XP Monitor Goes Black

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jen
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J

Jen

Is there a known issue and a known fix for an XP system whose monitor goes
black. (And then the orange light appears on the monitor).

People can be working and all of a sudden, black monitor????

It doesn't appear to be connected to a particular video card from what we've
observed so far?

Any suggestions that you can offer would be very much appreciated.

Thanks
 
Jen said:
Is there a known issue and a known fix for an XP system whose monitor goes
black. (And then the orange light appears on the monitor).

People can be working and all of a sudden, black monitor????

It doesn't appear to be connected to a particular video card from what we've
observed so far?

Any suggestions that you can offer would be very much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Check out your hardware:

1. Make sure your CPU and case temperatures are OK, and
that the CPU fan, case fans, and any other fans are
working.

2. Shut down your computer and turn off power *at the
surge protector* (which cuts off standby power while
leaving your computer grounded) or unplug it. Take
the standard protections against static electricity
(wear a wrist strap or keep one hand grounded at all
times).

3. Open up your computer and dust it out. *Do not use a
vacuum cleaner* - it might cause static discharge.
Get some dust remover spray (RadioShack has it) and
a dust mask, and take your computer outside and spray
out the dust. Keep the end of the spray straw at least
six inches from any components and keep it moving so as
to avoid excessive thermal shock to the components.

4. Reseat all the modules and cables inside your computer.

5. Run "memtest86" (download from http://www.memtest86.com)
to thoroughly check out your memory. You should get
zero errors.

6. Run a full set of hardware diagnostics. ("diag378.exe",
downloadable from ftp://ftp1.dell.com/diags, after a few
complaints, will run on most non-Dell computers.)
You should get zero errors.

-- Bob Day
http://www.bob.day.name
 
Jen said:
Is there a known issue and a known fix for an XP system whose monitor goes
black. (And then the orange light appears on the monitor).

People can be working and all of a sudden, black monitor????

It doesn't appear to be connected to a particular video card from what we've
observed so far?

Any suggestions that you can offer would be very much appreciated.
Click to expand...

You could just adjust the power options setting in control panel so
that the monitor won't go off until a long period of inactivity has
passed. I'd also check the power management tabs for both keyboard and
mouse in device manager, to see if both are okayed to bring the PC out
of standby.
 
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