I might suddenly vanish for a while

[fragger]

Hey all

I've been having some PC issues during the last few days. Last Wednesday (or Thursday, I've lost track) my power source died and I replaced it with a new one that I happened to have but never used. Upon starting up, Windows was loading but I couldn't see anything (heard the startup sounds). Logging in blind so to speak, I killed the power after a minute, then restarted so that I could get the Safe Mode option, and Windows came up fine in that.

To cut a long story short, I spent pretty much the whole day diagnosing but came up empty handed (nothing untoward showed up in Checkdisk, Error Logs, Device Manager and various other system tools). Resigning myself to doing a system restore, I then spent hours backing up my almost half a terrabyte of graphics files - models, artwork, textures - a shipload of stuff, just to be safe. By that time the day was done, so I went to bed. Next morning I spent half the day running back and forth into town for various errands, the turned back to the PC, whereupon I tried a few other things. I was beginning to suspect a corrupted video driver file so I rolled back to the last one (in Safe Mode still). Fired up the PC again - no dice.

I then decided bugger it - I'll do a full system recovery from an image I have on a dedicated partition. Didn't w0#k - Windows refused to recognize the image. Thinking by now that I was definitely screwed, I cancelled the recovery - and lo and behold, Windows came back up again, fully functional

Next day (yesterday), the PC ran fine all day, no probs (a check of the driver showed that it had indeed rolled back to the previous driver). So all good again...

...until this morning, when in mid-surf, the same problem reared its ugly head again. There I was happily browsing away when the display just winked out. I killed the power and tried to restart, and the same thing happened as before - Windows was loading up fine (heard the sounds) but saw a blank screen (incidentally, upon startup I would see the BIOS prompt with its graphic on a blue screen, and I would see the animated "Starting Windows" logo, but the screen would black out when it tried to display the login screen. So it's definitely not a monitor issue). Back to Safe Mode, that was okay.

So I've since removed the graphics card, given it and it's socket in the MOBO a good dust-off (there wasn't much there anyway as I do this on a semi-regular basis, using a grounded anti-static wrist strap and a camel-hair blower brush) and reseated it. Everything came up okay, but I don't know for how long. I'm beginning to suspect now that my graphics card might be on the way out. I'm going to go into town in a couple of days to visit a computer guru I know who runs a repair and spares shop. He knows his stuff and he's a straight-up kind of guy, with tons of replacement stuff at reasonable prices, so I'll see if he's got a card to tide me over. I'm not in a position to lash out on anything expensive, but he might have something fairly cheap to tide me over.

So that's the sitch. I just wanted to let you guys know so that if I drop off the radar for any length of time, you'll know why (a new PC is definitely out of the question at this point). I'm also staying away from gaming for the duration so as not to make the graphics card w0#k too hard. Maybe it's overheating (but I don't hear the fan shifting into high gear to try to cope, which I know it will do if it gets too hot. Maybe that's the problem - high-speed fan mode not working).

Just to sum up the symptoms, in case any of you experts can offer anything:

On startup, BIOS prompt screen appears
Animated "Starting Windows" logo appears (in the correct resolution)
Screen then blacks out prior to loading (or when attempting to load) the Windows login screen
I can still login fine (in the dark, as it were) and I hear the Windows startup sound when it opens, so Windows is in fact running - just can't see it
Safe Mode runs fine.

No probs with the HDD and there don't appear to be any corrupted files, so it's seeming like a graphics card issue to me.

Cheers

[LowPolyOWG]

Tried integrated graphics? This could be a corrupted GPU driver for your dedicated GPU.

[Art Blade]

could be anything


good luck, mate 

[mandru]

Something comes to mind that you may not have considered fragger.

Recently when we had the shop build Mrs. mandru's new system we brought it home and got nothing but black screen but the tower was making sounds like it was running as normal.

We loaded the new rig into the car and went back to the shop but when they fired it up it was working perfectly but when we brought it home we were still faced with that troublesome black screen.  That was when (trying to follow the steps of trouble shooting) I fished an old monitor out of the back closet and hooked it up and it gave proof that the tower itself was not the problem.

Random chance and her bastard child Chaos are both real jerks sometimes. 

It turned out that her monitor had crapped out at exactly the same time as when we'd connected it to the new computer.  We bought a new monitor that would fill the space her computer sits in (bigger and better than my gaming monitor  ) and it's run fine ever since.

If you have an old monitor kicking around somewhere you might try giving that a shot first or if not have your techie spot check it before diving deeper into diagnostics.

[fragger]

Thanks guys

Got another clue of sorts. I shut down earlier to go out, and upon firing up again I got the blue screen of death. I restarted and let checkdisk to its thing, it found a few corrupted "attribute records" (whatever they are, 4 deleted) and a bunch of dead index entries (14 deleted, 8 orphan files recovered). The index entries all appeared to be recovery-related (almost all had "recov" or something similar in their filenames) so they probably have something to do with that aborted recovery attempt the other night. No bad sectors found.

It restarted okay after the BSOD, but I dunno. I hate weird things like this that you can't pin down First you think it's one thing, then it looks like something else...

I haven't done a Windows update for a while, I'll give that a go. But it could just be that something inside the PC is on its way out - GPU, HDD, who knows. I've had this rig for about 6-7 years now, it's getting on.

[fragger]

mandru, I forgot to reply to you specifically... That's a good suggestion, but I don't have a spare monitor on hand to test that out. Honestly though, I'm pretty sure the monitor is not at fault. That's just my gut talking. It could well be, but it doesn't seem to gel with the symptoms to my mind.

I've just been poking around online to see what kind of pre-built machines may be available hereabouts. There is a nationwide chain of computer and appliance stores in Oz called Bing Lee who are very reputable (I've dealt with them many a time) and they are offering a fairly decent rig for $1899 AUD, with free 2-year warranty. It's called a Medion P5370 E (never heard of that brand before, but I believe it's a German one. Ring any bells, Art?) PCGamer Australia gave it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars, for what that's worth. That price is for the base unit only, no peripherals.

Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700, 3.4 - 4.0 GHz (I currently have Intel Core i7-2600, 3.4 GHz)
RAM: 16 GB DDR4
HDD: 256 GB SSD + 2 TB HDD
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (I currently have GeForce GT 545)
OS: Windows 10 Home (pre-installed, I assume)
USB Ports: 6 x USB 3.0 (2 front + 4 rear), 2 x USB 2.0 (somewhere)
Card Readers: SD, MS, MMC, xD
DVD: Super Multidrive

GPU RAM is not specified, nor is the motherboard. I have no idea what the MOBO is, which is my greatest concern about it. I doubt it would be anything top-notch and would probably rule out overclocking, but I've never been game enough to try that anyway I also don't know about cooling and such either, but at least there's a warranty, which affords a small measure of comfort.

It may not be my gaming dream machine, but specs-wise it's certainly nothing to be scoffed at and it's not half bad for the dough, considering it already has W10 on it and is pre-assembled. I'm not crazy about having the OS already installed on it as that means I don't get a hardcopy, but these things usually have a recovery image on them if the unthinkable happens (and if not, I'll do one). I really need to see and ask about it though, so I'll go in and check it out tomorrow or the next day and ask some serious questions.

I can afford it - it'll put a hole in the budget, but a new rig is definitely something I will be needing in the near future. As I said before, the current PC is getting long in the tooth and this trouble I'm having could be an early warning sign.

[Art Blade]

If I'm not mistaken, Medion PCs are kind of built as a bargain and are a magnet to customers (the reason behind those builds). As soon as they're announced, the day the stores open, those PCs are sold out.

[fragger]

Thanks mate

I learned a bit more about that rig. GPU RAM is 8 GB, which is good enough (I could always upgrade further down the track. This is perfectly okay for now). The MOBO is Medion's own apparently, so that's a bit of an unknown quantity. It does have a spare RAM slot so I could upgrade the memory to 32 GB later on if needs be (I'm using 16 GB now, so I'm used to it ) There is also a built-in Gigabit Ethernet port and 802.11ac Wi-Fi in the box, which is a bit of a plus.

This could certainly get me by for a couple of years at least. I'll just have to postpone getting the dream machine for a while longer But at this stage, I don't trust what I've got. Each time I switch on, I have to cross my fingers that it will in fact come up. I don't want to live like that I also don't want to waste dough buying a new GPU only to find that I've still got the same flipping problem - it could be the card, but it could also be the HDD, the driver, Windows... If I'm gonna spend money on a PC, I'd just as soon ditch the whole shebang and spend a bit more on a new machine. Apply the hoof-and-mouth solution

Need a new one anyway. That's what I'm telling myself

[Art Blade]

I think that's the only reasonable way to get out of that mess

[fragger]

I just hope all my 3D modelling titles run okay under Win 10. I spend as much time with them as I do with gaming. I've been looking into it online and most people don't have any problems, but some do. I hear that Win10's compatibility options are very good in that regard if it comes to that.

Mind you, most of the reported problems on various forums seem to be over a year or two old, so that's a hopeful sign. Also I know that graphics software companies like Adobe, Daz 3D and Smith Micro have worked closely with Microsoft to resolve compatibility issues, so it should be okay.

It's reinstalling all those titles, setting them all up, and copying back all my graphics files that is daunting me. Much bigger job than reinstalling games. But if that's what I've gotta do, then so be it. Better have a good book handy

[Art Blade]

I've got an old phone book here somewhere I might lend to you

[BinnZ]

Need a new one anyway. That's what I'm telling myself

Just keep on doing that, fragger! From what I've read so far I'd quote Art that it's the most definite way of getting out the danger zone.
I bought a new oven yesterday. It was far more expensive than I had participated on, but 'I needed a new oven anyway!' so I bought it. It behaves excellent and will last way longer than my old, cheapass oven. Also a German brand btw, a Miele

With those specs I think it will provide you excellent gaming experience and likely the same goes for the 3D modelling. Win10 is something that makes you forget you need an operating system on your PC. It just works, you hardly ever have to download or setup something yourself. By the time you have it, you might want to look up our thread on the old site about Win10, there are some handy tips about standard features you might want to switch off, and how to do it. 

[PZ]

Sorry to hear about your problems fragger 

This might be a long shot, but might you possibly have your graphics card setup for two monitors? I had a problem very similar to yours and it turns out that when Windows started, the proper logo would appear on what I thought was my main monitor, and yet, when the PC fully started, it would switch to the other monitor and my main screen went black - I could w0#k it like blind similar to what you reported. I went in to the graphics software, reset my monitor settings and all went back to normal.

[Art Blade]

I think he's got only one monitor and that makes it impossible to set up two.

[BinnZ]

 

Well I bet you can trick the software in a way it thinks there's a second monitor