Hi guys, a little help if you will.

My computer has done something strange tonight, I went to put my daughter to bed and when I came back the screen had gone funny and was frozen. So I switched it off and tried to reboot it.

Now all it does it bot to a black screen, something has gone screwy with Windows I think....or possibly it could be more serious I don't know.

Any suggestions? 

Sounds like something has died.

More info needed. Does it beep? Any text on screen?

When was the last time you backed up?

It starts, I get a windows logo (instead of the PC Specialist one that usually comes up) then the screen goes black an nothing further happens.

I managed to get to a repair menu and the screen resolution was all over the place. I tried a system restore from there but it didn't make any difference.

As for last backup.........er can't remember!!

Quote from: DD1975 on February 15, 2017, 21:54:00 PM
It starts, I get a windows logo (instead of the PC Specialist one that usually comes up)

That is odd, a setting in the BIOS changes that but I suspect you haven't been into the BIOS and changed it. (possible flat battery on the motherboard causing it to reset everything) shouldn't stop it from booting though.

Interesting that you managed to run a system restore, suggests the hardware is working and its a windows problem.

However it could be a hardware problem that only happens once the drivers are loaded.

Just trying to diagnose it.  Not much help sorry DD     

If I think of anything else I will let you know.

Thanks guys I appreciate the help, I'm seriously hoping its not going to be expensive!!

I probably should note that I've been having the fan kick in quite a lot recently, mostly while playing STO, seemed to happen after a patch a while ago but I didn't think anything of it as I thought it was something to do with the game (which I was running at the time it crashed).

This is one of those occasions that I wish I knew a lot more about computers 

Oh if it helps I took the side off and there was a green LED light on what I assume is the motherboard, so I'm guessing that shows that is working OK.

And no I've not messed with the BIOS, I'm not savvy enough to risk that   

Pressing F2 brought up a menu which I think is the Win10 version and it offers thinks like startup repair, I tried that and it said it couldn't fix startup issues, then I tried advanced options and tried the system restore which went through but didn't fix the problem.

Quote from: DD1975 on February 15, 2017, 23:27:50 PM
I probably should note that I've been having the fan kick in quite a lot recently, mostly while playing STO

It's possible that you have the graphics card clogged up with dust and it's overheated, might explain the heavy fun usage.

Hmmm, you have onboard graphics on that motherboard of yours I think. You could remove the graphics card and plug the monitor into the onboard socket, see if it boots to windows then.     

I thought I had declogged the dust, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

How do I remove the graphics card? Not sure where to start on that 

But before you do it make sure you have somewhere to plug the monitor in on the back of the motherboard (computer case), you should have, I think, but check first. 

Take your time and be careful DD, if you remove it then you should try and clean out the card as good as you can too.  Oh and if you remove it don't put it on the carpet or any cloth type surface, put it on a piece of cardboard, paper or wood.

I have to go to the hospital today, so not going to be around much.

Thanks Data, I'll have a think on how to proceed before touching anything 

Good luck at the hospital fella

  I remember the graphics card from a failed computer, unbelievable amount of dust there.  I really believe the graphics cards are not built to be cleaned, newer cards seem to take cleaning into consideration.  Wish you luck
Carl2

Thanks Carl 

Hi guys,

Well I did it, graphics card is out and yes there is an HDMI port on the motherboard.

I'm now booted up and logged in, so it appears that was the issue.

Screen resolution is a bit all over the place and I can't seem to adjust either that or the scaling, but at least its working!!

Its fair to say that my cleaning out efforts weren't as good as I thought, the question is do I try putting the card back in now I've got as much dust out as possible and see if it works or do I assume that its kaput?

Sounds good to me, well kind of   

DD was the graphics card quite badly dusted up, I know its hard to define but if it was then it might well have fried the card 

It could also be the power supply at fault, it might be falling over when it tries to power the hungry graphics card.

We can probably fix the onbard graphics and its resolution problem, if we do need to use it.

So yeah was the card pretty dusty ?

If you are on Windows 10 you should be able to set the screen size by right clicking desktop and going to Display Settings.

I've blown up a PC CPU in the past when gaming, long time ago - but I held off mentioning that until you had some success