The Black Screen Of Nothingness

Things did not bode well Sunday.

First, a few errors rendering video that caused the occasional freeze. Next, the computer would hang and not recover, forcing a reset to get things going again. This was followed by an upgrade to the video drivers in case there was a problem with the older drivers. For a while it seemed everything was working just as it should. And then.......

.....The Black Screen Of Nothingness.

A reset or restart did nothing but elicit the dreaded long POST beep, telling me the system wasn't seeing the video card. At that point I shut the system down and went into the living room to watch the New England Patriots shred the Buffalo Bills.

Monday's schedule was full, leaving no time for troubleshooting.

After taking care of a few chores upon arriving home to The Manse today, I tackled the recalcitrant computer. When it comes to video problems I've come across in the past, I've been amazed how often the problem can be cured by removing and then plugging the video card back into the motherboard. That was my hope this time. Unfortunately my hopes were dashed.

A few more tries of other tricks of the trade, but nothing worked. It was time to end the agony and put the computer to one side. The Official Weekend Pundit Backup Computer was moved into place, booted up, and hence, this post. It will have to do for the time being.

Tomorrow I hope to score a video card from our IT maven at work, which will allow me to prove once and for all the video card is indeed the culprit. Until then the backup machine (a Linux box) will serve.

There are times when I hate computers.....