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Other => Viruses and worms => Topic started by: tomohalloran on March 17, 2006, 02:31:48 AM

Title: Black screen
Post by: tomohalloran on March 17, 2006, 02:31:48 AM

Hi there –
Thanks for the forum!
I’m not sure if I have a virus or not…
Has anyone heard of this?: My screen randomly goes to black while I’m in the middle of working and doesn’t receive any inputs; forcing me to power down and reboot each time. It usually happens after about 10mins of use. But maybe more frequently when I browse in Modzilla.
It started happening after Avast told me of a suspicious email which I let come in because I thought it was a trusted source – I then proceeded to scan my drive and deleted some infected files. I’m not sure if I can get the log of this? Can’t seem to find it.

Anyway my other thought was that it could be a conflict of some sort, and I should also mention I have adjusted some windows settings like pagef file size and chosen ‘for best performance’ under performance options in system preferences – taking all the visual effects of windows off.

I’m running XP, and have both the latest version of Avast and the virus database.

Any help to what this sounds like would be really appreciated!

Cheers from
Tom
 

Title: Re: Black screen
Post by: Spiritsongs on March 17, 2006, 06:57:51 AM

 :)  Hi Tom :

     What other computer "protection" programs do you have
     on your computer ? If any, have you run their scanners &
     what has been the result(s) ? We also need to know the
     "version" ( SP1, SP2, etc ) of XP .

Title: Re: Black screen
Post by: DavidR on March 17, 2006, 03:41:42 PM

A Black Screen, as opposed to a Blue Screen of death (BSOD) usually indicates a hardware problem (or possibly excessive heat), RAM, PSU (power supply), etc. If there is a software crash you usually get a Blue Screen with at least some information (not usually very user friendly). Unfortunately hardware problems are notoriously difficult to fault find.

I think the suspicious email is a coincidence rather than a cause and suspicious is much different from a detected virus in and email.

Check the avast Log Viewer (warnings section) and also the windows Event Viewer (Antivirus section), they should contain some information on virus detections. The windows event viewer may possibly have some information on the crash, but that is unlikely.

Title: Re: Black screen
Post by: CharleyO on March 17, 2006, 05:31:37 PM

***

Welcome to the forums, Tom.    :)

A black screen happening such as you describe can be an indication of a failing monitor. You did not mention the type of monitor you have ... nor how old it might be though even some new monitors go bad.

And, I agree with David that the items he mentions can also be contributing and/or direct factors.


***

Title: Re: Black screen
Post by: mauserme on March 18, 2006, 01:42:59 AM

Quote from: CharleyO on March 17, 2006, 05:31:37 PM

A black screen happening such as you describe can be an indication of a failing monitor.

Or possibly a bad video card. 

Do you have other hardware you can temporarily swap out to test the situation?

Title: Re: Black screen
Post by: Larix on March 18, 2006, 02:39:47 PM

Hello, Tom

1) check your cable connectors and pid's on monitor's cable (may be it damaged).
2) update your v. card drivers
2) try to run any performance test program on your pc - few times - if you permanently got black screen - check your monitor/v. card.