Monitor Wackiness

[Fox_Blaze]

I seem to be having a bit of a problem. Maybe you guys can help.
(please pardon my ineptitude of computer skills here >< )

Over the past few days, but only the past two my dad seems to recall, my monitor just seems to flick off. More specifically, my computer puts it into some sort of sleep mode.
When I go to reset the computer, it beeps at me with some sort of spasm, of which my dad tells me is some sort of error code but he doesn't know what it means.

My system is fairly new, and all i know that's in it is a GTX 480 and a brand new DVD drive, but everything is new within a year and a half , and my dad thinks this error is caused by some sort of lack of cooling (water or otherwise) within the system. He's going to buy some water cooling supplies to put in it eventually, but I can only wonder as I am not a computer geek in that respect to have an inkling of what's going on.

I'm just curious as to whether this is a simple fix or something bigger.

Input? I'll try to supply some simple information if need be. I'll try not to sound completely stupid xD

[gator]

Over the past few days, but only the past two my dad seems to recall, my monitor just seems to flick off. More specifically, my computer puts it into some sort of sleep mode.

Be more specific. Are you talking about just the display output being turned off after a few minutes (but computer is still on) and moving the mouse brings the display back, or is the whole computer turning off and going into a sleep/hibernate mode?

If the full computer is going to sleep, hitting a key or mouse button should bring the computer back up.

When I go to reset the computer, it beeps at me with some sort of spasm, of which my dad tells me is some sort of error code but he doesn't know what it means.

Reset as in restart/reboot the computer? The beeps are typically the BIOS trying to indicate a problem, if you search for bios beeps you may be able to determine what sequence it is and figure out what it is indicating.

[Fox_Blaze]

The display output is turning off, but moving the mouse doesn't bring it back, nor does an immediate reboot (yes, that's what i meant by reset). Normally my monitor has a blue light next to the power button letting me know its on, but shaking the mouse doesn't bring it back, and it stays its "sleep mode" orange. But letting it sit for a few moments seem to work.

And letting it cool down for that few minutes, the BIOS doesn't make that noise anymore. When I turn it on normally, it only makes one beep, but during this problem, it made two consecutive beeps and then after a few moments another one. But I'm not sure what it sounded like, as this happened about an hour ago now, the first time being when my dad was playing Far Cry 2 last night. both instances were when a game was playing, but i don't know if that is relevant at all.

[gator]

So, the monitor output shuts off during a game? And cooling down helps alleviate the problem?

Sounds like the GPU may be overheating.

[Dirty Dan]

Like gator said, could be overheating. Install speedfan and post what temps it reports when it's idle (no games or software running) and during gaming.

Speedfan dl link: http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

[Fizbon666]

If you can determine what motherboard you have, the beep codes can be deciphered too. Might try using something like Belarc Advisor to find out the MB model if you don't know.

[Boss Llama]

While I've never run in to it with the accompanying beep code, I've had plenty of experiences with LCD monitors going to sleep mode and not wanting to awaken. In all the cases I've had, it's been the monitor that's the problem. The solution that's worked for me on every system I've seen do it is simply to unplug the monitor's power plug from the surge protector (while it's on) and plug it back in.

The situation I see always occurs at some point after allowing the system to go in to sleep mode, then waking it to do something. A short while after waking, the monitor doesn't register that it is receiving a signal, and goes to sleep. If it's happening to you mid-game, and you haven't let your monitor go to sleep previously, it's probably different, but might be worth a try. Some computers will spit beeps out if you do a shutdown in the middle of a program, so the beeps *might* be a red herring.

[gator]

Yeah, the beeps are what makes me think it's an issue from the computer end rather than the monitor.

Could also be simply unplug/plug monitor or turn off/on as Alizee suggested, or maybe a loose/bad monitor cable.

[bullet4o1]

I wouldn't go out and buy a liquid cooling system. Since that wont alleviate the problem. It could be fan issues with your GPU. I would update it to the lastest drivers. Weren't there fan issues with one of the Nvidia Drives?

[MasterChef]

Not sure how helpful this is. But this was the first link I found with beep codes. Has a number of different ones depending on what kind of bios. If you know what motherboard you have you can probably do a specific search for the beep codes for that.

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

[metacide]

This really sounds like an overheating issue. I think the monitor going to "sleep" is a symptom of the problem, not the real problem. I believe the real problem is that your computer has stopped sending signals to it, and your monitor is just interpreting that as "time to go to sleep."

The fact that when you try a reboot immediately after the issue occurs and it doesnt come back on at all says to me that the BIOS is still waiting for some piece of equipment to cool down. Seems most likely that it would be the CPU overheating. Have you cleaned that fan recently?

Temporary fix? Do you have a box fan or any other portable fan? You can take the side off of your case and point the fan directly into it. This is ghetto and NOT meant as a permanent solution, but it will work in a pinch (I had to do this for a while in college myself).

[Fox_Blaze]

After some troubleshooting last night and while me and Frau were at school, my dad has determined that it's the video card. something about it's 3D functions not working. Launching a game, and I saw him launch one earlier, and immediately the monitor went out again.
Even doing all this stuff, and I'm sure a couple of things similar to your suggestions, he came to the conclusion that his brand-new GE Force GTX 480 is kaput.
The computer is working just fine, but I'm sure as Fraulein said in another topic i saw her concoct earlier, I am completely unable to play any games for 2 weeks until my dad gets the 480 replaced with a new one.

.....I'm gonna miss this months MeleeMania for sure.

"Beep Code Description Document
1 long, 2 short Indicates a video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any additional information"

This was the problem. I heard one long and two short, but the two short sounded really close together, so that's probably what I heard.

[Boss Llama]

Sorry to hear of the troubles. Beep error codes are certainly useful, even if I never like hearing them!

I had a "talking BIOS" on one of my boards, once. If something was wrong, a quiet voice would say the problem. For example, the first time I put the board in and powered it up, I heard a voice from the ether say "CPU fan failure." CPU fan was plugged in to the aux slot instead of CPU slot, so the system picked up the lack of return signal and gave me the warning.

[Rits]

This may be a silly and completely noob-ish question but, do you have a big enough power supply for the card?

[Fraulein Arztin]

This may be a silly and completely noob-ish question but, do you have a big enough power supply for the card?

So an 850 can do this?