PC Locking Up

**Nuckle** · 11-17-11, 08:06 AM

So twice this AM my PC locked up. Basically it just stopped responding. The screen was frozen with the last image displayed. Num and Caps would not respond. No task manager no nothing. Had to hold the power button down to restart.

I have been having some monitor flickering at start up and suspected a bad monitor but now I am starting to suspect that the video card may be failing. Any time I either turn the monitor off for a period of time and turn it back on it flickers for as long as 2 or 3 minutes before going to normal. Locking up completely is something new that started today.

I cleaned with air after the second lock up. So far so good.

2 separate issues or the same?

**WileECyte** · 11-17-11, 08:28 AM

Could be your power supply... since weird power issues cause all sorts of instabilities and weirdness. Your monitor COULD possibly be a separate issue. I had a monitor that behaved like that and it had some blown capacitors that I had a friend replace for me.

**Viktor_Olin** · 11-17-11, 10:11 AM

The next time the PC locks up, note the exact time; after restart, check the event logs for clues:
How To Use Event Viewer
Shut Down - View Details of Last Shutdown of Computer - Windows 7 Forums

I suspect you have two separate issues.

**Nuckle** · 11-17-11, 10:19 AM

Will try that, so far so good. I am going to troubleshoot the monitor this afternoon on a different computer.

**DancingCorpse** · 11-17-11, 11:38 AM

It might have even been as simple as that a power connector had come loose on the graphics card. That happened to me once, I hadn't seated it right and I was having blue screens, lock ups and freezes out the wazoo, and it fixed as soon as I identified the problem and fixed it.