Computer has Horizontal lines after 13 minutes

Airbot,I really need your help again(hope thats the right name)

Computer is: Vista Home Basic Sevice Pk 1
AMD with 4GB memory (new)

I was listening to the 911 call about the chimp attacking the woman in Conn. when all at once my computer screen had these horizontal lines running all across the screen!!I wasn't watching the video ,just listeneing to the audio,after about 12 0r 13 minutes is when this happened,it was in full screen mode with a picture of the chimp on it. It was just a picture, no moving or anything. This has happened before,(just the lines are a new development) it never shut off it,this time, just stopped responding. what could have caused this?? When it happened before, it just shut off,I just never had anyone to help me before you came along!!

Horizonal Lines, screen corruption, and artifacts are usually related to a failing graphics card or Motherboard.

But if it results in loss of power, or other hardware not working It could be related to a faulty power supply. (a faulty psu will damage both the MoBo and CPU)

You can try re-installing Windows to see if the issue still occurs, and update the graphics card driver.

I am a novice and how do I go about checking the power supply ?

dayton5959 said:

I am a novice and how do I go about checking the power supply ?

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To check the psu you need a digital multi-meter, and then compare the readings to the psu specs.

Have you tried stress-testing the gpu (download 3dmark06), or have you used Vista's built-in diagnostic?
http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/211590-bsod-caused-multiple-problems.html

Hi Dayton,

does this only happen on this one video - if so it could be as simple as a badly corrupted file causing a video crash, if this problem occurs at other times I would suspect a Video/Driver issue.

PSU failure issues tend to result in the machine simply shutting down with no lock-up or error message, although failure of the PSU to supply sufficient power to the video system may show this type of error

barman58 said:

PSU failure issues tend to result in the machine simply shutting down with no lock-up or error message, although failure of the PSU to supply sufficient power to the video system may show this type of error

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dayton5959 said:

...When it happened before, it just shut off...

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He did report that- thats what I was thinking too...

It wasn't a video.. he said it was audio and a picture, so it's not video Corruption, as it's not video, I'd try updating your graphics driver.. what do you have? Fill in system Specs, or tell us what graphics card your system is running.

xguntherc said:

It wasn't a video.. he said it was audio and a picture, so it's not video Corruption, as it's not video, I'd try updating your graphics driver.. what do you have? Fill in system Specs, or tell us what graphics card your system is running.

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It doesnt have to be a "video" if the psu/MoBo is faulty or the GPU is failing...Its the screen image graphical representation in general- the "picture image" if you may. that is what he says is happening- screen corruption/computer turning off.

rive0108 said:

xguntherc said:

It wasn't a video.. he said it was audio and a picture, so it's not video Corruption, as it's not video, I'd try updating your graphics driver.. what do you have? Fill in system Specs, or tell us what graphics card your system is running.

Click to expand...

It doesnt have to be a "video" if the psu/MoBo is faulty or the GPU is failing...Its the screen image graphical representation in general- the "picture image" if you may. that is what he says is happening- screen corruption/computer turning off.

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I'm with rive0108. If he's getting graphical corruption, it's either a failing/faulty video card or PSU.

dayton5959 said:

I am a novice and how do I go about checking the power supply ?

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Physically inspecting the unit for shorts, loose cables, or looking for signs like quick shutdowns or reboots; another way would be to use monitoring software but I'm not too familiar with them …but you could try Speed Fan? I use it for its temperature readings but it also monitors my PS; can’t speak on the accuracy though, but it looks pretty good from where I sit. ??? Look for abnormally low voltages???

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Posted by me here - http://www.vistax64.com/graphic-car...rd-drivers-issue-ati-4870-a-6.html#post971599

I really appreciate you all helping me,I managed to update a monitor driver, I hope this fixes it for me.You all are just so great to help me this way!! Its hard to get any help from people around here,they don't seem to know anymore about it than I do. But, you know my computer has shut down ,but it always said it was the monitor thing,it has never just stopped without saying something about the problem. I am alot bolder about doing stuff on my own since you all have been helping me ,I am really thankful for you guys. This is really alot of fun!!