I have a Gateway GT5662 Quad-core running Vista Home Premuim. ATI Radeon HD 2400XT Graphics Card and a AMD Phenom 9500 processor. I have a 24" Gateway HD monitor. This computer is under 1 yr old and under waranty so it limits what I can do to check out the problem.
About three days ago the computer was running and everything working fine. The monitor suddenly shows some horizonital streaks, blacks out and then shows no signal and shuts off. When I rebooted it worked fine for a bit and did it again. So I restarted in safe mode...ran msconfig and turned off all start up items and rebooted thinking it might be something it was trying to start. I worked fine for most of the day but eventually did it again. I turned it off manually again and ran it in safe mode for the next day to see if it would do it in safe mode and it does not. I ran start up repair and checked for memory errors...ran all other diagnostics that I know of. 
Any ideas what it could be?
Thanks,
Kristi Hey Geekygurl,
It looks likely to me that the monitor is starting to go bad or the cable is a little loose. Here are a few things you can try to try and be sure.
1. Turn off the computer and monitor and then unhook the monitor from the computer completely and then reattach it. If that resolves the issue great.
2. I don't know what version of windows you are using so I can't give you the steps but I trust that you won't have trouble doing it. Run System Restore and go back to a time before your troubles started. If you can I would suggest to predate the trouble by a week or two.
If none of that helps I would file for a warranty repair or exchange of the monitor.
Charles
PS Yes it could be the video card but that is pretty rare. 
If it were the monitor going bad then why would it not do it at all in safe mode. And I tried the system restore and that didn't work either.
Sounds like a dieing video card to me. If reseating the monitor plug doesn't help, your only option is to cash in on that warranty and make them fix it.
(Though if you've recently made any graphics settings changes, reverse them, that might work.)
| Quote: |
| If it were the monitor going bad then why would it not do it at all in safe mode. And I tried the system restore and that didn't work either. |
It seems I misunderstood.
No signal means literally that the monitor senses no output from your computer. The overwhelming majority of the time it is because the cable is having trouble,... It could be a pin is cracked, a wire is frayed or the connector just needs to be removed and reattached. Most of the time it is there is nothing that you can see. This can cause strange problems like the monitor works sometimes and not others. I would recommend borrowing a monitor if you can for an hour or two and see it the "new" monitor has the same issue.
If it does have the same problems then and safe mode still does not have the issue I would delete and reinstall your video drivers. if at that point you still have video problems I would have them swap out your card.
Charlesif you have a spare monitor or video card in your house, take it out and plug it in for a test run. If the monitor shows the same problem, then its either your cable or video card that is giving you problem. You can also check the connection of your video card on the motherboard. Sometimes they get loose due to the shifting of your PC.
IF your PC has an in-built VGA, then connect the monitor to that port and give it a test run as well. IF there is no problem, then it's confirmed that your Video card is giving problems. Did you check if your video card cooling fan is working?
Alternatively, you can download the latest drivers and install them to see if the problem persist.
| Kelvin wrote: |
| IF your PC has an in-built VGA, then connect the monitor to that port and give it a test run as well. IF there is no problem, then it's confirmed that your Video card is giving problems. Did you check if your video card cooling fan is working? |
I'm putting my money on this one! I have a similar problem with my HD4870X2 which gets really hot really quickly so runs for a while but starts having problems once the heat builds up to a certain point.
A good computer clean (all fans & heatsinks) and possibly moving to a better suited enviroment (away from radiators for example) should fix it I reckon.For any issue like this, the best way to identify the problem is to isolate the problem.
If you can beg, borrow or steal spare parts from other computers, friends' computers for example, then this will help. But I'd try the following:
1. Swap the cable with another cable to see whether the problem still occurs
2. Swap the monitor with another monitor to see if the problem still occurs
3. Take the graphics card out, do a clean of the inside of the computer and the card, fit the card back in and see whether the problem still occurs
4. Reinstall the latest graphic card drivers and see whether the problem still occurs
5. Swap the graphics card with another graphics card and see whether the problem still occurs
6. Insert a stick of dynamite in a spare DVD bay, ignite, stand well back, and see whether the problem still occurs.
| ocalhoun wrote: |
| Sounds like a dieing video card to me. |
+1
Unplug VGA card and clean it.
Then plug it againg. | Quote: |
I have a Gateway GT5662 Quad-core running Vista Home Premium. ATI Radeon HD 2400XT Graphics Card and a AMD Phenom 9500 processor. I have a 24" Gateway HD monitor. This computer is under 1 year old and under warranty so it limits what I can do to check out the problem.
About three days ago the computer was running and everything working fine. The monitor suddenly shows some horizontal streaks, blacks out and then shows no signal and shuts off. When I rebooted it worked fine for a bit and did it again. So I restarted in safe mode...ran msconfig and turned off all start up items and rebooted thinking it might be something it was trying to start. I worked fine for most of the day but eventually did it again. I turned it off manually again and ran it in safe mode for the next day to see if it would do it in safe mode and it does not. I ran start up repair and checked for memory errors...ran all other diagnostics that I know of. Any ideas what it could be?
Thanks,
Kristi |
It definitely looks like a VGA hardware problem. Have you tried taking the card out and putting it back, then reinstalling the drivers while upgrading to the latest available ?
Keep us reported.Just you reinstall the VGA card driver, otherwise change your monitor may the monitor be fault
sounds like a video card issue. if your computer does turn on and doesn't make any funky beeps then i would suggest that you try davidag's advice.
it is seems to be Video card issue... is that message " no video signl" displaying correctly?.. then check your VGA card if it is seperate one.. if it is onboard then it is an issue 
So Geekygurl,
What happened Were you able to resolve your problem?
Charles
