weird computer problem

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Would like to thank those of you who take time to answer occasional computer questions from us technically challenged members (hey, I can disassemble a $5M mass spectrometer, but I'm no computer hero!)

Anyway, we have a 2008 vintage Windows Vista machine (an HP)--quad core, 4GB ram. It has been a really good computer and I see no immediate need to replace it. We've run short of drive space, but I bought a couple external drives)

The problem is that occasionally, the monitor just decides to go to sleep ("Monitor going to sleep") while we're watching a video and won't turn back on despite inputs from keyboard, mouse, ctrl-alt-del, etc. Then we have to manually re-boot. This problem only occurs during videos. My wife has said that it happens during a video on RealPlayer and YouTube. I have never noticed this on YouTube, but on other videos on other sites.

Any ideas on what this could be?

Thanks
XB

[North Star]

Try changing the 'turn off display' setting from power options (control panel).

[Parsifal]

It occurs to me that your video display program may be capturing input from the keyboard when it is in full screen mode and not telling the operating system about your attempts to wake up the display.  Maybe you need to hit ESC or whatever special key exits full-screen mode before your computer will respond properly.  The prior suggestion of disabling display sleep is also worth trying.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Thanks, but neither of those things are the issue. Now it is just freezing up randomly--there seems to be some issue with the display.

[Parsifal]

Thanks, but neither of those things are the issue. Now it is just freezing up randomly--there seems to be some issue with the display.

Your description of the problem keeps changing.  First you said only the display goes to sleep, implying that the computer is otherwise still running (implying that you can't see video but sound is still playing) and now you say that the system is "freezing" which implies that it halts entirely.

The latter implies your hardware is busted (hardware fault in the cpu, memory, motherboard, video card, etc.)  If video playback is a trigger, it may simply be heat due to heavy cpu load, or it may be the video card which is failing.  If you don't get a diagnostic message of some sort, the only way to figure out what is wrong is to start swapping components, I'm afraid. 

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Right. I've suspected that heat is a problem. We are in the midst of a horrible heat wave here in California, and the temps have been above 100 for the past few days. We've had the AC on, but it can only do so much.

[Parsifal]

Right. I've suspected that heat is a problem. We are in the midst of a horrible heat wave here in California, and the temps have been above 100 for the past few days. We've had the AC on, but it can only do so much.

If you suspect heat, check to make sure dust is not clogging vents or fans in your enclosure and that all of your fans are working.  (Nowadays very inexpensive fans are often used.)   You might also see if there is a utility program that monitors temperature in your computer.  An Intel motherboard I had in the past came with such a utility.  I think Intel processors have thermometers built in and your motherboard may also have a sensor which is used for monitoring purposes.

[DavidW]

If the solution is not obvious, and the problem was unexpected maybe it is worth the expense to take it to a computer shop.  I know that everyone wants to be dyi with pc problems, but which do you value more: your time or your money?  I used to always answer money, but more and more these days I answer time.

[Holden]

This will give you a good idea of heat and other problems

http://www.filehippo.com/download_sandra_lite/