Dell Dimension E520 Video going Blank Issue.

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joeterps

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Hello, I have a problem with my Dell Dimension E520. The problem is that the Monitor goes blank almost immediately after I login to windows. The Monitor says the computer is in sleep mode. However, the computer sounds and looks to be running normally. I believe the Video Card is shutting down. I've swapped Monitors, so I know it's not the monitor. I've also vacuumed out the dust bunnies from inside the case, thinking something was shorting or over heating. There are no hardware warnings in the Device Manager. Now, if I bring the computer up in Safe Mode with Networking, it runs just fine.

Am I right that it is probably the Video Card and I should install a new one?

Thanks much, in advance!
 
Solution
completely uninstall your graphics driver, and then install the latest one. There is a possibility of the GPU is dying, but if it was you should have the same issues in safe mode. It is much more likely to be a software issue.
completely uninstall your graphics driver, and then install the latest one. There is a possibility of the GPU is dying, but if it was you should have the same issues in safe mode. It is much more likely to be a software issue.
 
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joeterps

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Well, this is kind of flaky. I uninstalled the video card driver and downloaded and installed a Windows 7 Version of the driver. The issue persisted. Finally I just disabled the driver and now it works fine with a slightly lower screen resolution, but still good enough for office work. So, is Windows 7 driving the card with a generic video driver now? If so, it's working fine. The issue must be in how the original driver hooked into the operating system and I don't know how to debug that. However, I have a work-around and that's fine for this old PC.

Thanks for your help!
Joe
 

joeterps

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Yes, I am running Win7. I will look at buying a new card.

Thanks for the suggestion
Joe
 
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