I'm stump on this one????????????

[papichulo1968]

a friends computer will start up go into windows xp and then a few minutes later the video goes off, computer stays runing and he has to shut the pc down in order to get video back on and it just keeps on doing the same thing. keep no in mind, I tested the memory, the video card the hard drive, they all do fine on my pc, the monitor is good to go also, he claims he had another computer that also did the same dance, until it completelly wouldn't let him go into windows at all, the computer would just power up and stay on a blnk screen. he then proceded to use his other pc and in the process piggy back as a slave the hard drive from the first pc into this one he has troble with now, was working fine until it also started doing the dance , we removed the hard drive that is the one that was as a slave from pc 1 , now the second pc, will do the same the first one used too, we since have erased and formatted the hd and still the pc will loose it's video in mid play. any susgections will be greatly appreciatted , I have run out of ideas in my end.

this is the configuration for the pc:

amd duron 1.3
810lr motherboard (probably from pc chips)
tnt 2 agp card
256 megs of ram
windows xp home

 

[mechBgon]

I suspect the power supply is flaky, or else something is overheating (either the video card, the CPU or the motherboard's chipset). Try opening the case, confirm that all the fans run (including on the video card), and then aim a house fan blowing into the side of the case and see if that fixes it. If it doesn't, I would replace the power supply. If it does, figure out what's overheating.

 

[T3C]

Id say the video card is heating up

 

[papichulo1968]

thanks for the replys guys, as for the heating problem, that 810lr motherboard has video onboard, and was working fine before the video started going off, he replace it by adding a tnt 2 to the available agp port, the tnt 2 does have a little fan ad it runs, so I dont know, I dont think those onboard video chips get that warm or at least warm enought to be an issue. we ruled the video card as not the problem at this time, keep the susgestions on coming guys.

 

[VicodiN]

Its amazing how significant excess heat can create a problem... By the sounds of those specs, the rig sounds pretty outdated, and Im suspecting the case and fan utiles are as well... May want to look into ways to ventilate and supply some cooling as others have suggested. You should also pick up a temperature monitor(hardware monitor) via zdnet.com, to find out if it is a heat problem after all...

 

[Bleep]

Leave the side of the case off and point a box fan at the MB if that helps you know it is a heat problem. Be sure and clean out the HSF with some compressed air also.

Bleep

 

[papichulo1968]

problem found, had pluged in the usb data cable that goes on those pins on the motherboard in the wrong place, we removed the extra pair of usb ports, and left the ones alrady onboard and the pc is running fine, so far it the monitor have not go off at all. I didn't think heat was too much of a factor here, from past experiences the system usually do excesive rebooting on it's own, or just shut itself off. Guys thanks a lot for the help .