Two computer problems

Darmak

I know, shitty title. I have two problems with my computer currently and I'll start with the one that occurred first. Whenever I turn my computer off or if it crashes, whenever I turn the computer back on the monitor won't come on. The power light blinks on and off but nothing is displayed, not even while it's booting. I hear the tone Windows makes when it's ready for me to log in, and I can log in and stuff too, but the monitor stays black with a blinking light. Then anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes later it will just randomly come back on after having done nothing to it. I've checked the power cable and video cables and they're both fine, nothing that I can see wrong with them. And just recently my computer was turned off and it's not coming back on at all and it's been that way for about an hour. Any ideas as to what it may be? I have a second monitor (I'm on my wife's computer right now) but I honestly don't want to go through the pain of unplugging it and moving it over there and unplugging my monitor and plugging this one in if I don't have to (but I will if I need to).

My second problem has been my computer locking up while playing a game and one of the internal fans kicking into high gear. At first I thought it was just Dungeon Defenders' latest update since that was the game I was playing when it occured the first few times but then I was playing another game about an hour ago and the same thing happened (which lead to my monitor not coming back on and this entire thread). Does it sound like a hardware or software problem? Could it be related to the above monitor problem? Can that last question be solved just by trying my wife's monitor over on that comp? Thanks for any advice you guys may have.

Tef

Look I'm about to head off to bed so I won't be able to provide an answer until tomorrow sometime, but you should list your PC specs. CPU/mobo/GPU/PSU/monitor, all that good stuff.

Darmak

The monitor is a Hanns-G HD192G, Intel i7 2600, 8GB ram, AMD Radeon HD6970. I don't remember off the top of my head what mobo and psu I have but if I can I'll go look through my Newegg history and see if the purchase is still there.

Darmak

Ahh, this is the mobo and this is the psu.

Oh, and I bought two of these hard drives, though one arrived dead and I never did get around to replacing it.

Tef

Huh. I was thinking it was an old busted system. If the monitor is getting power and audio but no picture, it makes me think either GPU or mobo. The computer not powering on makes me think mobo or PSU.

By my incredible powers of logic, I think it could be the mobo. Maybe.

Can you try your rig with a different power supply? Can you try running your monitor on the onboard graphics (no GPU)?

Darmak

See, the computer DOES power on. If I have my headphones on I can even hear the Windows startup sound and type in my password and log in, but the monitor just sits there and doesn't do anything. The monitor's power light just blinks and blinks. Even when I turned my PC off yesterday, the monitor's light just blinked instead of showing me the "No input" message or anything. I'm going to try switching my wife's monitor with that one and see if that does anything.

edit: and this is just me talking about the monitor problems, I still don't know what would cause my comp to lock up and have one of my internal fans spin up real fast.

second edit: nope, not gonna bother messing with her monitor, it's such a fucking mess of shit and wires and I just got over vomiting and diarrhea I don't feel up to this. I'll see if a neighbor would be willing to loan me one of their monitors instead or something.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

The first and easiest way to identify the problem is to try a different monitor; fortunately, you have one handy. If it works you can be reasonably certain the problem is your monitor. If you are making it through the boot and windows startup process the mobo is unlikely to be the issue; I guess it might be a problem with the video card.

On the other hand, if the computer doesn't start or make it through the boot process, that suggests a motherboard problem.

mts

what are your temps?

Seeks

I'm guessing it's a bad video card. I haven't had great luck with AMD (ATI). I've had both of the symptoms you're describing happen to me as a result of a shitty video card.

You might see if you've got an older, cheapo video card lying around (or borrow one from a friend) and swap it with your current video card to test it out.

yotes

Sounds like what happened to me the weeks before my video card died of overheating.

Darmak

mts, no idea what my temps are. I can't imagine it's high, it's cold in that room and the comp has good ventilation.

It could also be the video card dying, I'll find out after I try another monitor (and Seeks, off topic but I've always had great success with ATI/AMD cards )

Thanks for the help guys, I'll update if none of this works.

Stormwatcher

try putting the gpu on a different PCI-Ex slot

Darmak

Tried my wife's monitor, it worked so my old one is probably broken. Bought a new one and it works great.

Now my computer is shutting down randomly, not just when I play games so I don't know if it's the gpu any more. Fuck me I'm tired of dealing with shit.