[Eviltrav]

Hi All,

I've been rather stumped with a problem I've had with my PC of late and haven't been able to find anything that addresses it in my search for answers.

What's happening I hear you think - well on a fairly regular basis recently I'll walk away from the computer for a few minutes leaving the monitor on, when I return my desktop has gone black. I can't see any of the windows/programs I had open previously, I can however still see the explorer bar running across the bottom of the screen with all the programs/windows I have open still appearing there. I can also still see the miniature version pop up when I put the mouse over the program tabs. If i move the mouse off the explorer bar into the desktop area, the cursor disappears. Closing all the programs doesn't help. Sometimes when I hit ctrl-alt-del my desktop comes back - sometimes I need to log out to end the problem.

Does anyone have any ideas about what the problem might be?

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In order of Hardware possible faults:

• Monitor
• Connections (internal and external)
• Video Card
• Power Supply
• RAM
• Motherboard

But I think it's likely just dust

You will need to remove the power cord
Open the side cover
Then blow out all internal dust (compressed air cans can be purchased from computer service stores)
Then re-seat all connections and hardware (not the CPU though )
Put the power cord back in
Turn On

[kimsland]

In order of Hardware possible faults:

• Monitor
• Connections (internal and external)
• Video Card
• Power Supply
• RAM
• Motherboard

But I think it's likely just dust

You will need to remove the power cord
Open the side cover
Then blow out all internal dust (compressed air cans can be purchased from computer service stores)
Then re-seat all connections and hardware (not the CPU though )
Put the power cord back in
Turn On