black screen

[deena]

Hi I am new to the linux, I installed the linux kde and a full update two weeks ago. When I am watching movie or reading on the internet I am getting a black screen and humming noise. When this occur I can’t do anything. I have to use the power button to shut down the computer. I had this happen to me about 5 or 6 times and most of the time it was when I was watching a movie. I had a friend help me run a full test on hard disk for bad sector (smartctl) and it showed I had no bad sectors. I come to the forum for Help because me and my friend don’t know what the problem is and I need “Help” . My computer is a HP Model #107 CPU   AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+,  2gb of Ram, monitor hpw17e,  hard disk is  sata 320gb.,  nVidia Corporation C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430] (rev a2)
 
 [deena@localhost ~]$ uname-r
  2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs.

I will appreciate any help that is offered to help me resolve problem.

Deena

[AS]

Hello Deena and welcome!

the problem you describe may be related to flash-player plugin, of course not 100% sure. You say that you do a full update two weeks ago,
in the meantime a new version of flash-player has been released: flash-player-plugin-10.2.159.1-1pclos2011

Open Synaptic (package manager), click on "Reload", then "Mark all upgrades", Apply and Apply. This way you should install all the available updates.
When completed, restart your computer. Later on, let us know if the problem has been solved.

AS

[ThirdOfSix]

I too had this happen several times after an update  four to seven days ago.

My memory sucks and I was going to post on the problem after I narrowed it down a bit.  But I update every day and now I don't remember which update caused it or if it is still happening.

It seemed to only do it if I chose "leave > restart" from the main menu but not if I chose "shut down" from the main menu.

The thing is that I am not certain of this because it did not happen consistently.

I think it was only doing it on the machine with an Nvidia xf5200 video card but I am not certain of that.

If it happens again I will re-post on this thread with better information.

In the mean time, I would do as AS suggested and update as I don't think my machine is doing it any more after several days of small updates.

[ThirdOfSix]

As soon as I posted to this thread, I remembered something that is quite likely very significant.

I had forgotten that I wanted to track down the problem and upgraded to the
2.6.38.? kernel which may have caused the problem to go away.

I am not booted into PCLOS at the moment so I am not certain which kernel was running when I had the problem or which one I switched to.

I'll try to remember to use the original kernel for a few days and see if the problem comes back.

[deena]

I did the update and this is what happen: black screen come and then my computer reboot on its own and it kept just rebooting until I shut it off. and I got the frozen screens again. what is the resolution should I have with a 17ich monitor and would that cause me to have this problem? Pls help

Thanks Deena

[AS]

Hello Deena,

about the black screen... this come out only when you are going to watch youtube (or other flash) video, or that, as soon as you power on the computer, after some time it will start to reboot itself ?

[deena]

AS, it started when i was logged into firefox and was going into the forum. The screen went black and began to reboot on its own. at watch for a few min, and it continue to reboot on it own

[deena]

Thank you As and third of six for helping me with my problems and for the warm welcome to linux

Deena

[AS]

AS, it started when i was logged into firefox and was going into the forum. The screen went black and began to reboot on its own. at watch for a few min, and it continue to reboot on it own

Look like an hardware issue, less evident when the machine is cold, and more evident as soon as some component warm up...

You should perform some basic HW test, first of all a RAM test ... a software issue can cause an hard lock of the system, but it's unlikely that will start to reboot your system this way ...

[AS]

There is another test you can do, if it's more simple for you:

boot from PCLinuxOS livecd, (that one used for installation) and leave the system running a few time from live CD, if your system hang
or other issue arise, this could be a confirmation about an hardware failure.

HTH, AS

[deena]

AS, how do I run the ram test? and can i do from the live cd.


Deena

[AS]

AS, how do I run the ram test? and can i do from the live cd.


Deena

No it's not anymore in PCLinuxOS liveCD. Follow this link, download a recent ISO version, burn it on a CD, then boot your computer from memtest ISO,
there are several options, including precompiled botable ISO (to make a CD) or Auto-installer for Win to use with USB flash sticks:
http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

If something is not clear, please ask.

AS

[deena]

thank you so much AS going to try it and if I have any question I will ask you. I truly appreciate your time in helping me.

Deena

[deena]

I want to say thank you to as for all the help and recommendations.I did go on the live cd to see if it was a hardware issue for 3 days and the result was I didn't get a black screen while running the live cd. After updating kernel I don't have the black screen,and its been resolved.