Black screen when some games are loaded.

[ManofStone]

I am having intermittent problems with my computers' screen going black when a game is loaded. It loads fine sometimes but most of the time I get a blank screen. I can hear the games introduction through the speakers so I know it is running  but I have no video. I have updated the bios, video card, monitor and have run Spyware doctor the entire power suite utility, Crap cleaner, both registry and disk clean-up and defrag. There are three separate accounts on this computer with my daughter is having the same problems with my wife having none (though most of the games she plays are DOS based).
This problem does not occur at any other time, just on games. The most confusing part to me is being able to hear the audio. My son thinks it is the monitor but since the problem is so specific to games I doubt it.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Tom

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

What are the games you're trying to run?
What are your computer specs?

• Operating System
• RAM
• Processor Speed
• Hard Drive Capacity
• Hard Drive Free Space

Has this problem always happened?
WHen did it start?

[ManofStone]

I am running Windows XP, 2G of ram, Opteron 180 Dual core processor, 4 250G diamond Max hard drives running in a Raid 5 configuration (it has 95% free space left). The games are: Morrowind, Oblivion, Heroes, Dungeon siege II and Pirates. I have updated the Direct x, and Java since the last post.
The problem started about three weeks ago. I know of nothing downloaded or done to precipitate the problem and the other users of this computer have also denied doing anything out of the ordinary.
Something new occurred today. When I started up the computer it showed the bios loading (which is ordinary) but then did absolutely nothing. After cycling power it came right up like nothing was wrong.
Someone suggested something about HAL which I am currently trying to learn about.
Thanks,
Tom

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Forgot to welcome you to ComputerHope. Welcome.

Anyways, you're computer seems perfectly capable of running those games....Pretty strange....
Not sure if HAL would be the problem here (assuming you mean Hardware Abstraction Layer). I doubt it if you've run the games before.

What Antivirus Software do you currently have on the computer?
Any error messages at all?

[ManofStone]

Thanks for the welcome. Did you have a nice Christmas?
I use the Mcafee firewall, antivirus and spyware protector. I also have the Power Suite from uniblue and thirdly Spyware doctor. Every one of them come up clean. Yes I was referring to the Hardware Abstraction layer but came up with the same conclusion as you about it not being the problem.
I downloaded the malware detector from windows and it came up with no infections. I've also downloaded Windows Defender. I receive absolutely no error messages.
A new tidbit of information. Yesterday I recieved the black screen, after cycling power to the monitor it ccame right up with now problems.
It is getting to the point that I am going to back up things to an external hard drive,  but before downloading them I will run the Spyware doctor on each and every thing I back up. Then swiping the hard drives and starting new. I hate to do it this way but it is really driving me nuts. Before I resort to that action I am going to reseed all the hard ware and clean the contact points. I do not think it will help but it free and cannot hurt to try. Yes I am reaching for straws here.

Respectfully,
Tom

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

All right. Had a pretty good Christmas, thanks.

After backing up, try running a Repair Install:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

If that doesnt work, I guess you can start fresh....unless anyone else has any ideas?