Computer crashing with Green Bars on screen

Mr_squishy

The title says it all really. This has been happening now for about 6 months
No error messages appear the screen just turns into green vertical bars and stays like that until its rebooted.

I can not identify any event that causes it. I have updated all my drivers inc Bios and Grapics, scanned for viruses / malware and I have even done a reformat and reinstall of windows but does not make any difference.

Usually these crashes are few and far between but just annoying any help will be appricated.

John_Gray

Having powered off, removed the mains lead, opened the case, earthed yourself to it, then try reseating all the cards. And the memory sticks.

Mr_squishy

Will give that ago, but as I said, the occourences are rare, just annoying, So I wont know for sure if its worked for a while.

Any other sugguestions would appriciated

asbokid

Mr_squishy wrote: »

Will give that a go, but as I said, the occurrences are rare, just annoying, So I won't know for sure if it's worked for a while.

Any other suggestions would appreciated

1) Download the free memtest86 memory testing tool to see if you have a faulty memory stick. The tool is painfully slow and it can take some while to return a result. On a fairly old machine with a lot of memory, memtest86 generally needs to be left running overnight. If it does identify a memory fault, there is a standard switch-and-swap procedure for locating the exact stick which is faulty and needs discarding or replacing.

2) Rule out a fault with the operating system or some other piece of automatically-loaded software by downloading a bootable "live CD" such as Knoppix.

Live CDs contains a full Linux kernel with a Linux file system, and all the user space binaries you might ordinarily need (web browser, office s/w, email client, etc)

If the PC operates without problem when booted from a Live CD, then that would suggest that you have a problem with your installation of Microsoft Windows (nothing new there then...)

3) Faulty power supply units very commonly cause intermittent system failures. A dying PSU can cause a power spike or a brownout. This can corrupt the RAM and can cause executing code to crash.

Replacement PSU units cost very little nowadays. £10 will buy a PSU that can supply a current that is adequate to power most home PCs.

4) Sometimes these faults can be caused by something fairly obscure. Depending on your machine and its architecture, it's possible to 'overclock' the central processor. This usually involves tweaking the bus speeds and/or clock multiplier settings in the BIOS. For most users, overclocking is not an advisable thing to do since it can reduce the reliability and lifespan of the machine. It may be that your machine has been inadvertently overclocked by a tinkering youngster in the household. If that sounds plausible, you could try entering the BIOS screen and reverting the relevant settings to their (sluggish) default.

These things can often be quite hard to track down, so good luck!