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Black screen of death.

By marcrph ·
My computer locks up so severely that i have to
unplug it to get started. The screen goes black
and the pc does not respond to ctrl-alt-del, or pushing the power button. Once restarted the system works fine and all diskscans show no errors. I have been told this may be a memory problem but not sure what solution is?

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Black screen of death.

by TheChas In reply to Black screen of death.

More details of your system configuration would help give you a good answer.
What version of Windows, CPU, video card, etc.
How much memory, and how much free hard drive space is also useful.
What programs run in the background?
Look at the system tray, and services counsole (alt-ctrl-del for 9X)

From the information given, you may have one or more of the following;
1. A memory leak. This is a program that uses memory, and then leaves it as used when it is done with it. There are "freeware" memory management programs that you can use to help track down the cause.
2. Not enough RAM. I like to set up 9X systems with 128MB to 384MB of RAM.
3. Too much RAM. Windows 9X/Me has a bug, and can lock up with more than 511MB of RAM.4. Bad drivers. Update all system drivers. start with the chipset / motherboard drivers, then the video card.
Finish with any other "plug-in" cards.
5. Insufficient free space on the hard drive. When Windows runs out of RAM, it uses "virtual" memory. I try to keep at least 10% of the drive free for virtual memory.
When I set up new PCs, I usually setup a seperate drive for virtual memory. I size the drive at 2-4GB.
6. Registry corruption. If you are running W95 or 98, it may be timeto wipe the drive, and re-install Windows.
A pain, yes. But, you will be amased at the perfromance improvement that usually happens when you format the drive and start over.
This is very true, if you have changed a lot of hardware, or add and remove programs often.
7. File fragmentation. Boot into safe mode, shut down all tray programs and run scandisk and then defrag.
Make sure that you clean out un-needed files first.
\Windows\temp
\windows\temporary internet files
etc.

As I stated, the more information, the better an answer we can give you.

Chas

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Black screen of death.

by marcrph In reply to Black screen of death.

Poster rated this answer

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Black screen of death.

by marcrph In reply to Black screen of death.

I will use a few of these suggestions and repost if still a problem.....thank you.

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Black screen of death.

by marcrph In reply to Black screen of death.

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Black screen of death.

by marcrph In reply to Black screen of death.

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