Laptop problems - blank screen in the middle of working, help appreciated

Scottish_Lass_3

Hi
Working on a fairly new (six months old) Acer Aspire 1640z, XP, and recently out of the blue I will be in the middle of something (usually posting on a forum) and everything disappears and I have a blank white or pale blue screen. If I restart, I get an hour or so before it happens again.

Is this the screen of death I have heard about?

Any advice appreciated
Lindsay

albertross_2

A BSOD usually has lots of writing on, with a blue background.

Difficult to say what it is, does it happen when connected to the mains, or on battery? Power saving and hibernation/suspend can sometimes cause these type of symptoms.. see power saving options in control panel.

Crabman

This happens to me sometimes, I'm on XP Home and occasionally I'll get a monotone colour over my screen: red, blue, green, black or white. I normally have to place it into standby and resume the session. DELL have not been able to diagnose it and neither have I; it's one of those things I've put up with. I'd be interested if you find a solution though, afraid I have no additional advice for you

Scottish_Lass_3

Thanks all.

Am always plugged into the mains, never use the laptop on battery power. Wondered if I am not doing myself any favours...maybe laptops like being 'unplugged' now and again or something....to help the battery work properly??

This is a blank, I mean, BLANK screen, no writing, nothing. Just a big white screen.

albertross_2

Does it happen after you shut the lid, or after you have left it for a while, or while you are typing away?

Scottish_Lass_3

Albertross, it happens while I am online typing, or surfing, I rarely use the laptop to work in other programmes (Word etc) and havn't left it for a while ie have recently taken it out of screen saver etc.

sco0ter

I have read on other forums a while ago about problems like this... A few had traced it to a bad graphics card (actually to Windows Update downloading new graphics drivers that didnt fully support the OEM card). Try updating your graphics card to the newest drivers from the official manufacturers site..

Millionaire

Hmmm, I used to have a desktop that started having all funny colours out of the blue when i was working on it. Sometimes it would just happen when not in use and sometimes when i was working on it.

Thought it was the screen but it wastn that, then graphics card but it wasnt that.

Short while after my computer would freeze after the funny colours and i would have to do a hard shut down.

Then eventually the pc started failing to start and in the end it just stopped working.

Luckily it was under warranty and i got another brand new one, but never diagnosed what the problem was.

Just to be on the safe side, backup any data that you may have but hopefully its not the problem that I had.