Help!!

[BrynF_UK]

My brothers Compaq Prescario SR2000 is having a few problems. It randomly shuts down when he's playing a game (mainly when maximizing a running game) and his screen goes blank, then the computer doesn't respond at all - and hes forced to shut it down.
When he starts the computer again the computer starts up - but doesn't detect the monitor - the screen showing a "No Signal" message box. (if he switches it off at the mains - and turns it back on at the tower - all the system fans go on at full speed and the screen shows the same message again.

This happens every day randomly, but after 15-30 (or more) minutes it starts up just fine - and carries on to work fine.

Its not the CPU overheating, BUT when i took his RAM out and turned it on it didn't make a sound at all - suggesting the motherboard is broken right? Well, i did that before and after 30 minutes or so it worked fine again.

Anyone have any ideas what it could be?

EDIT: The more this happens the longer he has to wait before it works again, and he only got it last Christmas.

 

[windowsvista]

what is the warranty?

 

[BrynF_UK]

12 months standard i think - but either way still covered

 

[Spec]

BrynF, if you take the ram out the computer will NOT start up. It wont have sequence beeps if you take the ram out either. Computer can't run without ram. Also, possibly how much ram do you have? Alot of the times if you have a low amount of ram and minimize a game it takes a long time to open back up... could be just a video card problem or not enough physical memory.

 

[BrynF_UK]

I always though that taking the RAM out and starting up would always make a beeping noise to show the motherboard is working...

and RAM is 1Gb

 

[Spec]

No, without ram or bad ram it wont beep... If it was a bad motherboard it probably wouldn't even start up. Uhh power suply not giving enough power to gpu to run games could be a problem. it seems like its a graphics card problem or a power suply problem.

 

[BrynF_UK]

Well the computer starts up ok afterwards and plays games and stuff all fine so...

 

[Spec]

i'm confused now. is the problem it when you minimize games? or what...could you please restate. I still think its GPU or PSU prob.

 

[BrynF_UK]

ok when hes playing a game, minimizes it for whatever reason, then goes to maximize it again, the game opens and it freezes, the computer doesn't respond and the screen goes blank and then everything else i said in the first post...

 

[Spec]

yeah..seems like a PSU problem or GPU overheating..or processor overload... I'd take it back and get new computer kuz i think you still have a warrenty.