White screen of death

[rojash]

Total nightmare. Every time I switch my machine on it runs for aprox. 4 minutes, then the screen turns white.
Machine works in safe mode (which is where I am now).
Tried
Msconfig disable everything I can think of
Different video adaptor (screen hangs after 4 mins but don't turn white - is that an improvement?)
Checking voltages and temperatures - all ok
No events in log
----
Going to cut my wrists next - will it help?

[Prudentia]

is your cooling fan working?

[Krypton27]

Could be the internal battery running down?

[rojash]

as I said:

Checking voltages and temperatures - all ok

[ACtheTROLL]

desktop or laptop ... how old .... which windows - hat processor - you know the drill;-)

it does sound like a heat problem ...
similar fault with different vid - so not vid heatsink

have you disabled the screensaver?

north bridge overheating?... or
popped capacitors.

when you say voltages OK ... have you tested them with load ...
if PSU overheating it will only do it on load
and won't be the first time I've seen OK volts ... but no amps.

stupid suggestion ... what about the monitor?

safe mode is VGA ... I assume you use higher res than that .... could it be the mode switch that's not locking

and finally ... what about the video cable

and finally ... I had a problem once that turned out to be the unused modem - have you disconnected everything else?

other than that ... I find wilkinson smoother than gillette
and after a couple of magic brownies you won't find the fault ... but you will find it funny ;-)

[rojash]

Hi Acc.

Asus M3N78 Motherboard with AMD 64fx processor. and on board GeForce 8200 video
3 GB RAM (shared with Graphics)
XP SP3

Used Asus Probe to monitor temps, voltages and fan speeds on screen with 1 sec polling.
Processor never gets above 45 deg - motherboard 31 deg
All voltages within norms
Runs at 2.2 Ghz (not overclocked)

Nothing's warm to touch - CP Fan at 3000 RPM - other fans not metered but it's a gaming case with 4 additional fans, all running.

Swapped out the 350 Watt PSU for Tagan 700 Watt with two fans - no difference!

Alternative Graphics is PCIe GeForce 7300LE with 256 K (no fan - heatsink cool)

Crossed my mind (eventually) that it might be the (Asus) monitor - so I switched it complete with cable for a (LG).
No Difference.

No on-board modem.

Nothing in any of the logs.

Since problem occurred I've:

Swapped out the RAM
Swapped out the video
Swapped out the PSU
Run MalawareBytes thing
Run CCleaner
Use Revo Uninstaller to get rid of everything not needed or even vaguely suspicious
Swapped out the AV from ESET Smart to Kaspersky Internet to Kaspersky AV to Eset NOD32
Smoked 40 fags
Drunk 1 glass of wine and 7 coffees.

[tamborine]

googled:

well, i had the same problem. i have had my 15" fs dell since august 2003. never had a moments problem with it. until early december. i left my pc on and when i came back 30 minutes later it had the "white screen of death". nothing cleared it so i rebooted several times and it fixed itself. i had intermitant occurances for about a week. i would do all kinds of things in an attempt to clear it - the self test worked sometimes. anyhow, i did get online long enough to discover people discussing the soldering fix. i am a handy guy but had never done anything that tedious :eek: . but i figured what the heck? what have i got to lose? if i ruin it i am not out anything because i would have had to replace the monitor anyhow. :mad: so, i get my small screwdrivers together and my soldering iron and solder. i take this thing apart like i just knew i would never get it back together correctly. i located the suspect pins and lo and behold the solders were split and crusty looking whereas all the others were smooth and shiney as they should be. then with trembling paws i dripped the hot solder on the pins and voila!! :p it was done. it took about 10 minutes to put everything back together - which gave me ample time to say a very long prayer while doing it. i plug it back in - hooked up the cable, turned on my pc and YES:!: :!: it worked. i have not had a problem since - been white screen free for over 4 weeks

[ACtheTROLL]

tamborine's answer takes some beating ....

no connection generally = black or missing a colour gun ... but not white
sync problems generally give white ...
(strangely my PSP sometimes does the white screen from standby thing)
If it's not the answer - it should be

but you've swapped it all out .... that only leaves the mobo .... or windows

the graphics comes from the mobo through ram ... through either the built in or plugged in card to screen .... the only bit of that chain you haven't changed is mobo ....

have you tried running knoppix or ubloodyunto? from CD?

that isolates the machine from all the windows O/s and drivers ...

if the machine is bare bones - back to the mobo .....

I seem to remember
about the 2-3Gb cycle of mobos there were a lot of reports of capacitors blowing on asus and foxconn boards

[rojash]

"I seem to remember
about the 2-3Gb cycle of mobos there were a lot of reports of capacitors blowing on asus and foxconn boards "

I've got a feeling that may be the problem - sh1t! this is my main machine, back to the Wilkinson Sword, I think...

[ACtheTROLL]

bummer ... sorry to hear of your loss ..

even worse
looking around the mobo seems available everywhere ....

so no excuse to get a dual/quad/i7 beastie