[shed]

Hi philthomas, I do have xp disc but as it boots properly then crashes would putting xp disc in make any difference. I had it running for 30 mins earlier and put on some xp updates then it decided to go off without warning as it has all along. The screen just went blank then I rebooted it and it got as far as everything loading in then went off again. I am willing to give it a go though if it might work. Thanks.

[philthomas]

OK ... can you be a bit more specific about what' you mean by crash ......
is the PC rebooting, freezing or does the screen just go black and that's it ?

[shed]

Hi the pc screen just goes black and if I turn the monitor on again it just says no signal being received but the computer sounds like it is still on, ie the fans are still working, the green light is still on on the motherboard and the graphic card fan is still going. I know for certain that the monitor is ok as is the graphic card as they have been tested in another pc. I have to leave this for tonight but if you reply I will answer tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

[philthomas]

It certainly sounds as though this could be a graphics card issue.
Have you tried a different graphics card ?

Also ... it might help to know a bit more about the system <Link hidden. Register for free to see this link!>will give you details of mobo and hardware installed.

Do you know the make/model of the PSU and what wattage it is ?

Also how many sticks of Ram have you ?

Also .... not too sure ... is this the original graphics card, or is it a replacement, that has caused probs ?

[shed]

Hi philthomas, my motherboard is intel D845EBG2 pentium 4 2.8gig, power says switching power supply 400watts, I have 1 stick of ram and it's 512meg. This is not the original graphics card. I put in a Gforce 6600 which has extra power supply a lead that goes on the end of the card. It has been in the pc for about 2 years now with no trouble. I have taken the card out of my pc and put it in my son's which has onboard graphics and it seems to be working fine. Without my card in his machine, flight sim wont work but with it, it does so dont think that is the problem. I went to EVEREST using my son's machine but it just tells you what things you have in the pc. I tried loading the EVEREST program onto my pc but it wont stay on long enough to download it.

[philthomas]

OK, from what you say, you have satisfied yourself that the graphics card isn't dead, so that narrows it down to 4 x other possibilities .... the PSU, the Ram, the motherboard or the CPU.

512mb of Ram is rather low for running XP anyway, and this is fairly cheap to buy/try, I would suggest grabbing a 1gb stick to replace the existing one. If you can borrow one or happen to have one laying around, even better.

If the PSU was supplied with the case, it's possible that this was a cheapie and it has given up the ghost and is dying, so swapping this out would be the next step, before suspecting the mobo or CPU.

My best guess from the info given, would be the PSU, but really it's a process of elimination, until you hit on the culprit.

[shed]

Hi thanks for the reply I will try the things you suggested over the next couple of days. I got to wait until I can get hold of my son's pc for a while to borrow a couple of bits from his one. Thanks again.

[Mike0001]

Can you also try going into Power Options in control panel and disabling standby, hard disk shutdown, screen blanking and hibernate?

[shed]

Hi, thanks for all the replies I am now back on line and computer seems to be working fine. I ended up having to change the motherboard, cpu and as this motherboard has pci express graphics I had to change the card as well. Thanks again it's good to get some feedback on these things so that I got idea what to have a look at .

[shed]

Hi again, it wasn't the cpu I changed it was the power supply got that wrong. Thanks again for all the help.

[philthomas]

Glad you managed to get it sorted out