XP Keeps Dying: computer sounds running, but "no signal detected"

Hardware related - PeteC

hey guys how's it going, I think this may be my third post for my third major crisis but every time you guys help me out. I have a problem i just cannot pin down, i am guessing it's a hardware problem which it completely eludes me.

The problem is that randomly my computer sort of dies, i say sort of becuase the tower is still running I hear the fans and see the LEDs on but the screen comes up with no signal detected and the sound stops. It's like it drops into a coma or something!!

I have checked the system log in event viewer and no errors occurred at this time. I am monitoring the cpu temperature and it's at 38-45 it is maintainig the right voltages too.

The other thing making it weirder is if i put winamp on it occurs for sure within 5 mins. Winamp 5. This fault does randomly occur with winamp or not tho, winamp just ensuring a swift death.

Guys anything helps me out here, i'm a student with 4 more weeks worth of uni I really can't afford time wise, money wise or risk wise to make major changes. It's started happenign in the last week.

AMD Athlon XP 1800+
Soltek SL-75ERV Mainboard
Nvidia MX 420 GFX Card (if you can call it that)
256MB DDR 2100 RAM

Thankyou for your time it's appreciated.

 

Hi Bissnatch,

If you haven't already, I suggest you look at power settings in control panel and set all to "never ". You should also check bios settings that affect the monitor to make sure the bios is not shutting it down.

Please tell us the results.

 

I have set all power settings to never and managed to dig out my motherboard's manual and it comfirmed BIOS settings were not cutting out the monitor.

Thanks man

 

start substitution

Bissnatch<

It sounds like hardware then, so try substituting another video card - if you have onboard video, you have to disable it in the bios first.

BTW, did you actually LOOK in the bios?

 

heh yeha i started in there to begin with, i have pinpointed hte problems hours of stabuility until i run winamp 5 which i've been runnign for a couple months.

obviuosly i've changed somethign in the last few days to cause a conflict. dunno what tho moved my request to the winamp forum for now tho I have stability to finish my projects.

thankyou for your time man.

 

Bissnatch

This could be a long shot, but I noticed your running a single 256 MB memory stick. I'm curious if it could be getting weak and failing. The reason is Winamp 5 causing a predictable failure... Winamp 5 has a nasty feature / bug of devouring memory. With scare $'s, borrow a stick from a friend (remove yours), run it for a couple of hours and see if it resolves the problem.

 

ooooh not winamp

well it seems to not be winamp now, in the space of a few days i can no longer log into windows i am in safe mode with networking....grrr

memory i thought i coudl be hmmm, good siggestion dennis, now i can't even get into my xp account in a normal mode, any one got any thoughts!! does safe mode lighten the load on a sick ram stick then?

i did receive windows stop error 1003 liek 2 days ago which despite the microsoft lexar memory card reader symtom on their support on the majority of forums seems to suggest a driver is causing trouble, i have disconnected all usb devices cause my main priority is beiung able to run word for my uni work.

any thougths people, cause i really don't wanna format

 

Need more info

Bissnatch,

Do you still get "no signal detected "? If so, that means your video is not geting to the monitor. The connection to the monitor may be bad. So check the cable at both ends.

Without more information, I'm stumped.

 

I;m buggerred if i know

well here's an update,

i whipped out my soundblaster card and went to on board audio winampp started up i htougth I had it and played of rliek 4 hours then the same crash occurred. I am thinking this is like a koajor hardware crash, or some component blipping out and the monitor's feed is being shutdown.

I have run the memtest stress utility and it passed my ram 100% but obviusly this is not a regular failure. I mena the only things I can think of are ram and mobo? Has anyoen got ideas on this before i start buying and realise I was wrong.

I can't get my hands on any ram to borrow, another stick for 40 quid tho i ain't too bothered but I want it to be that. For now the system runs great playing COunterstrike or running word as long as I don't try to play music with winamp or media player.

Video worked fine (only 1 or 2 tested), i mean to me if it bombed out naythign intensive happened fair enough but this is sooo random? It has to be hardware, right??????

 

Best(?) advice.

Bissnatch,

It's almost impossible to diagnose intermittant faults. It's all guesswork.
However, as you said, you need your computer to finish your university work, so the best advice I can give you is please stick to that and don't push your luck by running winamp until that's finished.

Then it will take more experimenting to diagnose your computer.

 

absolutely man,

when i get problems i always get these ones. i planned ot re format anyway oce done four weeks without winamp and music tho, gees i can't take it!!

anyway thankyyou for your time and help it's appreciated.

 

Finish projects first

Bissnatch,

From your previous posts: "student with 4 more weeks" (3 now)
I don't think you should take your machine apart if you need it; and that's the next step in diagnosing it. Especially because "I have stability to finish my projects" and "hours of stabuility until i run winamp ", and:
"For now the system runs great playing COunterstrike or running word as long as I don't try to play music with winamp or media player. "

"no signal detected and the sound stops" You haven't answered my previous query; does this always happen?

"motherboard's manual and it comfirmed BIOS settings were not cutting out the monitor." I Don't believe that's enough; you have to actually check in the bios.

"error 1003" sounds to me related to your LAN connection; I couldn't find anything that connects it to what your main problem seems to be.

You need a lot more experimenting "before i start buying and realise I was wrong" and "Video worked fine (only 1 or 2 tested) ". You have to leave the card infor several days, at least longer than the time between crashes, and if it doesn't crash at all in several weeks, buy the card.

Do that if you want to keep working on this, but don't take time from yout uni work please.

BTW, reinstalling XP won't help if your problem is hardware, which it seems to be so far.

 

good point

the same effect always occurs - blank screen, no sound, computer fans and LEDs continue to operate but no one's home!

I check the bios and confirmed using the motherboard's manual that the settings are how they should be, sometimes the settings are a little abstract so that's why i dug out the manual to understand them.

i mean i think the ultimate test (in four weeks!!) will be to reinstall tets the symptom if it happens again I knwo it's hardware but i find sometimes xp gets in some sort of state it can't get out of. it just seems weird ot me that an action game, or deliberate memory stressing is fine, but music playing it blips out, it leads me to think mobo more then memeory,

but liek I say I will leave her for now, your input has been very helpful and in 3-4 weeks I'm sure you'll hear more from me!

UPDATE/EDIT!!!!! ------

This also now happens when i try to scan, or try to transfer files to my minidisc, whihc is guess is ram intensive as it transfers to ATRAC and then transfers.

 

Check mobo settings

Bissnatch,


Been thinking.

"the same effect always occurs "
Ah, but most important is: "no signal detected" message onscreen. Does this ALWAYS occur? Or did it only happen once?

Also, do you get the POST afterwards, like it's rebooting? Or how does it get going again?

Check your BIOS setup for any autoshutdown - look in the settings for the cpu and fans, sometimes called "health ". You might set it high if you find it and see if the "crashes" stop.

 

More suggestions:

Bissnatch,

Please answer the questions in my previous post.

I downloaded the manual for your mobo, and in chapter 4 I have the following suggestion:

chapter 4: Power Management Setup

I suggest you "Load Optimized Defaults" on the main menu and see if you still have crashes.

If you do, then try the following suggestions:

ACPI Suspend Type This item allows you to select the ACPI suspend
type. You can select S3(STR) for suspending to
DRAM or S1(POS) for power on suspend under
Windows 98 ACPI mode.
The choice: S1(POS), S3(STR).
I would accept the default (enabled, S1).


Power Management Option
Power Management Option I would select "Min Saving "
HDD Power Down Leave disabled
Suspend Mode Leave disabled
Video Off Option Select "Always On "
Video Off Method either leave default or choose "Blank Screen "
I suggest you leave the rest in this menu alone.

In 4.6.8 SmartDOC Anti-Burn Shield
Shutdown Temperature 60ËšC/140ËšF: Set to 130Ëš for testing and if you still have crashes, push it up to 135Ëš and 140Ëš.

I hope you haven't changed any of the voltages or tried overclocking.

 

bios fine

hey man,

yeah my bios was set to all those options but the min power saving one instead of auto mode.

I just had the crash occur after liek two days of stability a friend of mine said to try to prime number tool from mersenne.org and then do a 'torture test' in the ram torture test it instantly crashes in my weird particular way.

i ordered more ram and hope that thta's the problem!

thanks

 

"i ordered more ram and hope that thta's the problem! "

It can't hurt anything but your wallet. Let us know if that solves your problem please.

 

exactly but i mean i needed more anyway i wa sjust being cheap!.....i hope that's it, whatever it is is getting worse happenign on bootup and windows logon so i'm hoping anotherwise another 50 or so for a mobo but that'll have ot wait till after the semester's done,

until i get my ram in you'll get silience from me, but thatnk you for your time,

more next week

 

More tests.

Bissnatch,

"whatever it is is getting worse happenign on bootup and windows logon "

If that's so, I suggest you run spybot obtainable from:
http://spybot.safer-networking.de/
to see if your computer has anything that could be causing the malfunction, and also download the motherboard monitor from:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311
Which will place a temperature indicator in your system tray, visible at all times, so you won't have to run the Hardware Monitor Utility that came with your mobo.
Make sure it's visible all the time, especially when you're listening to music. I've been wondering if your problem could be related to overheating.

 

yeha i've checked spyware with spybot and adaware i'm clean there....

the ram arrived really quick...................the thrifty man in me is annoyed that it hasn't fixed it,

exactly the same error is occuring. i'm very annoyed will run mobo monitor while listening to music and see what happens.

otherwise any htoguths coudl this be psu? cpu? or my current mobo? it doesn't seem to make sense , maybe a format would be the answer but that seems illogical.

thanks man