Screen blanking out and displaying grey lines! Help!

[DeniqueCoelum]

When I was using the computer just now, the screen just randomly blanked out and showed grey lines instead! I couldn't do anything with the machine, so I switched it off at the wall and restarted it. After a few minutes, the same thing happened again!

I changed the monitor for a spare one, and after about 20 minutes, the same thing happened!

What on Earth's going on? My graphics card is brand new, so it shouldn't be that!

 

[TVeblen]

My graphics card is brand new, so it shouldn't be that!

There are two points in a piece of electronics' life that it is most likely to fail: when it is very new and when it is very old.

This could be a problem with the card, it's driver, or the power supply (the usual suspects).

Green and grey lines sometimes happen when the card or system is overheating. You can test this by taking the sides off you case and running it. Check to see if all the fans are indeed running.

is the 6770 in your specs the problem card?

 

[slizz189]

did you install the card yourself? like TVeblen said, that could be the problem. were there any error messages or reports when you re-started the computer?

 

[DeniqueCoelum]

My graphics card is brand new, so it shouldn't be that!

There are two points in a piece of electronics' life that it is most likely to fail: when it is very new and when it is very old.

This could be a problem with the card, it's driver, or the power supply (the usual suspects).

Green and grey lines sometimes happen when the card or system is overheating. You can test this by taking the sides off you case and running it. Check to see if all the fans are indeed running.

is the 6770 in your specs the problem card?

I see! Aye, the 6770 is the card in question. I can hear the fan running, if that helps? The noise seems perfectly regular to me.

did you install the card yourself? like TVeblen said, that could be the problem. were there any error messages or reports when you re-started the computer?

I installed the card myself, yes. I didn't notice any error messages upon restart, except the usual options you see on start-up when you do an emergency switch off: safe mode, safe mode with network functionality, etc.

I haven't had the problem again since I posted this. One thing which I have changed is that the two times the screen blanked out, I'd exited the ASUS SmartDoctor program which controls fan settings and temperature upon starting the computer. On exiting, the program asks if you want to retain the current clock settings when the program isn't running, and I always said yes. I always leave the program running now, minimised, and I haven't had a problem.

I didn't think that you'd have to have SmartDoctor running for the card to function properly!