So not sure whether I should have put this in Windows 7 or display. IT's a bit of a long story.
The system:
-MSI GT660
-Windows 7 v6.1.7601 ServicePack 1 Build 7601 (64 bit)
-Intel Core i7 (first generation)
-nvidia GeForce GTX 285M (driver v. 304.79, which is up to date according to nvidia, just reinstalled like an hour ago and it has not helped).
-6 gigs of ram
The OLD problem:
--So I bought this computer about 1.5 years ago. It worked fine for awhile, then started having some crashes and when I ran checkdesk it found errors on the hard drive (bad sectors).
--Eventually, Windows popped up and told me that my hard drive was failing and told me to contact the manufacture, which I did (at this point the computer was about 1 year old).
--The manufacturer had my computer for repair for about 8 weeks. They claimed the computer needed a new mother board and not just a new hard drive and they didn't have the motherboard in stock. They told me it might be awhile, and then out of the blue my computer showed up home again and working like 3 days after they said it might take awhile to get the part.
The NEW problems. Since getting the computer back I have had a host of NEW problems, but I've been hesistant to send it back to the manufacturer. I was in law school and am now studying for the bar. I can't really let them take my computer for 8 weeks, I use it to watch bar exam lectures to prepare for the test at the end of July. So some of the new problems:
1. the built in web cam on the screen? Just plain no longer works. I tell it to turn on and it says no camera detected. I use skype or google + hang outs and it can't detect the camera. Worked fine before I sent it back.
2. Sometimes when I bought the computer up out of hibernate the Windows logo would come up but then the screen would go black. This was easy to "fix" because my computer is set to go to sleep if I close the lid. If the screen goes black on boot up, I just shut the lid for a second, the computer goes to sleep, and then I wake it up and the screen works just fine.
3. Computer will shut down without warning when on battery power. I believe the battery is bad (Windows told me as much), but it wasn't giving me any trouble before I sent it in for repairs. It runs fine on the first maybe 50-60% of the battery power, but once it gets below 50% it might turn off at any time. After it shuts down suddenly I'll plug it back in and reboot, and the computer doesn't say the battery is all that low (usually at 30% or higher after I restart and plug it in).
4. These first 3 problems were no big deal, but then I started playing Civilization 4, which was crashing the computer. Not a big deal, I don't need to play Civ 4. But I figured I would reinstall the game.
5. While Civ 4 was reinstalling (just downloading off of Steam) today the screen just went black while the computer was up and running. The computer kept running though. I know the computer kept running because I was watching a bar exam lecture at the time and the audio from the lecture kept playing as if nothing was wrong. In fact, the lecture was at an important point so I kept taking notes for another 10mins before forcing the computer to quit. The same thing happened an hour later when playing Civ 4 again. Blank screen, but the game kept running.
What worries me is that the screen went black while no game was actually running. I am taking the bar the end of the month on this computer and I don't want the thing going black on me during the middle of the exam. Also, would it be your opinion the manufacturer screwed up the computer when replacing the components for me?
other potentially relevant information:
--the only critical error I can find in the event log around the time when the screen has gone blank but the computer has kept running has been event 41 (computer doesn't shut down properly). Upon looking at the details of this event, I'm pretty confident this is just describing me holding down the power button (in the description it mentions a timestamp for when the power button was held down, and the bug report looks clean).
--Bios version/date: American Megatrends, Inc. E16F1MS 10/4/11 (anyone know how I update that?)
--The video card otherwise performs admirably. I played Starcraft 2 last night for about 3 hours on high graphics setting with no problem whatsoever. Also runs games like Old Republic flawlessly.
So in summary, I'm only REALLY worried about this "screen suddenly goes black while computer is running thing" that has been happening today, but given all the other little problems, I thought it might all be connected?
The system:
-MSI GT660
-Windows 7 v6.1.7601 ServicePack 1 Build 7601 (64 bit)
-Intel Core i7 (first generation)
-nvidia GeForce GTX 285M (driver v. 304.79, which is up to date according to nvidia, just reinstalled like an hour ago and it has not helped).
-6 gigs of ram
The OLD problem:
--So I bought this computer about 1.5 years ago. It worked fine for awhile, then started having some crashes and when I ran checkdesk it found errors on the hard drive (bad sectors).
--Eventually, Windows popped up and told me that my hard drive was failing and told me to contact the manufacture, which I did (at this point the computer was about 1 year old).
--The manufacturer had my computer for repair for about 8 weeks. They claimed the computer needed a new mother board and not just a new hard drive and they didn't have the motherboard in stock. They told me it might be awhile, and then out of the blue my computer showed up home again and working like 3 days after they said it might take awhile to get the part.
The NEW problems. Since getting the computer back I have had a host of NEW problems, but I've been hesistant to send it back to the manufacturer. I was in law school and am now studying for the bar. I can't really let them take my computer for 8 weeks, I use it to watch bar exam lectures to prepare for the test at the end of July. So some of the new problems:
1. the built in web cam on the screen? Just plain no longer works. I tell it to turn on and it says no camera detected. I use skype or google + hang outs and it can't detect the camera. Worked fine before I sent it back.
2. Sometimes when I bought the computer up out of hibernate the Windows logo would come up but then the screen would go black. This was easy to "fix" because my computer is set to go to sleep if I close the lid. If the screen goes black on boot up, I just shut the lid for a second, the computer goes to sleep, and then I wake it up and the screen works just fine.
3. Computer will shut down without warning when on battery power. I believe the battery is bad (Windows told me as much), but it wasn't giving me any trouble before I sent it in for repairs. It runs fine on the first maybe 50-60% of the battery power, but once it gets below 50% it might turn off at any time. After it shuts down suddenly I'll plug it back in and reboot, and the computer doesn't say the battery is all that low (usually at 30% or higher after I restart and plug it in).
4. These first 3 problems were no big deal, but then I started playing Civilization 4, which was crashing the computer. Not a big deal, I don't need to play Civ 4. But I figured I would reinstall the game.
5. While Civ 4 was reinstalling (just downloading off of Steam) today the screen just went black while the computer was up and running. The computer kept running though. I know the computer kept running because I was watching a bar exam lecture at the time and the audio from the lecture kept playing as if nothing was wrong. In fact, the lecture was at an important point so I kept taking notes for another 10mins before forcing the computer to quit. The same thing happened an hour later when playing Civ 4 again. Blank screen, but the game kept running.
What worries me is that the screen went black while no game was actually running. I am taking the bar the end of the month on this computer and I don't want the thing going black on me during the middle of the exam. Also, would it be your opinion the manufacturer screwed up the computer when replacing the components for me?
other potentially relevant information:
--the only critical error I can find in the event log around the time when the screen has gone blank but the computer has kept running has been event 41 (computer doesn't shut down properly). Upon looking at the details of this event, I'm pretty confident this is just describing me holding down the power button (in the description it mentions a timestamp for when the power button was held down, and the bug report looks clean).
--Bios version/date: American Megatrends, Inc. E16F1MS 10/4/11 (anyone know how I update that?)
--The video card otherwise performs admirably. I played Starcraft 2 last night for about 3 hours on high graphics setting with no problem whatsoever. Also runs games like Old Republic flawlessly.
So in summary, I'm only REALLY worried about this "screen suddenly goes black while computer is running thing" that has been happening today, but given all the other little problems, I thought it might all be connected?
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