Losing Video after a few minutes.

[gilera]

Problem started a couple of days ago, computer would start up with audio but no screen.
After a couple of restarts ran ok for rest of day. Today started with audio but no screen video ie black screen. On restart i got a green screen full of vertical lines with a BSOD but i could not read it as the vertical lines distorted it. Further restart all OK for a few minutes then cursor and computer locked followed by a blank sceen again. Did a reboot into safe mode and this is where i am and it is running OK. Tried a full reboot i get a repeat of lock up and then blank screen. I have turned of system restore, run Alvira anti-virus and malwarebytes. Malwarebytes picked up Backdoor.Pcclient which i removed and then restarted restore. Does it look like a failure of video board, is it possible to be OK in safe and not in normal?

[glc]

I'd look at a failing video card or a weak power supply. Safe mode is only using the VGA portion of the video card - normal mode is using both the GPU and the video ram. I had a similar problem when the fan on my old GeForce 4400 Ti failed and the GPU overheated.

[gilera]

Thanks GLC, I have had it running since midday with no problem, beats the heck out of me.
I will take a look to see if there is a fan on board the video card tomorrow. I did notice a strange sound prior to the loss of screen each time, like a quiet scraping noise. i hope there is a fan. Will let you know what i find.

[gilera]

GLC just to let you know it was the fan, my local shop did not have one but gave me a heat sink that fitted perfectly, running OK so far. I am going to search on web for a fan. I am surprised how quickly the card overheated, within a minute or so of getting screen on that was if i could get it on. Thanks anyway.

[glc]

You are lucky - when my fan died it caused permanent damage.