Hi peeps
I have an ever increasing problem with my pc. I know it’s a graphics adaptor problem, but just cant solve it.
I am using windows XP home with a gigabyte radeon 9250 graphics card. (stop laughing at the back)
Every now and then (to be precise about every 30 minutes) the screen freezes, then goes black?????
Now sometimes it will come back, sometimes it wont. I know when it wont because the little led on the monitor goes from green to yellow.
When it does come back sometimes everything is fine, and I can carry on working, but other times the screen is totally garbled and I have to restart the puter????
I have been to gigabytes website and installed the latest drivers, but its made no difference, any advice would be gladly received as I am about ready to throw the whole lot out of the window
Also I cant seem to adjust the brightness and everything is sooooooooo dark. I have set the physical brightness on the monitor as high as it will go, but to no avail. I have gone into the desktop setup and wound the brightness right up, but ists still like a black hole lol ……. Witts end here, please help b4 I commit the ultimate sin of getting a bigger hammer lol
the computer is 3 years old and the graphics card is 2 years old. the monitor is a 18" Targa and is about 5 years old?? :shock:
I would suspect your monitor. Is there any way you can hitch it up to another computer ? if it is not then yes graphics card could be faulty or wrongly configured although even if it were on the blink i would think that if you could reboot and see ( which of couse you can't because there is no display agggggg! ) but in the post (power on start up test) when you reboot you should get some beeps out of your machine as it identifies where everthing is before handing over control to the operating system ie windows xp .I can't remember exactly so look up on the net but for eaxmple one beep = fail of hdd, two graphics card, three cd rom etc etc etc
It could be down to the actual memory chips within the card, if a part (or parts) of the memory is bad, it can cause things like this to happen
(background knowledge on me, i have a degree in computer programming and am in the last few months of a degree in applied computing)
Theres 2 ways (in general terms) of distinguising faults within a pc. (in simple terms from whats going on on your screen). If something dodgy happens and you can still move your mouse pointer around the screen etc, then the chances are it will be a software related problem, either drivers or something similar etc. If your mouse pointer freezes all together and nothing will work, chances are it is a hardware problem, ie the actual piece of kit itself is broken/part of its memory is bad.
In you case it may be to the point of where the memory is filling up to a certain point (ie after roughly 30 minutes of use like you stated) and when it hits that point it encounters a bad bit of memory (ie a knackered memory chip) and the results are the freeze/garble (as what happens with graphics card related issues), though if you can still regain control of your mouse, chances are its not the hardware to blame.
Mind you, iv just got back in the house from clubbing, and im fairly merry at the mo, though il check back tomorrow that my sentences make sence and the likes.
Hope this information helps
C
If it always happens after 30 min then it could be the power saving options turning the monitor off (maybe the PC isn't detecting or logging activity or it might be a setting in the monitor) and then the video memory being corrupted, this would explain the light on the monitor going from green to yellow.
My home desktop system occasionally did the same so I reset the power saving options in windows to never turn off the graphics / monitor and the problem seems to have gone away.
Just to add to what Paul_tim2000 said the most comon cause of this kind of problem is in my experience (I am a PC technician) is as Paul_tim2000 said in thw power saving options but more usually the standby option (hibernation) mode. MS haven't ever gotthis right. If you right click on your desktop (anywhere there is blak space) and select properties....screensaver...power and set all options to never then apply and the problem still occurs then I would look to replacing your Graphics card. this problem is unlikely to be caused by your monitor or your vga cable. There are some more rather technical possibilities but an overheating card does sem the most likely if it's not the power options.
three options, i can think of, power settings in xp, faulty graphics card ie overheating, or faulty monitor, a faulty lopti (line output transformer) in the mointor would cause this sort of faulty
Sparky nerd, ham and pround of it.
73's and qrt, hope u solve the prob
(and hope dawnie doesn't catch us)
Talking of techie help, I suspect that "have you tried turning it off and on" will become a new national catchphrase soon, if the new Channel 4 comedy series "The IT Crowd" catches on.
Mike.
guilty as charged, but only an M1 I'm afraid, spent far too many years pirating on 11m 
what the hell your on about so ta hun 
you saved me!
