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Experiencing Momentary "blackouts" Help!


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#1
Adam6322

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Hello,

For a few weeks now I've been having this problem where my computer screen will randomly go black for 3-5 seconds. Sometimes when it comes back there are visual glitches in whatever was showing on the screen. It may or may not be related to my Windows Media Player, because while viewing files, the progress bar at the bottom stops moving while the actual video does not. When the video is done playing, the screen "blacks out," then "comes to."

I've been running spybot, ad-aware, and my norton anti-virus frequently, and there doesn't seem to be anything showing up.

If anyone has any idea what could be causing my computer to temporarily freeze, I would be very appreciative!

Thank you,

-Adam
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#2
dsenette

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so does this only happen when running media player? or during other things as well? can you predictably cause this problem (like...if i press h..wile holding my mouth just right..and hopping on one foot..the screen blacks out)...or is it just a hit or miss type of thing? have you recently upgraded any hardware? what type of video card do you have? what kind of psu? how much ram?>
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#3
Adam6322

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Hey dsenette, thanks for responding.

It can happen at completely random times- when I'm surfing the net, using text documents, or even just talking on AIM. But when Windows Media Player is running, if the progress bar stops moving during the video playback (which it almost always does), then the screen will always black out after the video is done playing. If the progress bar stops moving and I move the mouse over the play/pause/stop buttons, or the hide/minimize/close window buttons, even before the vid is done playing, then it will also black out. It can definitely happen at any time though, regardless of whether or not WMP is being used.

- I haven't upgraded any new hardware recently.
- My video card was upgraded maybe 3 years ago when my roommates thought it would work better than the stock one that came with my DELL desktop..
- I don't know much about my power supply, but it's whatever came stock on my 4 year old DELL.
- I've got 256MB ram.

Thanks for you help. Any ideas?

-Adam
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#4
dsenette

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right click on my computer > manage > device manager...do you see any yellow ?

which version of media player are you using?
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#5
Adam6322

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I checked my device manager, and I don't see any yellow..

I'm using WMP version: 10.00.00.2646


Any theories?


Thanks very much.


-Adam
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#6
Retired Tech

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Is it an ATI card with VPU Recovery
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#7
Adam6322

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I'm not sure what VPU Recovery is, but I think I have an NVidia card.

When I go to device manager, and check my "Display Adapters" it says NVIDIA GeForce 2

Is that any help?

Thanks.

-Adam
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#8
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Have you updated the drivers

http://www.nvidia.co...k_81.95_uk.html

Set a system restore point first then download and install the drivers, after checking the list of supported cards
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#9
Adam6322

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How do I set a system restore point?

And if I screw something up, how do I restore back to that point?

Thanks,

-Adam
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#10
Retired Tech

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To set the restore point

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, all the files highlight, right click any file, click delete, click to confirm delete of all the files.

Click start then all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up then disc defragmenter

Click start then help and support, click undo changes to your computer with System Restore. Click set a restore point, name the restore point


To locate and revert to this or any other restore point

Click start then help and support, click undo changes to your computer with System Restore, click restore my computer to an earlier time, locate the restore point, all possible restore points are highlighted, select the particular one you need.


When the PC is restoring, it will appear to be doing nothing for a while, do no disturb this
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