PC problem - monitor going black

I have a problem with my main PC - the monitor kept going off (sometimes into standby), but then it came back after a few seconds or perhaps 30. The PC would still respond but only after a freeze for a few seconds once the display had come back.

Now it's stopped working completely. The PC appears to boot, but no video output - the kepyboard and mouse both display their lights (caps lock etc..).

I've swapped the monitor to this PC, and it works fine. Using this monitor on the other PC gives a black screen. So the monitors are both OK.

I've swapped graphics cards and it still gave the flashing on and off (and now just a black screen) so I think the card is OK.

Removing power from both CD and DVD drives made no difference.

I noticed that the last time it managed to display something the desktop was corrupted (stripy lines and missing pixels) before it went black.

My guess is the power supply rather than the MB or CPU (I assume the graphics card, a 6600GT, draws more current than anything else) but I've not seen this before - anyone else had something similar?

Sounds like the AGP or PCI express (whichever it is you're using!) socket is at fault. Either it needs a clean (most likely), a component in the power path to the socket is failing, or the PSU itself is at fault.

Less likely is that some other device plugged into your power strip along with your PC is causing some interference. This shouldn't happen because your PSU and motherboard should filter out anything nasty.

Switch PSU, to elimitate that as a problem. Clean (ie. blow very hard into/around) your socket and (just occurred to me) try different RAM.

Had similar problems, resolved by removing a huge lump of fluff that had got itself stuck in the AGP slot.

Better to use compressed air rather than trying to blow into sockets, and do it at arm's length unless you want a face full of a dust - the quantity of which you didn't even realise was in there (voice of experience).

Hmm, I'll give that a try - the inside of my PC is incredibly dusty for some reason - huge balls of fluff came out of the graphics card's fan. I would have thought that swapping out for the other graphics card would have cleared the AGP slot but I'll get the whole PC outside and give it a really good clean, just to be sure.

thanks

Good. Make sure to use lots of soapy water and to thoroughly hose it down afterwards.
If you can, hire a waterblaster to help get your PC really clean ;-)

Yeah, I've got a pressure washer so it'll be pretty clean.

I'll make sure it's dry though before plugging it back in (don't want to blow it up), couple of hours in the tumble dryer should do it.