Folks,

Dux:

Along the lines of what the wise PV1 has mentioned, I once had a problem with my vid card being loose as well. On boot-up sometimes the system would just shut down and cut off and I'd have to try again. On other times when Windows loaded I'd get an error message saying my video settings were incorrect for my machine. I'd ignore that and click OK and the video setup screen would pop up and I'd just leave everything as it was and click apply. Everything would run great again...until the next time.

I opened the box and found my card was not firmly in its slot. In fact it seemed to be slightly warped. Perhaps that came from the time that I was trying to get BoB to work and in a fit of anger I tossed the whole tower down a short flight of stairs? No, I never did that but once the video card was again placed firmly in its slot the problem completely went away. I now have a new vid card installed with no more difficulties.

When my 19" Princeton monitor failed several years ago I had begun to notice some problems with color shift but a good whack on the side of the cabinet usually set that right....OK, not really. After a bit of cursing and waiting it would always go away on its own. Then one fine day there was a little snap the smell of burning insulation and everything dissolved to black. Everything on the screen that is. Everything else turned a brilliant red and steam came out my ears. All efforts to resuscitate the beast were unsuccessful and after a respectable mourning period (of at least several minutes)a replacement was obtained.

Crack the box and see if any loose bits come rolling out. If they do, I'd say that is not a good sign. Perhaps something has jarred the tower or perhaps heat build-up might have warped something? It kinda sounds like the problem is intermittent and perhaps related to the length of time you are computing. That might be in some way heat related do you think? Perhaps something is getting too hot, limiting, cooling off and on re-boot all is well until the heat rises to the critical level once more. Is your fan operating properly? How about the fan on your vid card? I'm just guessing. I'd say take the lot of it including the monitor to your local computer wizard and have it gone over thoroughly.

Speaking the obvious isn't especially helpful. Sorry I'm not able to offer more my friend.