On 06/10/16 13:30 (GMT-0500) Greg Wallace apparently typed:
I am having a hardware problem with my machine and am trying to diagnose it. The first thing that happens is that my screen freezes. It has always happened when my screen saver was running, but I'm assuming that's just a coincidence. After the screen saver freezes, here are some things that have happened on reboot.
What happens if you disable the screensaver and DPMS?
1) The computer beeps twice and nothing happens. No bios screen comes up, no disk activity, nothing.
Check the docs on your BIOS to find out exactly what 2 beeps means.
2) There is disk activity as if the machine is booting, but the screen is blank.
3) Once, the machine actually booted, but what was on the screen was pure garbage -- a screen full of letters overlaying other letters overlaying icons, etc. There wasn't a centimeter of blank screen space. It was completely covered with this garbage.
My guess would be that I've got a video card going out, but item 1) makes me wonder. Could a bad video card actually cause the machine to just give two beeps and not even try to boot?
All symptoms point to a video card problem, but this includes a possible video card slot problem. A BIOS may balk at continuing POST when it thinks it's supposed to have working video.
In all cases, if I let the machine sit for maybe just 5 minutes it will re-boot normally (so far, anyway, but I tend to think the problem will get worse over time). Once it's back up, it will run for some time with no problems (I don't recall it ever happening back to back on the same day, but if I left it up long enough the second time I suspect it would ultimately lock up again). There's some pattern here in all of this, but also some inconsistency. Any help diagnosing this problem greatly appreciated.
These time differences make it appear it may be heat and/or voltage (and thus power supply) related. If it hasn't had a dust removal since it was new, that's probably long overdue. If the machine was here, my 3rd move would be to see what happens with a different video card, 2nd being test the PS, 1st being cleaning. If you don't have another card to try, at least try reseating yours. Try leaving the cover off and pointing a big fan at it to see if less heat is any help. If you have any cards in slots that aren't necessary to run the OS, pull them out to see if it changes anything. -- "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped." Psalm 28:7 NIV Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/