to my Admin. Tools and to Event Viewer for my system, and I found this error (among others):

'Description:
The driver nv4_disp for the display device \Device\Video0 got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates.'

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Remagine

In most cases you can replace the lil motherboard fan (Northbridge fan) with a passive heatsink. They dont cost much and shouldnt be to much trouble installing.Brands like Zalman offer a phew. Be sure to check how the current one is connected to the motherboard as there are several different connector screws/rubber types.

There are also freeware programme's that let you monitor the temperature of youre motherboard cpu and graphics card.(speedfan, coretemp and the overclocking software that comes with most graphics cards.)

Cpu temps/board temps can vary from 40º to 60º-ish anything above 70-80 should be considered a problem.

After a quick google the average temp for a geforce 6600 graphicscard seems to be around 70º idle. These things get allot hotter then cpu's so 80-ish should still be ok here.

Also id try installing a different version of drivers if it occurs again just to be safe.

w1nd1n6s

ok just a work of advise...Maybe your AV Doesnt Detected The Virus...There are many costum virus and New viruses/Trojan/Worms Created every single week you know...better check up some good Anti-Vir Softwares...or probably you need to Buy A New Video Card or Mother Board but i dont really think that The Mother Board is the problem, probably power supply....

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sukotsu9

I also vote for the video card or vid card driver incompatibility. Had a friend's Compaq perform very similarly, even after multiple surgeries (part replacement, reformat), the computer would unexpectedly conk out. Replaced the video card with an extra I had and he was at 100%. You might check for the latest vid card driver, and if that doesn't work, swap the video card with anything, just to test the system.

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