Computer won't "stay on" and screen colors look hazy

woodstock said:
I did buy the dusting stuff but frankly it scares me a little. That gas can do serious **** to you. I took the box downstairs (IE near my front door, in anticipation of taking it to be fixed) - how safe is it to spray that outside? Should I get wraparound glasses as well as the dust mask I was going to get anyway?
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The stuff isn't that dangerous. You'd basically have to put the straw in your mouth or up your nose for it to pose an issue. Yes, I've blown the crap in my mouth before (it was a mistake) it tastes disgusting (for hours) but you live.

You could put some glasses on but we're not talking about any high velocity projectiles that will take your eye out. It's just some gas coming out of the can blowing some dust around.

Just take the cover off and blow the dust out. I don't generally "spin" the fans with the air as they'll get spinning faster then they were made to spin (you can just put your finger on the fan when you direct the air towards it).
 
RJM62 said:
As for guys working for big companies like Geek Squad, they're under such pressure to upsell useless crap that I feel sorry for them. Most of the good ones get out as soon as they can, or are fired for not upselling useless crap.
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Indeed they are. There are some that are idiots and there are some that are good. Most of the good ones tend to move on quickly like you suggest (or get fired).

All of the "good technicians" that I knew at Geek Squad either moved onto better things or became severe alcoholics and quit showing up until they were fired. The bad ones are still there.
 
OK, I dusted the computer. More dust than I thought would be there!

Computer still turned off overnight, and screen still looks off. Guess it is video card?

Missed part about fans though, oops.
 
Is it just dying, fully shutting down (in a graceful way), going into standby, or hibernating?

When it's "shut down," if you tap the space bar a few times and wait a minute or so, does anything happen?

What does Event Viewer have to say?

-Rich
 
I can come by and take a look, but it sounds to me like:

Your computer goes into standby (powered on but blinking power light) after a certain amount of inactivity - this is something you can check in Control Panel, Power Options.

Your LCD monitor goes into it's own power saving mode when your computer goes into standby, and thus may take some time to come up to operating brightness (this should be a few minutes at most).

I'm off tomorrow so if you've still got the issue and this PC is in VA as opposed to your other place, PM me and I'll come take a look.
 
Hi

Well, I'm not here when it happens (usually it's after I've gone to bed) but when I come into the room, the "on button" is blinking and the computer is off. I haven't tried the space bar - I just hit the button and the monitor lights up again - but slowly.

The colors aren't vivid. There isn't enough contrast - too light. The only reason I'd notice that though is b/c I know what I had before.

Not sure what Event Viewer is?
 
Thanks Tim. I've actually talked to my friend Derrick (IT guy at work) and he's going to take a look for me.

But I appreciate the offer!
 
woodstock said:
Hi

Well, I'm not here when it happens (usually it's after I've gone to bed) but when I come into the room, the "on button" is blinking and the computer is off. I haven't tried the space bar - I just hit the button and the monitor lights up again - but slowly.

The colors aren't vivid. There isn't enough contrast - too light. The only reason I'd notice that though is b/c I know what I had before.

Not sure what Event Viewer is?
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See my post above - if the ON button is blinking, your computer is in a power-saving mode called STANDBY, it basically shuts down everything but the CPU and RAM (and puts the CPU to "sleep") so that you can pick up where you were without having to boot up again. It's likely that you installed a patch (maybe automatically) or a program that activated this power-saving behavior.

To check it, go to Control Panel, and look for something called "Power" - it may have different names depending on your OS, but it will have Power in the title. In there you should find your current settings, and I bet you'll see something other than "always on".
 
I did that last week, and it said it was the Dell standard settings which meant eventual standby. But the computer never ever went into standby before a few weeks ago. I'll look again. Wonder what would have changed it.

Is standby better than always on?
 
Standby does save electricity.

What's odd is that the behavior is different - are you going to bed earlier or otherwise leaving the computer idle for longer than you were before? If the unit is set to go to standby after 6 hours, for instance, and you only were "away" for 5:59 before but now you're away for 6:01, that would explain the change.
 
OK, monitor display shuts off in 30 and computer goes to sleep in 1 hour - which is how it looked when I looked last week (Dell std settings). I swear to God that setting has never changed, not by me anyway.

This "turning off randomly" start happening until I went away a few weeks ago and turned off the computer. All winter long, I would leave my office door closed overnight and when I'd enter the room in the morning the room would be nice and toasty from being an enclosed space with a running CPU throwing off heat all night long.

I still don't think the monitor is quite right though. hmmmm.
 
What I will do tonight it check it after it "shuts down" and just hit the space bar and see what happens...
 
The "dustbusting" will help, but the good news is I don't think there's anything wrong with your PC.

Your monitor has a fluorescent backlight, and if it's off it can take a few minutes to get to full brightness. That's probably the issue there.
 
Why would it change the behavior when I never changed that setting - not even when I bought the computer? It is the std setting and it never did this before.

My monitor is a flat screen - do those go bad after a while?
 
Any number of things could have changed the setting, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

An LCD monitor will eventually need replacement - but that time is in many years, not 18 months.

If you never turn the computer off or put it into standby, and just have a screensaver running, then the LCD never turns off, and never needs to warm up again.
 
FWIW, after a computer comes out of sleep/hibernate, I notice the screen is usually pretty dull for a few minutes afterward, on like every monitor I've ever used. You might be experiencing normalcy.
 
SkyHog said:
FWIW, after a computer comes out of sleep/hibernate, I notice the screen is usually pretty dull for a few minutes afterward, on like every monitor I've ever used. You might be experiencing normalcy.
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hey! it wasn't doing it before I went away and turned off the computer for the wkd. :mad3::D and the haziness lasts for a lot longer than a few minutes. I'm still going to make sure there isn't something wrong with the vid card.

At least I got rid of all the crap under the hood. There was a bunch of cat hair around one thingy - not sure what it was, but it was covered on all sides.
 
You could aways change the power setting to always on and correct the unwanted behavior.:devil:
 
Tim said it above but some of the Microsoft updates and other programs seem to change the power settings back to default. I've never nailed down exactly what does this as it's not a big deal to reset them to MY damn defaults.

Perhaps Derrick can bring another LCD monitor with him to prove which end of the monitor cable is the problem.

Joe
 
woodstock said:
There was a bunch of cat hair around one thingy - not sure what it was, but it was covered on all sides.
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Maybe it just needs a cat scan.... never know what might have crawled in there.... :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Seriously... on some computers network activity can affect how it goes into standby. If the drivers updated or a program update affected the way that works it could explain the "why then and not now" behavior.

Screen color is a bit different. The color calibration equipment I have specifies a 1 hour warmup before trying to calibrate. On the old tube monitors, warmup made a difference as all the parts settled in - on the newer LCD monitors, the screen backlighting will change color and brightness over a period of time.

You're welcome to borrow my screen calibrator at some point....
 
wsuffa said:
Maybe it just needs a cat scan.... never know what might have crawled in there.... :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Seriously... on some computers network activity can affect how it goes into standby. If the drivers updated or a program update affected the way that works it could explain the "why then and not now" behavior.

Screen color is a bit different. The color calibration equipment I have specifies a 1 hour warmup before trying to calibrate. On the old tube monitors, warmup made a difference as all the parts settled in - on the newer LCD monitors, the screen backlighting will change color and brightness over a period of time.

You're welcome to borrow my screen calibrator at some point....
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Thanks Bill, I may take you up on that.

How are you liking the 7D? I was thinking about maybe getting one before Italy...
 
woodstock said:
Thanks Bill, I may take you up on that.

How are you liking the 7D? I was thinking about maybe getting one before Italy...
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Love it. A couple of quirks - I don't like the auto ISO setting at all - but I've taken some stunning pictures with it. When I get home, I'll be happy to send you some Prague pictures that I took in 2008 with the older Canon Digital Rebel compared to ones I took last year with the 7D. The difference is obvious.

If you do decide to buy, I can recommend the photo store in Burke. Good folks, met the pricing of a couple of online stores, and were quite helpful.
 
Thanks Bill. I might have to take one for a test drive.

FWIW, I noticed this:

Since I dusted the cat hair and dust, the computer has NOT shut off randomly (although I betcha the setting still says "shut off after 1 hour"). The monitor has gone dark, but the computer is not shutting off or going into standby or anything - it's on - no blinkie light, nuttin. When I come into the room I wiggle the mouse and the monitor lights right up.
 
woodstock said:
Thanks Bill. I might have to take one for a test drive.

FWIW, I noticed this:

Since I dusted the cat hair and dust, the computer has NOT shut off randomly (although I betcha the setting still says "shut off after 1 hour"). The monitor has gone dark, but the computer is not shutting off or going into standby or anything - it's on - no blinkie light, nuttin. When I come into the room I wiggle the mouse and the monitor lights right up.
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So it probably was overheating inside. The monitor is probably set to go off after a period of on-time like it would with a screensaver.

The store in Burke is Photo Craft on Burke Center Parkway.

I'll email you the comparison pictures over the weekend, enjoying weather on the back porch right now.
 
I had an electronics teacher back in the late 70's who used to drill into us, "When puzzled, think heat."

-Rich
 
Hmmmmm, so the turning off issue was in fact solved by post #2?

Reminds me of the time by buddy (who was working as internal tech support at the time) was on the phone with me and complaining that his speakers wouldn't produce any sound. My first question was "are they plugged in?" He spent over an hour in the control panel, in the registry, rolling back drivers, uninstalling drivers, reinstalling drivers, etc. After every step he told me he did, I asked "Are they plugged in?" Finally, he checks the speaker connection to the sound card, I hear him mutter something exclamatory in the background, and then comes back to say "Shut up" and he hung up. They weren't plugged in.

Moral is two fold: One, you IT guys always thing waaaaay to complex. Two, Ed is always right. :D
 
EdFred said:
Look at this entire thread.
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Negative.

Problem was multi-faceted. Problem was that her computer was going into sleep or hibernate, not turning off. 2nd problem was that it was starting to overheat, and blowing the dust off probably helped.

#1 had to be caused by a setting change (either by Windows or by the User)
#2 had to be caused by a cat or living in New Mexico, and since we know Liz doesn't live in NM.... :D

Ed gets partial credit for fixing the problem that wasn't the main one :D
 
Yeah, but look how many suggestions were way down the list of things to try as the FIRST thing to try. Look for blow capacitors, solder joint cracks, etc...
 
EdFred said:
Yeah, but look how many suggestions were way down the list of things to try as the FIRST thing to try. Look for blow capacitors, solder joint cracks, etc...
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Of course. That was beyond silly.

Doctor, I have a slight pain in my side.

"Well, lets go ahead and detach the leg so we can get a better look."

Remember my point earlier in the thread?
 
SkyHog said:
Of course. That was beyond silly.

Doctor, I have a slight pain in my side.

"Well, lets go ahead and detach the leg so we can get a better look."

Remember my point earlier in the thread?
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I guess we are associating with the wrong people. :arf:
 
I appreciate all the comments and helpfulness here. I know next to nothing about computers (other than using them for emails and photos) so it was all useful to me. Next time, I'll know to at least clean the crap out of it first and see if that helps.
 
EdFred said:
Look at this entire thread.
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I dunno, Ed... It seems to me that the advice was presented in a reasonable order. Blowing the schmutz out was mentioned early on by you, Lisa, me, and others. That's always a logical first step when heat-related issues are suspected, it was presented early in the thread, and it was indeed part of the solution.

The advice got geekier as the thread went on, but I think that's natural. It's sort of like silently prepending the later comments with, "yah, and if that doesn't work, try this."

If you look at the whole thread in that light, I think it actually proceeds reasonably well from the simple to the complex.

-Rich
 
EdFred said:
Yeah, but look how many suggestions were way down the list of things to try as the FIRST thing to try. Look for blow capacitors, solder joint cracks, etc...
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You get what you pay for :)
 
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