computer screen went all black

[siderman 1,140]

Minding my own business reading NJGF when the mouse stopped working. Swapped mice but still nothing.Figured just try a re-boot and then the moniter wont work! Has power but theres a little blinking light in upper leftscreen corner. I'm thinking video card. What do you think?

[hmmjak 2]

maybe. i would try another monitor too and connecting the mouse to another computer. if it's both a "failing mouse" and a "broken monitor" but it turns that neither is the case, it actually might be a failing motherboard?

[Anselmo 87]

Could be something overheating. Is your case full of dust? Make sure the CPU fan is spinning and things are not too dusty inside.

 

Video card won't kill the mouse.

 

Let it stay off about 10 minutes and reboot. See if it's is not working or if it works for a few minutes. See if you get the BIOS writing when it boots up before it goes into Windows. Does it smell burnt?

 

Check the plug at the back of the computer for funny smells or signs of smoke/burn.

[CageFighter 236]

let me take a guess......is it an HP?

[siderman 1,140]

ita a Gateway. Its mouse works on this laptop. will try a monitor swap tommorow too tired now. no burn smell.

[bLxZe 1]

Friend's Dell tower did the same recently. After reboot it would go to a black screen with a blinking underscore in the top left. We couldnt get it to the homescreen or even into safe mode. Even tried going through bios and setup options. I habe read some people habe had luck with reseating the ram and pulling the internal battery but wr did.not. If you Google it you will see it seems to be a semi common issue with Dells. My friend ended up pulling the hdd (to try and recover data at a later date) and tossing the comp into a dumpster.

[siderman 1,140]

DUH- its a Gateway, was looking at Dell on laptop when typing my post, long day.Anyway its old maybe 8 yrs so maybe time to see what else is out there. The Gateway full screen icon does pop up on screen before it goes black. Gonna do a quick clean/monitor swap then bring it to the local geek for a look.Does the same crap after a overnight cool down. I can build a house and swap out car motors but am a friggen Neanderthal with these computer thingys.

[Malsua 1,422]

DUH- its a Gateway, was looking at Dell on laptop when typing my post, long day.Anyway its old maybe 8 yrs so maybe time to see what else is out there. The Gateway full screen icon does pop up on screen before it goes black. Gonna do a quick clean/monitor swap then bring it to the local geek for a look.Does the same crap after a overnight cool down. I can build a house and swap out car motors but am a friggen Neanderthal with these computer thingys.

 

Does the machine just hang after you see the gateway screen or does it appear to be booting? If so, it's probably the video card.

 

If not, it's some other hardware fault. I would reset the bios and see if that helps.

 

If you open the case, there's going to a round button battery somewhere. Near it, there will be 3 to 4 pins with a jumper on it. At the jumper there should be something screened on the board that says CMOS 1-2 normal 3-4 reset. Something like that. If you turn the machine off, move the jumper from one set of pins to the other, hit the power button(nothing will appear to happen) then move the jumper back and power up. See if that fixes it.

 

You can also remove the battery and short the metal spring at the center of the battery holder with the clip at the side of the battery holder that holds the battery down. A medium to large flat bladed screwdriver can do this. This completes the circuit to ground and discharges any voltage that may be stored in capacitors. Put the battery back in and boot.

[siderman 1,140]

After the Gateway icon it does a quick jump to the black screen withh blinking "dash". Whats "bios"? Will try what you suggested later today but going to cardiologist this AM. Thanx.

[Dan 177]

The Gateway icon is problably the bios preboot screen splash, there should be some comments like "Press Esc to enter setup" or something like that to get into the bios.

 

a) try windows safe mode to see if it is a driver/software issue first. continuously press F8 during boot up to see if you get a menu screen for it.

b) try re-seating the video card and cables, wiggle ram chips in their slots just in case one has a loose connection

[siderman 1,140]

ok- was able to get into the bios (bios setup utility) by hiting F2 whenI powered on, all kinds of info, menu with MAIN-ADVANCED-SECURITY-POWER-BOOT-EXIT headings and bunch of other selections and stats. Off to dr. now.

[hmmjak 2]

open up your computer case and take a picture. i'm curious to see what the computer is running. i have a feeling that pretty much everything is integrated which would mean a simple solution is going to be hard.

 

you can try to make sure the ram chips are fully inserted or replace the battery found on the motherboard (your computer is old and this probably does need to get replaced soon)

 

NOTE. before you try messing with any of the internal hardware make sure you are grounded. static is not a computer's friend.

[Anselmo 87]

Did you hear any clicking sounds in the days before the crash? The clicking sounds indicate a hard drive error.

[siderman 1,140]

opened it up yesterday and was so dirty couldnt really see anything. did a careful clean with a very low volume vac hose i rigged off a hand held vac. didnt feel comfortable with poking around so put it all back together and sos.I'm rich so I said f it and took to the local geek shop. Called me in the eve and said it was overwhelmed with malware, the most they've seen in a long time and didnt even start a viral diagnostics yet. Guess thats what you get for using free prtection(AVG). They're recomending a new viral/malware service- ESET. Anyone know of it? BTW, thanks guys for your help.Gotta pick your battles and this one wasnt mine.

[Malsua 1,422]

ESET is excellent i have been running it for the past two years.......may I also suggest running concurrently with ESET the following:

 

SUPERANTISPYWARE

 

SpyBot

 

Please also install malwarebytes and schedule it to run from time to time.

 

Also ensure your PC is behind a HARDWARE firewall...

 

Lastly....stop looking at porn.... (JK of course but had to add that.)

 

Porn websites are not the ones that cause infections.

 

Most infections these days come via advertisements and sharing networks. Also anything that is FREE!! FREE!! Free Icons, free backgrounds, free whatever...usually means malware, if they were honest... FREE COMPROMISED COMPUTER!!

 

Spybot is useless.

 

The #1 way to stop malware. STOP USING INTERNET EXPLODER!

[siderman 1,140]

Whats that about Explorer? We use that a lot.So now that and the free AVG anti this/that are not good things apparently.Whats a ood replacement for Explorer? And I do not watch porn on the computer. We have a big screen tv! BTW a Mastadon truck blew by me on 23 this AM on the way to CR. WAY TO GO

GIANTS!

[Malsua 1,422]

Whats that about Explorer? We use that a lot.

 

 

And the there is the reason for your infection! Internet Explorer is a security hole in which security products valiantly attempt to secure and yet none succeed.