Intermittent computer woes..
 

On occasion, my computer sounds like it boots up but no image is displayed. There are no unusual BIOS beep sounds. Usually I just repeatedly hit the restart button until it works work again .

In more recent times however, after it boots up fine and I'm web browsing or w/e, sometimes the screen suddenly goes black and there's no response. When I try to restart it, I encounter the same no image problem.

I am certain it is not the monitor as I have tried using another monitor when experiencing this issue. I am not sure however if it is the video card. I don't experience any BSOD's or anything though so I'm uncertain.

Google is telling me that it may be a PSU issue. I always thought that PSU's either work or they don't. I bought a replacement one today anyways just to try swapping when I'm having this problem again which, at this very moment, is not present as I am typing this post from my computer.

Computer specs (2008 build luls):
E7200 cpu
EP45-DS3L mobo
6gb ocz ram
8800GT gpu
Antec 500W psu

Anyone have suggestions as to how I go about narrowing down the root of my problems? TIA

disconnect power, take out motherboard battery to clear the BIOS.

That's how I fixed a very similar problem to my dad's PC.

Tried that before. Problem still occurs.

If your problem is no video on boot, check to see if the computer is working by toggling the Num Lock or Caps Lock and seeing if the LEDs toggles. If the computer is working, then try the other video output. Move the video cable to the other video connector. The video outputs are auto-sensing, and can get confused occasionally.

I had a problem with computers being unable to wake from sleep. The issue was a corrupt video driver. Try updating your NVidia driver if you haven't done so in a while.

I had a problem with a DOA PSU that would work, but only briefly. If you already have the new PUS I'd swap it out and see how that goes.

I always have this problem as well..but if it's just a black screen I'll hard shut it down, wait a bit then start up again

Sometimes it hangs on the bios, hard reset then it works again

I dunno it's weird, relatively high end build only two years old but it's been doing it for the majority of its life.

Happened again last night shortly after I made this thread. One thing I noticed is that it made the device disconnecting sound that Windows makes when the screen blacked out. Restarted up perfectly fine right after which I was a little bit surprised at, and slightly disappointed at because then I still can't trace the issue lol.

That is a good idea that I need to look into. My current keyboard is a wireless Logitech with no LEDs. I will dig one out from the parts bin and give your suggestion a try. As for the video cable bit, in the past when the screen went blank, I would plug it into the other connector on the gpu and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Intermittent issues are the worst to deal with!

Fortunately for me, this only started happening recently. I'm beginning to think that it might be due to these new-used sticks of RAM I bought. Until the problem happens again though, all this is just pure speculation that I can't really narrow down to anything specific. Seems like the problem could be anything really.

I'm thinking it might be time for a new budget build with the sales coming up... would be nice to salvage what I still have though.

when i unplug a video cable from my video card the computer will make that sound. I think its your video card that is having issues.

Do you have a spare video card that you can try?

sounds like video card issue, maybe its not powered enough or a problem itself.