Your video card is probably dead/dying/overheating.

^ This

Motherboard. Save your data now and expect to need to get a new one.

If work on safe mode, I think that is by the drivers of you video card, try to uninstall and not install any drivers (to see if it work without drivers), and if it work you can go to the official website to download the last drivers (or try last beta driver).

I tried that, but it didn't make a difference.

Maybe you can show the temperature as said Deko below.

Very weird problem you have...
I know, acking things on forums (FA included) get that reply evertime:
1) virus--> I do not know any such thing that could change energy management on a PC
2) Defrag: I just don´t thing that might help, but it does no harm does it?
3) Some programms or even hardware may conflict with each other

I got #3 once, a crazy problem: when I want to play games powered by "Unreal Engine" mouse singnal malfunctions and I f.e. spin anticlockwise at Section8: Prejudice. I tried everything but could not find a solution. When I one day went to a Lan and used a different monitor (forgot mine) that spinning got to an end! At home it started again... Still need money to buy a new LCD and all should be well :C

Crazy, but the truth.

I'm agreeing with Echoen... the culprit is most likely your motherboard. They're not too expensive, and you could probably find a similar model to the one you got, or an even better later generation model that supports your current hardware.

Almost sure that its a problem with the video card.

It's either the video card or the motherboard by the sounds of it

What I would do is this. First is there anything you need off that computer. If not nuke it. Format and reinstall the OS. Also when was the last time the case was opened? You need to clean the insides every now and again otherwise they get clogged with dirt, dust and grime. Believe me do these two things and your computer should be as good as new.

Unfortunately, I can't get anything off of it. The screen goes black as soon as I start up.

It's not GPU or MB, it's RAM. Replace your RAM modules.

You sure? Last time I had a RAM related issue, it didn't even get past the BIOS.

A faulty RAM can have just one chip or one circuut damaged so it needs to reach that address to cause the R/W checksum error. That explains why you can enter Safe Mode.

If it was MB, you'd notice stuffed or leaky capacitors around the phase/voltage circuits (at the left of the CPU)

I'd guess the graphics card too. If it has another output port, try using that. Also install a utility to monitor its core temperature. I use this and it works beautifully: http://addgadgets.com/gpu_meter/ and your card manufacturer might have its own overclocking/monitoring tools to read the temperature too. If it happens more often while playing games, maybe the cooling fan is failing. A clean fan can still have bad bearings.

I tried another video card slot, but that one didn't work at all. Now the first one doesn't work either. >.>

If you have onboard video on your MOBO try running through that for a while. If your onboard video works fine and you get no sleep mode glitches, then it's probably your video card.

If you don't have onboard video, see if anyone you know has an old video card laying around you could borrow for a day for troubleshooting.

Does your Monitor go to a Video card? Or onboard Video, as in a plug in the motherboard?

-Download and run http://openhardwaremonitor.org
-Launch TF2 and change it to "Windowed mode".
-Place the windows side by side so you can monitor the values while you are playing
-Keep an eye on the GPU core temp, CPU temp and Voltages (+3.3VC, +5VC, +12VC)

If any temps go over 70C, it's considered pretty hot. And if it's over 80C, it's going to crash. The temp tolerance is different for every kind of chips, but it's around these number.

For the voltages, you can check the following website to give you an idea of what to expect for a normal power supply. If you don't see these voltages, you can download your motherboard software to monitor these sensors. When playing a game, it puts a load on your PSU and the voltages will lower. If the voltages get too low, it means you might need a new or more powerful PSU.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/insid.....-tolerance.htm

You can use ATI Tray Tools or MSI Afterburner (aka Rivatuner) to manage your GPU fan and GPU/VRAM clock settings.
http://forums.guru3d.com/forumdisplay.php?f=52
http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

Good luck.

hmmm your cpu is 5 years old which is the average life for a pc. things start to overheat, not working right and so forth. here is what i suggest and i'm not sure if it will work but, try some compressed air (in spray cans at staples or walmart) and spray your exhaust fans as these can over time gather dust. this should make the cooling of the machine better. try defragmenting the machine, this program usually comes standard and helps clean up files improving performance. if those don't work, try taking it to staples repair desk and see if they can't diagnose it, thats my advice

95% GPU problems.

Take out the graphics card, reseat it, ensure adequate cooling. If you have a motherboard with more than one PCI-Express / graphics slot, pop the card in there, maybe the slot is dead/dying?
Otherwise, get a new one.

it's gonna be either your graphics card or the mobo interface(pci-E port) in all likelyhood. the only other thing I can think of is the monitor somehow overheating.

I'd say its most likely a video card issue. If your video card has multiple output connectors on the back try using a different one than you are currently. If that doesn't work try using the onboard video if your motherboard has it. I'd say its about a 75% chance based on the information you've given that its the video card.

Not sure, my screen was doing that for a while, But I ended up getting both a new Video card and a new screen at the same time so I never got to test if it was the video card of the screen that was fubar.

Its your motherboard hun, I had the exact same problem.

Like most are saying, most likely the video card. Check to make sure the fan is turning well. Also, if you notice it shutting down/rebooting during graphic intensive processes, then there's possibly (though if you're having graphical artifacts all the time, probably not) a chance that your PSU could be dying. Earlier this year I kept having graphical issues. Poor performance, then random shut down in games and graphical intensive processes. Turns out, not only was my video card dying (fan on it was dying), my PSU was dying. I think what happened was the dying fan was somehow taxing the 6 year old power supply. So check the card, and the PSU.

Video card sounds cooked.

Its likely going into "sleep mode" because the monitor is losing a signal. If all the cables are fine and connected fine more then likely the video card is dying and the hardware is failing. Rebooting reinitialized it so it obviously works again until it snags up. Its not intentionally telling the monitor to "sleep", the monitor is interpreting the loss of connectivity as a shutdown.

The "lines" are also a more direct point to the video card as the cause, and not the motherboard/PSU/etc. PSU would cause erratic reboots, and a lot of other varies "weird" issues. Bad motherboard would more likely cause random reboots, blue screens and disk corruptions.



-- Signed computer technician, electronics engineer, general electronics hobbyist, HAM radio technician...

Lines? Like Black lines that are around 1 pixel in height and from a few inches to all the way across the screen?

Are some of these lines Multicolor and rainbow like?

Does this happen in your desktop or just pictures?

Can you move your files? Open Zips or extract them?

Why I ask? I am having a simular issue.

It was like static or interference, I guess. And it would be all the time, just more noticeable when it was sitting still.

this is so ridiculously unrelated to your problem. don't even consider anything in this journal as being related to your issue. i have told you the 2 possible causes of your problem, you just don't want to believe me.

You know I was going to refer him to you.. But you don't have to be a jerk to me.. *eyerolls*

hard to say with a situation like this. you can probably rule out power supply. normally PSU fails will cause a cycle, not sleep mode.

check for blown capacitors on the motherboard. MoBo could be the cause.
but i also read what sounds to me like Artifacting. a common symptom of a dying graphics card.
your graphics card may also be overheating, and going into sleep to protect it.

monitor temperatures! use speedfan or similar temp. sensor program for this.

however, safe mode functionally suggests a driver conflict, or a virus- possibly a rootkit. most AV's can't see rootkits.


my guess, most likely to least likely:

1: graphics card failing or overheating.
2: driver conflict
3: MoBo failing, check for blown capacitors.
4: virus/rootkit
5: power supply.

I would throw the PSU into maybe a bit higher than a rootkit virus (haven't seen them in awhile, but that is just me). I've have seen the same issues occur also with power supplies doing this issue and it is typically an easy fix anyway since they are so cheap. I guess we'd both have to know the specs of it first (mostly the rating on it) in order to decide if that is the case (possibly due to under-powering).

As for recovering things, if you can get into your PC somehow (as in, 'operating to at least the bios') and you have a spare PC/laptop lying around, you can burn a quick Linux disk (Fedora or Ubunto would be my my first choices, but your milage may vary) and boot off of that. They don't require installation and you can access the data on your hard drive through them. This means you can recover your important data and back up via USB drive. You can also use this to possibly help spot the issue being #2 and #4 if you don't have any issues (because then we are ruling out the hardware related issues). In a nutshell, that is a win/win (you get data back and help spot the possible culprits).

Best of luck, but try to give a bit more information about your system (age, PSU rating (watts), OS, and CPU; ram can help but not entirely needed) as that can help people spot possible culprits.

-Flame

+1, this guy knows what he's talking about, though I would say a virus/rootkit is unlikely.

The reason the system works in safe-mode is because safe-mode does not load full drivers, and instead uses the minimum default drivers provided by Microsoft. These will not allow you to stress the graphics card, which will keep the issue at bay if it is the graphics card failing (and which I would say is most likely). Random vertical or horizontal lines on the screen definitely screams graphics card hardware issue.

yeah i only place virus above PSU, because these symptoms are very unusual for a PSU problem.

Have you cleaned all the insides of the PC? also try taking out the graphics card?
Though I'm also suggesting this as my graphics card bit the dust on thursday here :(

It's pretty clean inside, and I don't have an onboard video card so once my graphics card is out, there's no way to use the monitor without it.

sky its the vid card, i had this problem once, and it was my card dying on me

sunspot activity.

I had this problem with my old computer, the problem ended up to be the motherboard. and only after compleatly replacing the computer/getting a laptop was i back online properly again.