Help, Dell loses video signal.

[HoosierDadE]

Hi,

I have a P4 Dell system with integrated Intel graphics runing XP Home. It loses video and NIC randomly after 3 to 20 hours. The monitor display "no signal" message and the lights go out on the NIC (and LAN light on the cable modem). The problem is NOT with the NIC because it happens even with the NIC removed. When the problem happens, powering off and back on does NOT fix the problem (no signal to monitor, etc.). The power cord has to be disconnected for a while to fix the problem. The XP event log shows an IALM error (event ID 108) saying "driver ialmrnt5 got stuck in an infinete loop...this usually indicates a problem with the device itself....". The most recent drivers and MS updates were applied; no change. The first few times this happened it was noticed when bringing the PC out of hibernation, so if it happened BEFORE XP went into hibernation, XP was still running okay enough to go into hibernation. I turned hibernation and standbye off completely but the problem continued so its not related to that.

I assumed it must be the MB (Intel) and replaced it. The new one is doing the same thing!

Questions:

1. Am I right that this has to be a hardware problem since even powering off (with the switch) and powering it back on will NOT clear the problem AND the monitor reports no signal which shouldn't happen even with the PC turned off.

2. If it is a hardware problem and not the MB/integrated graphics, WTF hardware can it be? I can't see how it could be the monitor, cable, or connectors with the symptoms I'm getting. Could it be a power supply problem?

3. If its NOT a hardware problem and all the latest drivers updates are in, what other software could be the cause? This is a high volume mainstream PC, they certainly all don't do this. FWIW, the only software installed (other than what came pre-installed) is SolSuite 2000 (a card game) and I believe it was always running (usually minimized) when the problem occured. Since I had never considered application software as a possible cause, I have not tried uninstalling the game or even thought about SolSuite until posting this.

 

[HoosierDadE]

Do I win anything for stumping everyone? 😉

 

[Vic]

Dell doesn't have a warranty or tech support anymore? 😕

1. yes

2. did your new mobo come straight from Dell? Did you install it or did they? Have you checked for anything that might be grounding out? PSU's are like the eternal scapegoat of the PC world (edit: I have never actually had one fail on me, even when people were trying to convice me that was the problem, it was always something else that was actually wrong). Have you considered the monitor cable?

3. Could be some type of PCI/AGP bus driver issue, but unlikely.

 

[HoosierDadE]

Thanks Vic.

Yes it has a warantee, but their way of doing things is make you jump through a bunch of hoops and unecesary steps before they will do something. It took me two weeks to convince them I didn't need to reformat and and do their destructive repair/restore. Yes Dell installed the MB (some subcontractor I suspect). Of course they wanted me to do it and normally I would have to save time BUT seeing how they operated I wasn't going to get where they tried to blame me for any future problems.

The monitor cable is hardwired to the 19" CTX monitor which is about a month older than the PC with no prior problems. I may try another monitor if that is a possibility.

Thanks again.