Weird blackouts: you are my only hope!

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ToolPackinMama

Help me, Obi Wan... or whoever

This has happened three times this week: everything will be fine and
seem normal, then suddenly my screen goes dark and the HD light starts
flickering. I can't regain control until after I reboot the PC.
Ctl-alt-delete doesn't work, I have to use the reset switch.

Then everything seems fine and works normally.

I have my PC on an UPS that is apparently working normally.

I have already

1) updated my drivers
2) updated antivirus and scanned.

OMG! What can it BE!?

I built this PC myself and am not afraid to get into the guts of it, but
what the heck am I looking for?
 
ToolPackinMama said:
Help me, Obi Wan... or whoever

This has happened three times this week: everything will be fine and
seem normal, then suddenly my screen goes dark and the HD light starts
flickering. I can't regain control until after I reboot the PC.
Ctl-alt-delete doesn't work, I have to use the reset switch.

Then everything seems fine and works normally.

I have my PC on an UPS that is apparently working normally.

I have already

1) updated my drivers
2) updated antivirus and scanned.

OMG! What can it BE!?

I built this PC myself and am not afraid to get into the guts of it, but
what the heck am I looking for?
Click to expand...

Boot a Linux LiveCD and repeat the stability testing.

For example, Ubuntu is a popular distro.

What you're doing in that case, is comparing hardware behavior
under Windows, to behavior under Linux. If both OSes crash, it
is a hardware issue.

If the Linux desktop appears and runs for hours without incident,
next use the Firefox browser in there to navigate to this site.

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft

If you're using a 32 bit Ubuntu LiveCD, you can use this.

Linux 32-bit: Download mprime266.tar.gz (4.1MB),
version 26.6, last updated April 8, 2011.

You untar the resulting download, and run the executable.
(There is no install, just uncompress to a folder of files,
and you can run Prime95 from that folder.)

When it asks whether you want to join, select "Stress Testing"
and run the multi-threaded stress test. If there is bad
RAM or a bad CPU, it might well crash the instant the
test is started.

I suppose it could be some kind of powering issue (power
supply, Vcore regulator etc), but what are the odds
the hard drive light would just flicker ?

It sounds like a software issue. Maybe the hard drive flicker
is writing out a memory dump to disk, before reboot ?

Maybe the failure is a video driver, that takes out the
kernel. And then the flicker is a crash dump.

Do you have the Windows automatic restart disabled,
so any BSOD will stay put on the screen ? Look for
a driver name, if there is a BSOD on the screen.

Are you configured for minidumps or a full dump ?
A minidump is 64KB or so. A full dump uses the
pagefile or the like, to hold an image of RAM. Finding
a tool for analysis isn't a lot of fun (you can waste
half the day doing that). The file extension for a
minidump is ".dmp".

Paul
 
ToolPackinMama said:
Help me, Obi Wan... or whoever

This has happened three times this week: everything will be fine and
seem normal, then suddenly my screen goes dark and the HD light starts
flickering. I can't regain control until after I reboot the PC.
Ctl-alt-delete doesn't work, I have to use the reset switch.

Then everything seems fine and works normally.

I have my PC on an UPS that is apparently working normally.

I have already

1) updated my drivers
2) updated antivirus and scanned.

OMG! What can it BE!?

I built this PC myself and am not afraid to get into the guts of it, but
what the heck am I looking for?
Click to expand...

Check if the fans are spinning on boot (before the OS loads).
Check the heatsinks are still attached/touching the chips.
Use a multimeter to check the voltage outputs from the PSU.
 
Help me, Obi Wan... or whoever

This has happened three times this week: everything will be fine and
seem normal, then suddenly my screen goes dark and the HD light starts
flickering. I can't regain control until after I reboot the PC.
Ctl-alt-delete doesn't work, I have to use the reset switch.

Then everything seems fine and works normally.

I have my PC on an UPS that is apparently working normally.

I have already

1) updated my drivers
2) updated antivirus and scanned.

OMG! What can it BE!?

I built this PC myself and am not afraid to get into the guts of it, but
what the heck am I looking for?
Click to expand...
Try backing out to an earlier video card driver.
 
Thanks guys for the great suggestions.
Click to expand...

If the other suggestions don't fix things, try a system restore point
from a date a week or more prior to when the problem started.
 
This has happened three times this week: everything will be fine and seem
normal, then suddenly my screen goes dark and the HD light starts
flickering. I can't regain control until after I reboot the PC.
Ctl-alt-delete doesn't work, I have to use the reset switch.
Then everything seems fine and works normally.
Click to expand...

First, find out whether the (chief) fault is in the PC or the
monitor -- most easily done by running with a different
monitor for a few days. CRT monitors do not last for
ever (I had just one fail in 25+ years.)
 
First, find out whether the (chief) fault is in the PC or the
monitor -- most easily done by running with a different
monitor for a few days. CRT monitors do not last for
ever (I had just one fail in 25+ years.)
Click to expand...

I actually have a new LCD monitor (Acer X233H, less than a year old) and
I am starting to suspect that it is what is failing.

I believe at this point that the HD activity was coincidental.

I am running Win 7 64 Pro, and just found out to my astonishment that
when I Ctl-alt-delete twice NOTHING HAPPENS. LOL. It takes me to a
menu (which I can't see to select from with the monitor black), instead
of restarting!

All my hardware is fairly new, operating normally at nice low temps. I
really have no reason to suspect anything that is in the case.
 
VanguardLH said:
Check if the fans are spinning on boot (before the OS loads).
Check the heatsinks are still attached/touching the chips. Use a
multimeter to check the voltage outputs from the PSU.
Click to expand...

That would be foolish for a typical PC user. Never stick metal
probes into a live personal computer. Instead, either look in the
BIOS or use Windows voltage measuring utilities like those that
come with your PC. Reading the voltage under a normal Windows load
is more accurate too.
--
















Regular, MouthGuard
 
ToolPackinMama said:
I actually have a new LCD monitor (Acer X233H, less than a year
old) and I am starting to suspect that it is what is failing.

I believe at this point that the HD activity was coincidental.

I am running Win 7 64 Pro, and just found out to my astonishment
that when I Ctl-alt-delete twice NOTHING HAPPENS. LOL. It
takes me to a menu (which I can't see to select from with the
monitor black), instead of restarting!
Click to expand...

It's the same with Windows XP SP3. And then when shutting down
there is the Microsoft error message that comes up on top of a
prompt to save Notepad.
All my hardware is fairly new, operating normally at nice low
temps. I really have no reason to suspect anything that is in
the case.
Click to expand...

To eliminate software possibilities, I would just replace/restore
the Windows partition from a backup copy.
 
OK, well, I arrived at the conclusion that the monitor is what was
failing. It was under warranty and I had bought a Staples service plan
which was due to expire in a week - so I moved fast and got a
replacement monitor.

The guys at the Glastonbury CT Staples were super to me. They swapped
my failing Acer for an equivalent Samsung LCD monitor.

I don't like Acer anymore, but I do trust Samsung.
 
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