Windows keeps "blacking out". Strange error.

[normloman]

Hi. Ive been running windows xp professional for a few years now, but
latley I've been experiencing a strange problem. Every time I try to
start windows, it "blacks out". In other words, right after the windows
xp loading screen completes, the screen becomes black, and the light on
the monitor slowly fades to orange. At this point, no mouse movement or
keystroke invokes a response, the cd rom drive will not open, and the
"busy" light on the computer stays a solid orange, and does not move.
The computer is still technically on, because I hear the fans moving. I
just cant get the machine to do anything. I can't power it down at this
point either, or use controll-alt-delete. I have to unplug the machine
before I can get it to restart.

This started happening about a month ago, but It didn't happen every
time. Most of the time, I could just unplug the machine, turn it back
on, and if I was lucky, the machine would go back to normal. Today it
will not start at all, no matter how many times I unplug and reboot.
Between now and then, Ive used system restore which seemed to fix the
problem temporarily (but it came back the next day) and I've
reinstalled windows xp (But it wasn't a clean reinstall. I don't want
to resort to that unless I have to). None of these things seemed to
help.

Starting in safe mode also makes me experience the 'black out" problem,
except in that case, it doesn't even reach the loading screen before
everything is locked up. The only thing I can get into without blacking
out is "Safe Mode With Command Prompt". I have figured out that I can
still run everything in command prompt by using ctrl-alt-del and
running explorer. What realy puzzles me is that the blackout problem
will even occur when I'm starting other operating systems. For
instance, I tried running Linux off of a live cd, to see if I could get
the computer to start, but the computer blacked out after it reached
the desktop screen.

Last week, I also noticed that the computer would "black out" if I
tried to open an audio file through windows explorer. If I opened the
song with a player like media player or winamp, the computer would run
fine. If I tried to open it through my computer, however, it would
black out again. I'm not sure if it blacks out with other files, but
I've only experienced it with audio files (mp3, wav, ogg).

Today I also noticed that If I tried to boot off of the windows xp cd,
the computer would black out once again after the cd was done loading
it's various drivers.

I have no clue whats causing this problem, and internet searches have
not had much success in diagnosing the problem. I've run scandisk, done
virus scans with AVG, scanned for spyware with three different
programs, checked my Hijack this log, and looked at my boot log, but
everything seems perfectly normal according to these programs. Has
anyone else here ever experienced a problem like this? Does anyone have
an opinion on this?

 

[Guest]

sounds like a slow degredation of your monitor. do you use an lcd? lcd's
have power invertors that can give out. have you tried temporarily
switching the monitor with another?

 

[Brian A.]

Sounds very much like faulty RAM, I've been through that situations exact symptoms.

Whichever app you choose, let it run for a few hours at the least for a thorough
test, that's only if it's not finding error after error.
Memory testers:

http://www.memtest86.com/
http://www.memtest.org/
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[normloman]

sounds like a slow degredation of your monitor. do you use an lcd? lcd's
have power invertors that can give out. have you tried temporarily
switching the monitor with another?

I use a sony trinitron. Ive tried switching the monitor with another
flat glas monitor, but it didn't work. I don't think the monitor is the
problem because if that was true, then the cd rom drive, mouse, and
keyboard would still be fine. I think it has more to do with memory,
like someone suggested.

 

[Guest]

hmm, good point. there is also diagnostic software that produces benchmarks
of a variety of system functions, eg, ram, cpu, etc...., like pcwizard2005
and freshdevices,...

 

[normloman]

I think I fixed the problem - I put all of the old components in a new
computer with a new motherboard and processor. Everything seems to be
working fine. My guess is that the problem was associated with either
the motherboard/processor or the power supply. Anyways, thanks for all
of your help