Why does my display randomly go CRAZY

[OMGBurgers]

It has not happened in a few days, but sometimes the computer freezes up and then it kicks into a 600x800 16color mode.  I have no idea what to do. All the drivers are correct, and the latest.  I put the computer together, so maybe there's something weird that I did?  Just wondering if anyone seen this.

[Masscre]

I have had around 3 computers in my shop in the last few years that would have these same issues. Not with UO, but other applications and games the like. It did not matter what app they where using it would do the same thing. All three times I norrowed it down to 2 areas before I fixed the problem. 1. Heat issues with the CPU not transfering the heat to the heat sink because of faulty spread of heat sink compound and loose connection of the heat sink(the where using the premade thermal paste sticky - very bad choice). 2. heat issues related to not cooling the video card enough and the card booting into a differnte part of the video chip because of self protect using less power on the lower setting and trying to cool itself down. It is a self protect mode the video card has built into it, not all chips have this. What video card and chip is in your system?

[Masscre]

Also thier systems started acting up in the winter time because of the heat being on in their houses, but ran fine during the summer months because of the AC being on. Just some more food for thought.

[gimlet]

I also find (assuming your video drivers are up to date) that the sound drivers can mess things up if they are not up to date.

[_C2_]

Every now and then my windows 7 task bar bugs the heck out and i cannot open the easy uo , icq or UO clients through the bar anymore.  I end up having to shut it all down.  It is a real bummer.  I would love to know why that part bugs out for me.

[Masscre]

Every now and then my windows 7 task bar bugs the heck out and i cannot open the easy uo , icq or UO clients through the bar anymore.  I end up having to shut it all down.  It is a real bummer.  I would love to know why that part bugs out for me.

This all has to do with a poorly written OS when it come to vista and win 7. End of story. Yes they can come out with fixes and patches but both of these were just poorly written from a designers stand point. they may have more to offer than some of the previous OS's but they does not make them good.

[12TimesOver]

I'm with Mass on the heat-related troubleshooting. In fact, that would be the first place I went if it was something you never had issues with before then "suddenly" the issue started. Make sure the fan's are all working appropriately and you blow all the dust out. I've had wacky issues like this many times. Heat does funny things to components.

X

[Cerveza]

I'm going a different route here.... Power Supply.

If you have an old one laying around try it out and see if you get the same results.

[OMGBurgers]

hm, it hasen't happened since I posted this, and I've left the computer running without a restart since.  could that rule out the overheating problem?  the entire thing is brand new, but i suppose it's possible to get something faulty lol.  I've got a few spare powersupplies laying around, I could give one a shot, though they're rated as high as the current one which should be okay w/ my setup.  No video card btw. 

[Masscre]

hm, it hasen't happened since I posted this, and I've left the computer running without a restart since.  could that rule out the overheating problem?  the entire thing is brand new, but i suppose it's possible to get something faulty lol.  I've got a few spare powersupplies laying around, I could give one a shot, though they're rated as high as the current one which should be okay w/ my setup.  No video card btw. 

The power rating on the power supply is not everything. The stablity of the power output and voltage output it gives you is also a large measure. Some power supplies have up to a +/- 20% on the output voltage it can provide which is not good considering the system it is powering needs to really be within 1 or 2 % of the expected voltages.

[OMGBurgers]

hm, it hasen't happened since I posted this, and I've left the computer running without a restart since.  could that rule out the overheating problem?  the entire thing is brand new, but i suppose it's possible to get something faulty lol.  I've got a few spare powersupplies laying around, I could give one a shot, though they're rated as high as the current one which should be okay w/ my setup.  No video card btw. 

The power rating on the power supply is not everything. The stablity of the power output and voltage output it gives you is also a large measure. Some power supplies have up to a +/- 20% on the output voltage it can provide which is not good considering the system it is powering needs to really be within 1 or 2 % of the expected voltages.

Ohh, I see what you're saying.  Every so often our laser at work will get an error from the high voltage power supply if it's unable to output the correct v.  I'll have to check what kind of voltage tolerances this power supply has.  Is there a way to check the current output volts from the power supply while the computer's running?  I thought I saw it somewhere in bios once for diagnostics.

[gimlet]

another thought - take out and put back in your video board and check to make sure the pins on the cable are all straight.

[Masscre]

hm, it hasen't happened since I posted this, and I've left the computer running without a restart since.  could that rule out the overheating problem?  the entire thing is brand new, but i suppose it's possible to get something faulty lol.  I've got a few spare powersupplies laying around, I could give one a shot, though they're rated as high as the current one which should be okay w/ my setup.  No video card btw. 

The power rating on the power supply is not everything. The stablity of the power output and voltage output it gives you is also a large measure. Some power supplies have up to a +/- 20% on the output voltage it can provide which is not good considering the system it is powering needs to really be within 1 or 2 % of the expected voltages.

Ohh, I see what you're saying.  Every so often our laser at work will get an error from the high voltage power supply if it's unable to output the correct v.  I'll have to check what kind of voltage tolerances this power supply has.  Is there a way to check the current output volts from the power supply while the computer's running?  I thought I saw it somewhere in bios once for diagnostics.

Yes there are several software packages you can get on the net that will monitor your voltages for you while running.

Here is a link to one of the above mentioned software packages but you can use others also. This one  supports a wide array of motherboards and you can see which ones in the readme. It is a very good package of software.

[OMGBurgers]

it froze up earlier just browsing the internet.

the display froze on the screen and nothing ever happened.  the reset & power buttons didn't even do a thing...  lol.  so weird.

ill start checking things out tomorrow.  today was a boring day of watching scripts run while wondering if i wana play!

[luv2luvlong]

If your board is a gigabyte, you may have the heatsink problem i've been reading about. Fix is to pull heat sinks, redo thermal paste, maybe replace heatsink standoffs with shorter one's and replce heatsinks.

Thats on both nor and south bridges.