I'm running xp pro and just installed service pack 2. Now every minute or so, my screen blacks out for about 5 seconds. Any idea why? :bawling:
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Straight_ManGeeky, in my own wayNaples, FLIcrontian
edited October 2004
Um, look for new video drivers for your video card, or if video is embedded (chip on the motherboard), then go to the mfr for video drivers. That is the starting point for video itself, normally. For XP SP2 the best driver is not a driver for OCing, it is a WHQL (Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certified driver for XP. Same also applies to schipset drivers, actually, and with SP2 a resource conflict can do this also. Sometimes new motherboard chipset drivers help if video is embedded, or even if not (Reason: they include base AGP support, most boxes that run XP use AGP graphics, and XP SP2 PREFERS AGP video cards A LOT, and has some issues on some boxes with older PCI video cards-- especially if older drivers are also present for AGP or for teh video card). IF you can tell us what the video card is that is in your system, that woudl help a lot. Info you know about your computer might also be useful to help ID and FIND the needed drivers mentioned above if you have trouble doing that.
Are you playing games when this happens, browsing, doing something else (please tell us what generally you are doing, maybe if it only happens when a certain thing is done, tell us what that thing is (like what game if this turns out to be a game-related thing)) or does it do it even when the machine is just sitting there with no programs other than what Windows itself runs actually being used??? You did let it install Windows Media Player and DirectX 9.0c, right??? And you did scan it for viruses before this SP2 install??? BTW, did you go back to WindowsUpdate after installing SP2 and did you get the patches released in October that apply to IE and the one that applies to GDI+ if WindowsUpdate offers one to you after installing SP2??? Info about these things will help solve your problem for REAL-- I started with drivers as commonly older drivers for video are one major reason this can happen, I have had this happen on Older versions of Windows also, and many times it was AGP or video card or monitor (.inf file for montior, it has acceptable video modes monitor can use in it) driver files that caused the problem (including video flashing off and on, though virals can do this in an indirect way with a machine that is low on resources or has resource conflicts in its setup, and a failing video card can also do this, and a monitor that is failing or overheating can cycle on and off before it dies also.
One more crazy sounding thing that has worked many times for me, restart windows TWICE after installing XP SP2 without slipstreaming it. sometimes windows settles down after the SECOND restart, but in this case I would not count on just that totally fixing things. Try it anyway, though.
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Are you playing games when this happens, browsing, doing something else (please tell us what generally you are doing, maybe if it only happens when a certain thing is done, tell us what that thing is (like what game if this turns out to be a game-related thing)) or does it do it even when the machine is just sitting there with no programs other than what Windows itself runs actually being used??? You did let it install Windows Media Player and DirectX 9.0c, right??? And you did scan it for viruses before this SP2 install??? BTW, did you go back to WindowsUpdate after installing SP2 and did you get the patches released in October that apply to IE and the one that applies to GDI+ if WindowsUpdate offers one to you after installing SP2??? Info about these things will help solve your problem for REAL-- I started with drivers as commonly older drivers for video are one major reason this can happen, I have had this happen on Older versions of Windows also, and many times it was AGP or video card or monitor (.inf file for montior, it has acceptable video modes monitor can use in it) driver files that caused the problem (including video flashing off and on, though virals can do this in an indirect way with a machine that is low on resources or has resource conflicts in its setup, and a failing video card can also do this, and a monitor that is failing or overheating can cycle on and off before it dies also.
One more crazy sounding thing that has worked many times for me, restart windows TWICE after installing XP SP2 without slipstreaming it. sometimes windows settles down after the SECOND restart, but in this case I would not count on just that totally fixing things. Try it anyway, though.