Hey there, since Saturday night I've had some really bad luck w/ my computer. This has never happened to me before and I don't even know where to start. I was hoping someone can steer me in the right direction.
My stats: Vista 64 bit
Video Card: NVIDIA GEforce 9400
Dell ispiron 530S
This is a brand new computer bought for a xmas present in Dec..
Sat. night after watching some hulu, I went to youtube and was typing stuff in. Right in the middle of typing words in the search field, it froze, then immediately, my monitor went black and said it went into "power saving mode" (sometimes it said, check pc or cord, and that the monitor is working - something along those lines).
I figured that since I had the monitor/computer on for a while maybe my monitor over heated or something, but it wouldn't explain the words and mouse freezing.
I turned the computer off, then on.
Right after I logged into windows, I seen the desktop, things loading, my gadgets, then the screen went black (sometimes white, sometimes lime green), then in "power saving mode". This keeps happening. Sometimes, this happends right after I see the "windows" logo, sometimes, 30-60 seconds after being on my desktop.
I tried my husband's flat screen, and the same thing happens, so I know it cannot be the monitor.
I can't go into safe mode. When I do (either with command prompt, OR with networking, or either without), after all the files load on the screen, it doesn't go any further - the screen goes black.
I've noticed now, any of the times I can manage to rush through control panel to see any hardware changes or something, I can't spend enough time figuring things out because it goes blank.
Before, when the screen went blank even before I can put in my password to log in, I had the speakers on, could blindly type in my passoword, press enter, and hear the welcome chime through the speakers.
I don't know what I should do. I'm just so lost at why it would happen at such a random time! The computer has been great, fast, with awesome results working in Photoshop, and everything.
Where should I start? I can't go into safe mode, most of the time, I don't have enough time to quickly disable anything (I might, if I get lucky).
Do I uninstall the graphics card through the hardware driver thing? Do I disable it? What do I do?
I am thinking it is the graphics card, but I am NOT an expert.
Thanks,
