Daily get Blank Screen at startup – after 4 to 5 tries if starts up normal

[kzzzqstch1]

Hi, I am getting overwhelmed trying to figure this out.  Every day when I try to start the computer, I get nothing but a blank screen with a faint flickering in the background.  Pushing F-keys does not produce an image and the blank screen is without a message of any sort.  The computer does its beep, the keyboard, mouse and speaker lights come on, sometimes the monitor light goes thru green and yellow but usually ends with no light and Windows does its Welcome tune but the screen stays blank.  Between each on/off attempt I do one or more of the following:  I open the case and tweak the wires and check that everything is in there tightly or/and I unplug power cords from the surge suppressor removing all the peripherals plugs and plug the PSU and the monitor directly into the wall or/and disconnect the internet, or I turn in circles 3 times and stand on my head.   Finally, finally, finally it comes on – this has been going on for a couple weeks now.  Once in awhile it comes on with the first attempt or after just one little tweak.  When it comes on it stays on and works fine all day.  I can even do restarts and power on/offs instead of restarts and it acts like nothing is wrong; which of course gives me false hope all day that I have solved the problem. 

I have tried leaving the computer on overnight and just turning off the monitor.  It worked one time and was fine all day but it didn’t work the next time – I couldn’t get the monitor to go back on so I had to turn off the computer and go thru the song and dance trying to find the newest magic trick that would grant me a visual on startup.

Here’s the history of past problems and what I have tried (other than the morning jumping thru hoops routine).  I don’t know how much of this is connected but maybe it is:

•   Recent hardware changes:

1.   In May my PSU fried with lots of fireworks and was replaced on 5/16/08 by a local repair person with new one with the same wattage - 600.  At the time it was burning, while I was trying to pull the wall plug I saw sparks/fire down near the bottom of the back of the case, not up by the PSU, but the PSU definitely was the problem, nothing else was burnt that we could find.  Things seemed to work fine for a couple months.

2.   Last month when I started having videos not staying in full screen problems I was told I probably needed to replace my graphic drivers, with the first step being removing the old drivers. Got the black screen after the removal and could not get into download the new drivers so after some in-the-case testing with a phone tech it was decided that I needed to replace both my 256 MB graphic cards, based on the beep codes we were getting while testing. On 8/3/08 I got one 512 MB card to replace them.
        The 512 card is about 3” longer than the 256 cards which has caused a problem in the case.  The card almost butts up against one of the hard drives especially including the power plug into the hard drive.  Then this new graphics card requires a power plug connection also (the 256 didn’t use one) and it is exactly where the hard drive plug is.  I managed to squeeze both of the plugs in but the wires coming out of the plugs are totally smashed between the two plugs. 
   When I first put in the graphics card everything was fine, monitor was working at startup and videos would go to full screen but over the last two weeks things started deteriorating.
   Finally today I figured out that I could move the hard drive down to the empty next rail since the graphics card couldn’t move.  I think that maybe being pushed together caused the graphics card to torque a bit because when I would open the case the end of the graphics card’s power plug would be a little below the hard drive’s plug instead of in line touching it.  This re-aligning the graphics card was one of the tweakings I have been doing.  Like I said, the tail end of the card is about 3” away from its PCI connector and maybe it has been bending to fit and that has been my problem.  I really hope I haven’t ruined this card and need another new one. 
   The monitor still wouldn’t give me a visual after I did the moving around in the case, but after my usual 4 to 5 on/off attempts I reopened the case and sort of lifted up the tail end of the graphics card (it has plenty of space around it now) and then it started right up.  Maybe it just needs to straighten itself out and will be fine in the morning.

3.   On 8/30 I bought a new monitor-to-graphics card cable to see if that would help, but it didn’t.  I am still thinking that maybe this has something to do with PSU burning so along that line to me the next option would be to also buy a new power cord for the monitor. After the research I have been doing I have been thinking that maybe I should get a new surge suppressor also even though running directly to the wall plug didn’t improve the situations – except one morning. 

•   Other stuff

1.   I have just spent from 8/28 thru 8/30 over in your Virus and Spyware Forum getting purged.  So in that process I did all of the required new software downloads and cleanouts of files.  After getting a clean bill of health was when I realized that my startup problems were definitely not virus related.

2.   I think I need to download new motherboard drivers but every time I try to read thru their site, I get confused over which ones I need since they are offering so many versions for my board.  Could you tell me how I can tell which version of drivers I have now? And do I need to check for chipset driver also and Bios drivers?  Should I just download everything from the date I bought the computer forward, or just the most current?  Oh and since I had that little problem with the graphics card drivers I feel uncomfortable uninstalling old drivers before installing new ones – how can the motherboard function without any drivers to allow the new driver to be downloaded?  I know some company’s build the uninstall part into their install wizard but Nvidia didn’t on my old graphics card drivers.  If you can help me sort it out, the Asus mobo page link is: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?modelname=0&SLanguage=en-us

3.   I’ve had the computer since May 2006 so I probably need other drivers also, but that doesn’t seem so long ago that my hardware should be wearing out.


•   My system: Cyberpower’s AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+,  ViewSonic VX922 monitor,  Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 motherboard,  CoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System,  PNY NVidia GEForce 8800 GT 516 MB graphics card,  2GB memory,  250GB x2 hard drives,  Creative Labs SB Audigy 4 SE sound system,  Cooler Master Extreme Power Supply 600 watt,  Windows XP Media Center 2005

Thanks for whatever help that you can offer me.  I am sorry this is so long.       K

[RayDude]

Hi!

Your computer beeps and boots but you get no video until some time has gone by. The problem is not likely in your computer.

I think the kind of problem you are having is electrical. I think there's a component that needs to warm up in order to function. This sometimes indicates a "cold" solder joint. That's a solder joint that has cracked and is not providing good enough conductivity until it warms up and the thermal expansion causes the solder to short as its supposed to. It could also be that a component has a similar heat related problem. These types of problems are very difficult to find and repair. More than likely its a problem with the back light in the LCD.

First step: get a friend to bring over his laptop or desktop system (unless you happen to have one lying around that you know works.)

Plug your monitor into the known working system after leaving it off over night or at least several hours. (try to use a known working cable too, but the fact that you bought a new one pretty much indicates that its not the cable or connectors. As an insurance step: examine the cables you have at both ends carefully to make sure the pins are not bent or pushed in. Examine the card to make sure its connector is undamaged.)

If you still get black screen from the known working system plugged into your monitor then the problem is in the monitor.

Alternatively you could test a different LCD. But you'll be more sure the failure is in the LCD if you replicate the problem on another system.

My guess is the back light in the LCD is going bad. Its probably time to buy a new one (unless that one is in warranty).

Raydude

[kzzzqstch1]

Thanks for getting back to me.  I just checked ViewSonic's web site and it looks like there is a 3 yr warranty so I'll go bug their support dept and see what they can do about it.  Plus I will ask my neighbor if tomorrow my monitor can go visit their computer system.  It is really nice to get some sort of handle on what the problem could be so I can stop the morning jumping thru hoops - thanks.       K

[RayDude]

Glad to help. Let us know what happens at your neighbors.

[kzzzqstch1]

Results from my neighbor's system were as you suspected – no video!  I just took over the monitor, used their cables and cords.  Today I did the next step of contacting ViewSonic.  They said that I have to ship the monitor to them and yes it is still under warranty, but it will take 15 working days for them to fix it.  I asked if they could get just get a local repair person to repair it and he said no, they don't do that, it has to be sent in to them.  Since I have no other monitor that means I will be with no computer for around 3 – 4 weeks.  Yuck!!  Do you have any other suggestion that might be easier or faster other than buying a new monitor?

[RayDude]

While its still in warranty you should work with Viewsonic. I agree 3-4 weeks is excessive. HP has (kindly?) taken my laptop back over night (for free) and then shipped it back over night three times now (its due back on Monday).

If that's Viewsonic's policy you should keep that in mind when you want to buy another LCD in the future. Perhaps it can be the clinching policy between Viewsonic and a competitor.

I suspect however they can get away with that because their LCDs don't break very often. Which is also a really positive selling point.

Sorry I don't know a way to fix it faster.

[kzzzqstch1]

Okay, I'll take your advice and send it in.  Maybe the turn around time won't be that long, maybe they just say the maximum turn around time so they won't get guff if it takes awhile.  I guess I should be happy it was at least still under warranty and this will give me  time to catch up on my book reading -- positive thinking here.  I'll post back in a few weeks and let you know how long it actually takes.        K