Windows 7: Win 7 Crashing - No error, just colorful lines

I recently built my machine from the ground up and it's been a lot of fun. However, not long after I started using it, it started doing a weird crash. There's no error. No blue screen. Just occasionally vertical lines on one of the two displays I have connected. The computer does not turn off/restart or even sound like it's running extra hard/etc. it sounds like nothing ever happened and it's just whirling away in its 3.1GHz glory.

I thought it might be an issue w/ RC, which I had installed before. But I recently upgraded to the full version of Home Premium, 64-bit and it's still doing it (slightly more than before the upgrade, actually - the crashes were more frequent just after installing RC, then they became less common as time went on, then got worse again when I upgraded to the full version).

I can't find a correlation of a certain program that makes it crash -- it seems completely random. And since there's no program in particular or error code I can take a screenshot of or generate a dump for, I feel kind of at a loss.

I hope someone can help - thanks for reading!!

I put my hardware profile in my account as I signed up, so you can check it out there, though I'm also open to questions if I left anything out.


Thanks again!

Lewis

Hi Lewis, Welcome to SF,

You could check the Event Viewer and see whether any Errors are listed there

Go To Start Under start search Type eventvwr under there Windows Log under that Application and right side panel check for Errors

Thanks for the quick reply Cap'n Jack - I can't seem to find any Errors on the right panel of the event viewer per your suggestion. Maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing? Screenshot attached.

Lewis;

When I have had symptoms like what you describe, it was because the video driver was using timings not compatible with the monitor. I noticed you are using two widely different size monitors so you must be using independent screen resolution for each monitor?

I would first verify you are using compatible resolution and refresh rates per each monitor's manufacturer, then use the monitor's own automatic settings button to see if the monitor can fix itself. Otherwise, the monitor in question may be failing?

Cheers!
Robert

Check the cables and plugs?

... since both monitors die simultaneously and the system itself poops out. (I cannot power down by simply hitting my power button but have to do a forced restart).

Both monitors are running at appropriate resolutions...

although...

Now that you mention that, I believe I have had more problems with the crashes when I run a certain game (Plants vs Zombies - awesome) that resizes the display. It doesn't typically crash in the game, but occasionally after I close it... maybe something there?

Thanks for all the feedback so far - any other suggestions?

Also, I wanted to point out that sometimes, I get vertical colored lines on just one monitor. Other times, I get black/dark gray screens on both. Not sure if that's useful.

Does this help at all?

- Provider

[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[ Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}

EventID 41

Version 2

Level 1

Task 63

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000000000000002

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2010-01-03T01:18:02.847612800Z

EventRecordID 4775

Correlation

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 8

Channel System

Computer Gunter-PC

- Security

[ UserID] S-1-5-18

I don't believe it related to the problem that you have. Because there is the description.
I hope you have all the Display drivers up to date. If you have an option for you Graphic card to set to default setting is worth a try.

Hope this helps