Monitor switching to standby.

[yorkshirelooney]

Recently whilst playing games (Farcry being one) on my PC the screen will freeze, then the monitor will switch to standby mode. The computer itself is still on and whirring away etc.
I deduced this may well be the graphics card on it's way out so fitted another card to test my theory. The same thing happened.
Any ideas what may be causing this???

 

[Cooheed]

Start-Control Panel-Power Options. Don't forget to use device manager to untick all the power off options on the 3 USB root hubs.

 

[yorkshirelooney]

This is good, but everything works normally. I don't think it is a power issue, or the monitor.
I am a bit concerned it could be the power lead to the card.
However everything displays and works as it should, until you try and play a game!!
This all started after a couple of powercuts two weeks ago, we have a surge protector, but with a complete power loss this is no use!!

 

[propersplitbrainme]

Does your system have an applet for viewing your CPU core temperature? It could be overheating.

 

[Ex-Bay]

Have you checked the Screen Saver settings ? That's what did for me a while ago.
DT_Xtremez_17:

 

[yorkshirelooney]

Could well be CPU overheating.
I have opened the side of the case and can see all the fans working.
Case, PSU, CPU and Graphics card fans all seem to be working as they should.
If the CPU was overheating what else can I do?

 

[propersplitbrainme]

Take the fan off the CPU, clean up the heatsink and the CPU pad with a little rubbing alcohol or lighter fluid which will dry to leave no film or gease behind. Then re-apply a smear of heatsink paste (which comes in a little tube and can be bought from any computer retailer) to the CPU pad and remount the fan.
DON'T apply too much paste as that can be as bad as not having any at all.

 

[Shugster]

I know I say this all the time but...

It could be the PSU. My PC would run and just switch off by itself after 10 minutes to half an hour.

If the 5V or 3.3V supplies are noisy then the processor could reset causing a freeze.

Edit: I had a laptop years ago that would freeze up for no reason after I added some more RAM to it, (I threw the new RAM away in the end).

Make sure the RAMs are all the same type / manufacturer and that they are inserted correctly and not loose. Make sure all cards are correctly inserted.

 

[Realist78]

PSU was my fix earlier on this year for the very same snag.

 

[Shugster]

People tend to dismiss the PSU as something simple, and don't realise the number of regulated supplies that it produces.

It's a very important building block in any system, and is every bit as important as all the other cards / parts.

 

[yorkshirelooney]

Sorted!!

Sorted!!

Just for completeness, I have found out what the problem is.
Thank you for all your replies and advice.

After fitting brand spanker graphics card and asking for help, I decided to bite the bullet and take the old thing to PC World.
Within two days they had diagnosed my new graphics card as defunct, dead.
Well working on Typhoon I find this very easy to believe.
Fitted card three and there she is back gaming again, much to the wife's delight.

 

[Martin Blank]

Just for further info check your mem sticks aren't overheating too.
Mate of mine just ripped his whole pc apart trying to find why it suddenly died/wouldn't boot
after much component swapping one of his ram sticks was fekked, swapped in new stick pc booted first time.