Need Diagnosis Confirmation on PC Hardware Issue

[Nikose Tyris]

A friend of mine in the US has had an issue that cropped up a long while back.

His computer would blackscreen while running a graphics intensive game. The video card would just crap out and die.

The program became progessively more frequent until just playing the CD konked out the graphics.

I asked him to unplug his Disk drives on his computer. Black screen issue was temporarily solved.

The issue then reappeared roughly 14 hours later, as he was playing Portal 2.

he pre-emptively unplugged his now-needless physics card and his extra soundcard, switching to onboard.

Again, issue went away for a while.

He reseated his video card correctly, rebooted and continued.

Today his computer has nothing but the video card and a single hard drive extra hooked up, and he's beginning to see the black screen on doing anything more than running Y!M. Even drawing USB power for his webcam sees the black screen occur.


I've diagnosed this as a Power Supply issue, and mailed my buddy a new 500w; but I'm not 100% this was the issue. The other thought was that it could be the video card itself, and that the delays from unhooking other hardware were coincidental.

Thoughts/input is appreciated from the respected Techies on NPF.

Additional information:
[His machine was running a fully updated Vista, on a Dell XPS machine from late 2008. His power supply is supposedly a 1000w but I'm suspicious of it. His Tower has also been through two moves, one of them across the US to California. Concerned with issues of weather/travelling to shorten the lifespan.]

[akaSM]

A friend of mine had a similar issue (black screen after doing several stuff, even at random). His issue wasn't about the power supply or anything power related, it was a faulty RAM stick.

Has your friend tried removing one of his RAM sticks or using other RAM sticks? Has he upgraded anything in that PC?

[Nikose Tyris]

I'll forward that information.

He had not previously done any major modifications. His friend had added an LED system to the case to make it glow blue, but that was 6 months prior.

[synkr0nized]

When I've had the screen go black it's been due to a faulty video card, though this was accompanied by errors in rendering the screen, even in BIOS, when it didn't go to black. I'd suspect the card, but if the psu is the fault I'd not want to damage another card with it. Hmm.

[Nikose Tyris]

Originally Posted by synkr0nized

When I've had the screen go black it's been due to a faulty video card, though this was accompanied by errors in rendering the screen, even in BIOS, when it didn't go to black. I'd suspect the card, but if the psu is the fault I'd not want to damage another card with it. Hmm.

My friend was broke. He was rather desperate for a solution that wouldn't cost him anything- this is what i wound up with.

If it's not the PSU, it cost him nothing to fix it, and only cost me about $120.

[Seriously when he moves to Canada he's being chained to the kitchen to work that debt off.]

[Eltargrim]

Black screen: computer still runs but no visual? IE fans on, HDD spins, etc.

Preliminary support diagnosis of PSU failing; secondary conclusion would be bad RAM or RAM slot. Motherboard issues not impossible; run him through the peripheral port gamut; swap RAM ports, HDD ports, etc.

[Nikose Tyris]

Thanks, Elt.

Yeah, Black screen/no visual, everything else runs- although fan speeds are chugging.

[bluestarultor]

I'd say that with him getting functionality back every time he removes another component that PSU is the prime suspect. That sounds like it was losing capacity over time.

[Krylo]

What's his GPU? And have him put on something like SpeedFan so he can see how hot his card/other components (which aren't many now) are running in his machine.

I'm suspecting the GPU primarily because you said it was fine when he was doing onboard... until he reseated that. And it's still doing it with nothing but the vidcard and a single hard drive in there. Further, just shutting off is a common defense built into video cards when they start running too hot.

A PSU problem is POSSIBLE, but seems unlikely unless it is old as dirt or incredibly shoddily made, and the other only constant is the videocard. Though this is probably the case if his computer is running at a decent heat (or really anything under 100 degrees celsius).

I know some Nvidia cards have had issues with clogging with dust and thus not cooling properly. They need to be cleaned (if you're going to do it properly) by taking it apart and a possible replacement of the thermal paste on the GPU itself. Though a less thorough cleaning can abate problems for a while.

I had this exact same problem on my computer not that long ago, and was able to clean my GPU, taking it apart, hitting it with q-tips, and compressed, air, etc. Put it back together and it's been fine for months now, and has been running much cooler in general.

Edit: The removal of other things causing temporary abatement could be anything from or a combination of serendipity (as the GPU had long enough to cool down while he was doing that) to the fact that less components = less heat = takes longer for GPU to overheat.

[rpgdemon]

Originally Posted by Krylo

I had this exact same problem on my computer not that long ago, and was able to clean my GPU, taking it apart, hitting it with q-tips, and compressed, air, etc. Put it back together and it's been fine for months now, and has been running much cooler in general.

Cotton Swabs on a stick, man. Not Q-Tips. They are not a generic term. Do you want Q-Tips to lose their trademark?! THINK OF THE CHILDREN.