Why do I get a black screen on my computer after a while?

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I had this same issue with my old computer that was running Win 98 SE. I went through and systematically started to replace everything in there. By the time I was done, I only had the CRW drive, motherboard and ram that was original over the computer.

Still was giving me the issues.

It took an upgrade to Win XP to stop the problems, and I haven't had a problem since. I hope that this helps anyone else.

I've had this problem with an USB mouse. It seemed like Windows "didn't know that I was using the mouse" and went into screensaver mode.
After hitting a key on the keyboard, the screensaver went away and I was able to continue using the system.

A really strange problem indeed. However, replacing the mouse solved the problem.

The screen of my laptop suddenly gets often black as well, and when that starts I can switch off/on forever but it keeps doing it after a short while. It's just the screen, the computer keeps working. I remedied this by disabling the screen saver and disable any hibernation or stand-by.

I'm having the same problem with my PC. I've replaced my power supply and video card and it still goes off every 15 to 30 minutes. Can it be my Mobo or bad drivers?..I'm really looking into it and trying to solve the matter

my standby mode of my computer is not working. whenever i am trying to put my pc into standby mode, i couldnt. the standby mode option is not high-lighted on the menu, there is no option for standby mode. Also, there is no hibernate option. i guess my OS is corrupted. How will i get it back?

hwen i switch on my computer it appear microsoft symbol and a music,how can i set this to have my personal music option at starting up???

Please E-Mail Me Asap! Cheers!

Well i keep starting my computer as normal and after about 2minuites it goes to a blue screen and says beggining physical memory dump then it completes and still stays on the blue screen!

Please e-mail with the problem, ive downloaded and anti-virus but cant use it because im running in safe mode(direct servies restore) the only way i can get this darn thing to work atm momemnt. This only happened a few days back though when my computer turned off then it kept saying your computer is infected with adware n spyware but i cudnt exit the progam ? Please help asap ben

I think I have solved the "black screen" problem, and I know virtually nothing about computers. After I bought my HP f1503 monitor with HP computer about 3 years ago, I began having problems from the beginning. After about 15 days spending in excess of 15 hours on the phone with MSN technical support in Nova Scotia (and after spending 35 bucks for technical support), a very smart person discovered that my Norton anti-virus software that had been installed at the retail store where I purchased the computer had basically attacked my computer, placing a firewall between me and the internet, preventing me from accessing the internet. After that problem was corrected, and after downloading Semantic (phonetic) software as well, I began noticing the black screen syndrome. I do not believe for one instant that my relatively new computer monitor is defective; rather, I firmly believe that Semantec and/or Norton anti-virus personal firewalls are the true culprits. I basically removed the programs from my hard drive and the problem has corrected itself. I also believe that all Norton/Semantic products place a fire wall inside the PC and cause such problems. It reminds me of a certain Star Trek episode (original series) where the computer attacked everything (NOMAD, or something like that); perhaps Norton should rename itself NOMAD....

Although, like Leo said, this can be caused by a miriad of things, I had this same problem happen to me a few weeks ago, so I figured I'd share. I had two seperate Dell Optiplex GX270's at my office that, within a week of each other, would randomly show a black screen. The power light on the PC would remain solidly lit, but everything else would become unresponsive as if the machine was off.

I opened up the case (after completely reinstalling the operating system all all apps) and saw the problem. On both machines, several of the capacitors had blown out; in one of the machines they had visibly leaked. The capacitors are the tall, tubular shaped things that stick up off of the board (there are good pictures of damaged ones here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague)
Repairing this requires either a supply of the correct type of capacitors, a steady hand, and a soldering iron, or, as in my case, a long and annoying call to Dell support to get a replacement motherboard.
An initial visual inspection of all installed hardware (add on devices, like video cards, frequently have capacitors as well) would have saved me a lot of time, and is another point to add onto your troubleshooting list.

Cheers!

Damn my sloppy HTML. The link above should be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

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