Monitor Power down

I have an issue...
My computer is about 1.5 years old, it is a DELL XPS410. I have a upgrade video card Radeon Geforce9400 GT.
The other evening it crashed while I was playing a game and since them has been shutting off -going to power save mode about every 15 or so minutes.

-I have checked all the power options and they are set to 'never', and not hibernate.
-I cleaned out the computer from dust and such. I removed and reset the video cards.
This is why I can use it some. but eventually the screen goes blank, the monitor light goes orange, if I press the menu button on monitor it says its in power save mode, but nothing, except powering the computer down fixes it.

-I also uninstalled and re-installed the video drivers, and that didnt help.
-I also check the Bios setting at start up for power management, and even did a system restore, back to before the problem started.

Anyone have any more ideas?

-Ken

 

could be a driver issue.

 

Thanks for the input.

Dont know how it could be the driver. I uninstalled the exisiting driver, then reinstalled the most current one from Nvidia. When running checks on it, it says I have the most current driver I can get.

 

This isn't important, and I'm nit-picky this way, but you do not have a 'Radeon Geforce 9400GT'. Radeon cards are made by ATI; Geforce cards are made my NVidia. ATI and NVidia are two completely different companies and are the two biggest rivals in the video card industry. Anyway....

It sounds to me like everything was OK then the video card got too hot and crashed. It could be that this caused permanent damage to the video card. If the PC runs fine when doing normal tasks but crashes when gaming or doing other graphic-intensive stuff, then I'd say the video card is overheating. Double check the video card fan (if it has one) and the heatsink; be sure it's clean (which you said you did). All I can suggest is running the PC with the side off the case and a small desk fan blowing in; if it makes a difference, then we know. You can also run GPUZ (for details on using GPUZ, look at this thread ) and see what the log file tells you....

 

You are correct, I guess I typed in Radeon while I was thinking of the previous video card. Thanks for the information. Still working on it.

 

I ran the GPUZ for a short test. The card temp showed 59 C, and stayed at that while just sitting there. Said fan speed 100%. I logged onto a game briefly and it cranked up to 69 C almost immediately and climbinging into the 70s. I dont know if thats normal, but I logged off game when it got to 76 C. it cooled down quickly back to 59 C. This was all with the side of computer open. I am going to reclean again, and double check the fan. Checking to see what happens in 15-20 minutes.