Death throes?

curious
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Death throes?

Post by curious »

(Dell – 3 years old)


For second time in a week, after I put computer to sleep with a word document open and then take it out of sleep, screen is black, except for taskbar/systray. When I press the icon for the document from taskbar, the document opens but the right side of clipboard is blackened.

Is this a sign of computer failing? Everything goes smoothly after this happens.

Thank you very much

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viking33
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Re: Death throes?

Post by viking33 »

curious wrote:(Dell – 3 years old)


For second time in a week, after I put computer to sleep with a word document open and then take it out of sleep, screen is black, except for taskbar/systray. When I press the icon for the document from taskbar, the document opens but the right side of clipboard is blackened.

Is this a sign of computer failing? Everything goes smoothly after this happens.

Thank you very much
Three years old doesn't really make it a "graybeard" of a machine. IMO.
Is this the only time it exhibits the black screen?
Does it have a separate video card or a built in video on the MB?
If you reboot, does it come back still in trouble?
How about a complete power down, wait a few seconds and turn back on?
My first guess is the video card.
BOB
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Rudi
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Re: Death throes?

Post by Rudi »

Like Bob, I was thinking VGA card?

When have you last run windows (or driver) updates?
Try going to Device Manager and running driver updates on the display card?

Another piece of advice to dish out (though it sounds cliche);
Run CCLeaner and Anti-MalwareBytes on your system to ensure your system is clean and malware free.
Regards,
Rudi

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John Gray
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Re: Death throes?

Post by John Gray »

At work, the laptops we buy would be three years old at the youngest...

We have several PCs dating from 2007, but I don't know whether they were purchased new then - probably they were.
John Gray

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curious
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Re: Death throes?

Post by curious »

Thanks for your post, Bob.
I didn’t think 3 years was really old for the computer. Mentioned that to give you guys info.As I mentioned, this ‘behavior’ only has happened twice (so far). Several days apart.
I have today updated the graphics card. Will see if this helps.

curious
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Re: Death throes?

Post by curious »

Hi, Rudy. Thanks to you, too!

I have just updated the graphics card. And yes, I always run Ccleaner, Malware. Hopefully the updating will solve this problem.

Thanks again.

mrjimphelps
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Re: Death throes?

Post by mrjimphelps »

I've seen this before. (It's happened to me.) I think it's a bug in Windows or in Word. When it happened, I was running Windows 7 Enterprise and MS Office 2010.

It hasn't happened enough to me for me to know for sure; but that's my gut feeling about this issue.

However, I see you have replaced your video card. Hopefully that has fixed it for you.

curious
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Re: Death throes?

Post by curious »

Thanks for your post. IF I remember correctly, it happened once after I replaced the card. Since then, smooth sailing....