What is wrong with my PC?

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DJ Ronster

DJ Ronster

DJ Extraordinaire
Apr 18, 2007
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California, USA
Well, it's my Dad's PC but anyhoo....

Every couple weeks or so his monitor looks like this. If he does a power cycle, everything is fine.. until it happens again. It's a fairly basic desktop PC running Windows 7.

Sometimes a few days or weeks. Recently twice in one day.

I know there are lots of smart techie types here :)
 

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DJ Ronster said:
Well, it's my Dad's PC but anyhoo....

Every couple weeks or so his monitor looks like this. If he does a power cycle, everything is fine.. until it happens again. It's a fairly basic desktop PC running Windows 7.

Sometimes a few days or weeks. Recently twice in one day.

I know there are lots of smart techie types here :)
Click to expand...
Does the PC have a separate Video card, or is the video connection on the motherboard? If the PC has a separate video card and a motherboard VGA or DVI connector as well, take out the video card and connect the monitor cable to the motherboard connector. If it has no problems, then it's a bad video card. If it's already connected to the motherboard, put in a video card, load the drivers, and connect the monitor to it. If that work, then the video on the motherboard has gone out. If the video on the motherboard is going out, it may mean things are only going to get worse before too long. You may have to replace the motherboard soon (if you can find a replacement). Ya better get that PC backed up while ya can though just as soon as possible.
 
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From the looks, could be a bad video card or bad driver. If it's ok some of the time and not others as you describe, then I'm leaning towards a hardware issue, card not seated right and/or pins not seating right - you need to check the connection on both ends of the cable, at the PC and at the screen. If you have a spare monitor, you could test with it - to eliminate that possibility. It could also be the video cable - but that is rare and unless the cable is moving, it wouldn't happen intermittently. If the built in video adapter is faulty, a fairly decent video card is not expensive.

That said, I have seen drivers cause similar issues - in one example I saw, if the driver was overloaded, it just turned the screen off. I'm still going with hardware issue on yours.

As Bobcat pointed out, I can't stress enough that any data considered important needs to get backed up to some other device immediately.
 
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Looks like what happens when the video card no longer recognizes the video monitor and the two get out of sync. As mentioned, it might be a driver issue, might be a hardware issue (try reseating as Rick said) or it could be a configuration issue .. do a right click on the desktop and check properties of the video .. make sure that the monitor it sees is the one that's there.
 
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steve149 said:
Looks like what happens when the video card no longer recognizes the video monitor and the two get out of sync. As mentioned, it might be a driver issue, might be a hardware issue (try reseating as Rick said) or it could be a configuration issue .. do a right click on the desktop and check properties of the video .. make sure that the monitor it sees is the one that's there.
Click to expand...

When I suggested to re-seat the video card, that's usually a corrosion issue. If you do re-seat the card, take a pencil eraser and rub over the contact points before putting it back in.
 
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Also .. if it's a laptop, I've seen video cables that get pinched and will sometimes work and sometimes not. Had a Dell that I had to send in twice for similar graphics issues .. those due to the ribbon cable that runs around the hinges.
 
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rickryan.com said:
When I suggested to re-seat the video card, that's usually a corrosion issue. If you do re-seat the card, take a pencil eraser and rub over the contact points before putting it back in.
Click to expand...

Could also be the contacts - not making contact (card got loose for some reason). We're also assuming it's on the card side. It could be on the monitor side.
 
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It's an external monitor so, try another display device before messing around inside your computer.
It could just as easily be the display, not the PC.
 
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All kinds of weird shyte happens when the covers are not removed and the accumulation of dust and other sucked in airborne crud isn't carefully removed. That is always my first move with any machine anomaly is not making clear sense.

Do not use a high pressure air blowing device as it was cause some debris to embed rather than release. I use a hand held Dirt Devil with a flex hose and the furniture dust brush and try to suck it all out before use a can of dust remover, then vacuum it again. For me, it's a once a year deal.

This simple maintenance will give your processor, video card, and other heat producing devices a much longer and better performance life.
 
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DJ Bobcat said:
You could be right Einstein, but the OP said power cycling the PC fixed it temporarily, so it's very unlikely to be the monitor.
Click to expand...

Could be the monitor overheating, rare but can happen. If he has a spare screen on hand, it would be an easy troubleshooting step.
 
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My bad for not responding. My Dad did buy a new graphics card and it work great for a short while. When the issue happened again, he bought a new computer. Issue solved. LOL.

Thank you everyone for your responses. They were very helpful.
 
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