Completely Random Black Screen Restart

Deadshot

So I was just using my PC and my computer just randomly blacked out as if someone had pushed the reset button on the case.

This is the second time its happened in the past two or three weeks.

What's going on? Is the case defective or is there some setting in the BIOS that is causing this?

Zephos

How old is your power supply?

does it restart normally with just a press of the power button?

any recent hardware upgrades?

Deadshot

Zephos wrote:

How old is your power supply?

does it restart normally with just a press of the power button?

any recent hardware upgrades?

End of August when I bought the machine.

The power button is pressed to shutdown the machine, this is as though I'm pressing the restart button (something that can only be pressed with like a pencil etc).

No hardware upgrades since the machine was built.

Zephos

i'm a bit confused with this

"The power button is pressed to shutdown the machine, this is as though I'm pressing the restart button (something that can only be pressed with like a pencil etc)."


is it just the monitor blanking out?

also, does it actually reset itself? or just shut off.

Deadshot

No that was terrible 2am grammar on my part.

If I were to press the power button, the computer would act as though I went to start and shut down.

For this incident its as though I'm pressing the (separate) restart button on the case however I'm not doing anything at all.

Deadshot

Its still happening.

robaal

First go to system properties -> advanced -> startup and recovery settings and make sure you have "automatically restart" unchecked.

If you get a BSOD write down what it says.

If you'll still be getting restarts then it's most likely some power problem - either there's something wrong with the PSU (you can check the voltages with something like Everest Home Edition - they should be within 5% of their target value) or it might be dirty power from the socket, though you'd probably notice any strangeness of this type by the light dimming for a moment or something like that.
You could check all the connections in the computer, especially the wires connecting the PSU to the motherboard...

exoplasm

This could also be caused by your CPU overheating. Best bet is to either look in the event viewer (start -> run "eventvwr.msc") under system to see the error message (it will show you the same thing the BSOD will). Google the error message for more info (usually STOP 0x0000002516 or something).

The restart is default behavior for Windows 2000 and XP to reboot when it gets a BSOD in case there is a critical service running that shouldn't have downtime, thus allowing it to start up and run again.

Deadshot

So far I haven't gotten another black screen in the past day or so after upgrading my video drivers but I did get a full freeze of the system while simply browsing the Internet.

I'm probably going to flash my bios at some point to see if that fixes anything.

emp123

Ive been having issues similar to this. Im really really hoping its just a power supply issue and not a video card issue, but when I was playing WoW my screen went black and the music I had playing in the background stopped playing, eventually my screen went into stand by, but the computer sounded like it was still on(the fans were running....its really the only noise it makes). Anyway I didnt think much of it, I just assumed it had shut down due to overheating. But after booting up I checked the temperatures and they were below 40C. After a while I try wow again, but after 5 maybe 10 minutes the screen goes black again.

After a couple of days of this, it eventually stops.

Unfortunately it happened again today. Except now when I log back into WoW it looks like this(look at the trees; I know its a shitty picture, Ill take a better one):


and when I try to watch a video it has bricks made up of verticle lines all through out it.

And when I boot, my screen stays black till it gets to the log in screen.

Ive updated my video drivers, Ive scanned for spyware/viruses and Im clean.

If it helps here are my system specs:
AMD 3500+
Seagate 200Gb HDD
ATi x800XL
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum

and Im currently running Windows XP SP2

urchin

@ Deadshot: Does the screen just black out, wait a 10-20 seconds and THEN the computer reboots? If so, can you still hear music during the monitor blackout period before the actual reboot?

Deadshot

urchin wrote:

@ Deadshot: Does the screen just black out, wait a 10-20 seconds and THEN the computer reboots? If so, can you still hear music during the monitor blackout period before the actual reboot?

No its instant, as though you pressed the button on the case.

But this freezing is also an issue, though it's only been apparent since I started using firefox 2.0, so it might be related to that.

FishMist

robaal wrote:

First go to system properties -> advanced -> startup and recovery settings and make sure you have "automatically restart" unchecked.

If you get a BSOD write down what it says.

If you'll still be getting restarts then it's most likely some power problem - either there's something wrong with the PSU (you can check the voltages with something like Everest Home Edition - they should be within 5% of their target value) or it might be dirty power from the socket, though you'd probably notice any strangeness of this type by the light dimming for a moment or something like that.
You could check all the connections in the computer, especially the wires connecting the PSU to the motherboard...

Just wondering - how do you know what your voltages' "target value" should be?

drinkinstout

I play wow and this used to happen to me a LOT. It got so frequent that I stopped playing because I couldn't do anything. In my experience, it was also only happening while playing wow so I was really confused.

(black screen + post)

BUT I fixed it. I'm not 100% sure what fixed it because I did a number of things at once. It was either a memory issue or heat.

I tore my PC apart, took out my RAM, blew out my heatsinks (CPU and Graphics) reseated the RAM and all IDE and power connections, removed unneeded hardware and completely cleaned all the dust from my case, then booted up and defragged my Drives until they were all 0% fragmented.

Then it all worked fine and I never blackscreened again.

So... it was either a heat issue (wasnt monitoring anything at the time) and my cleaning of the case fixed it. OR it was a data issue and reseating the RAM, etc. fixed the problem.

I would personnally start with the defragging because WOW uses a ton of memory and there is a chance that you are paging to and from your HD like crazy while playing. Repeat that process until you are 0% fragmented.

If you still experience the problems, get some compressed air, take your PC outside and blow it all out - make sure you dont get liquid spraying out of the bottle when doing so. Once it is all clean and there is no longer any dust in your heatsinks, let it sit for 10-15 mintues to let anything that might have gotten wet or cold equalize with your room. Then start 'er up...

If it is still happening I would suggest reseating your RAM and IDE connections - depending on your level of experience, you might not want to do this yourself.

Like others have said, this can happen from improper voltages too.

The simplest way to see these is to enter your BIOS screen during POST (DEL, F1 or a number of different keys will get you there) and look at the screens - one of them should show power levels and usually fan speeds. You're looking for the +3.5V, +5V and +12V rails - they will have values next to them that are slightly above or below and might be changing as you view them. watch them for a while and write down the range of values you are seeing and post back here with those - people should be able to tell you if you are having problems there.

Well, as my first post here, I hope it was helpful

exoplasm

I think it's your video card AND cpu overheating.

I had a video card that overheated once and it forever had graphics problems (similar to what you've shown, but it had weird lines of randomly colored pixels striping the screen too)

The video card overheating causes your computer to freeze, and the cpu overheating causes the reboots.

Clean out the inside of your case with those canned air things and make sure your fans are all working in there.

Mitsuhide

Thanks guys! I have been getting those too, but only when I play MapleStory (lawl i know, but I like it.) And I unchecked that thinger, so I hope it's fixed. :?