Computer Screen Keeps Turning Black

Ever have one of those days when your computer monitor keeps going black every few minutes?

At first I thought my kids had watched too many videos in YouTube, and the video memory (integrated in the motherboard) was getting fried, or something. Either the computer screen would just turn black, disappear, or show the dreaded "No Signal" message, or the monitor would start displaying multi-colored squares.

A simple reboot in the past few weeks was enough to get the PC up and running again.

Yesterday, however, I had to reboot 12 times. Last night, I couldn't even get to the WindowsXP log-on screen. This morning, I couldn't even see WinXP boot up.

Anyway, I bring the desktop to the computer shop, and they suspect it might be a video memory problem. They did test the DDR RAM first, though.

There were two 512MB memory sticks/cards. They removed one and booted the computer. No video problems!

They moved the memory stick to the previously vacated slot, and the video problems returned. They did the same test with the other memory stick and experienced the same results.

The verdict: A bad slot for the memory stick.

The solution: Put a 1GB DDR memory stick in the good slot.

At last, I'm able to use the computer again. So the next time your computer screen starts acting crazy (i.e., keeps turning black but not off), resist the urge to spend 3x more (if you get a new video card). For all you know, it's just a DDR RAM problem.

[ First posted on 04/13/2008 by Manuel Viloria ]