My neighbor has a Pavilion a6142n with Vista Home Premium. It was running just fine until recently when the screen started blanking out (like it was going into power saver mode) and then would not come back. It has to do a hard shut down to restart. But, it doesn't do it all the time. It might run for several hours before it blanks out or it might do it immediatly after startup. Nothing has changed as far as hardware added or removed.

I checked the video settings played with them - nothing. I thought it might be the video drivers and reinstalled them - nothing. I went in and cleaned up a bunch of stuff in the startup and that seemed to help, but then the problem started again. I went to HP site and went through the troubleshooting process and verified all BIOS settings were correct. I checked all connections and they are fine. I tried installing a new video card thinking the onboard video was bad, that didn't help. I also tried booting with a Linux disk to see if it was a software issue with vista, but the screen blanks soon after the OS starts to load.

I'm thinking its got to be hardware, but really don't know where to start looking. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Mo Moser

Have you tried a different monitor? I see you did try a new video card. That would be my next step.

Try what sneakycyber suggests first and update this post if it works

Consider if any ms updates came down in November - i got a similar issue, felt like the graphics card (and yes it was) but because ms update screwed it up - i'm still tracking down exactly which one

I can say this becuse 5 times i wiped and reinstalled, failed each time after ms updates. I disabled ms updates (temporarily, I wouldn't recommend this) until i located the exact issue - one of the updates is messing with my integerated memory/graphics card (I use Vista) - I'm still identifying which one

Please provide your system specifications to track down the cause of this issue

Speifications:
Windows, Linux....
Processor
Graphics
Memory
[use a PC Audit (free application) to grab this info from your pc]

keep in mind that for many of the issues that occur on a pc is due to something being changed on the pc...

Have you run a virus scan?

Does the PC just sits there by itself and then blanks out as you call it.

Instead of doing that hard shut down try -
CTRL-ALT-DEL -> ALT-u -> ALT-u
Just to prevent more damage. Check it works.

*edit spelling

Answers to above questions:

Yes I did try another monitor, which was actually one of my first steps but I see that I didn't say that in my post.

I also did a virus scan and found nothing. Virus software is Norton (wouldn't be my first choice, but that's what he has) and it has the latest updates.

The screen blanking doesn't seem to have a rhyme or reason. A couple of times I've had it happen when I've been opening a program (and it was a couple of different programs) and then others where I let it sit for a while without touching it and then I can't get it to wake up. I thought it might be an issue with hibernation in the power save mode and since I've finally figured out how to turn those off, I'm testing to see if that makes a difference.

I ran the Belarc advisor and have attached the output.

ok, you ran into this issue recenty - during November/October?
Thanks for the belarc text, tht helps us troubleshoot the problem

Yes, this just started to happen in the last couple of weeks.

ok thanks for the info - from my end, I will see which (if any) of the ms updates have been installed have upset your video software/driver

will check back in when I know something and review the other posts that people have/will put up to keep all your solution options open

What abot the drivers for vga.
Did you remove the old ones proper before you setup the new driver.
google - driver cleaner pro.
Did you disable the onboard vga in bios, when you tried adding a plug-in card?
Have you installed any mobo drivers you might need. Do that before you go ahead with anything else.
Have you a driver specifically for the monitor. Try install that if you can.
I would perchance try the plug-in again, from scrath, like this -
- Remove the drivers in add/remove software.
- Boot to bios and disable onboard.
- Boot on to safe mode and run driver cleaner. Read the .txt with the cleaner program. You must run the cab cleaner.
- Boot normally and only install the latest driver when you are passed all windows detect hardware stuff. Inside windows.
When you done. install the latest directx you got and then,
Start -> run ->

See if there are errors listed and run the tests on the vga.

Play around with power saver setting. Good idea. Disable all. Also screen-savers etc...

*edit
Can you determine if the system is locked up or the monitor just gone, when that problem occurs. Check the led on your harddisk.
That's what i suspect from your post and like you, that's leading me to believe it might be a software/driver problem.
You might be able to check that running in safe mode, but that could take hours.
I'd disconnect internet.
Disable all the software running resident that you do not need. Close it down.