Computer problem ?

[JoAnn Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoAnn]

The last two mornings when I get to the PC I have a dark screen, which is usual, but when I hit a key to 'wake' it up, it flashes the screen saver & icons, then turns black. I can hear it dialing and all the little sounds, but no picture. So I turn the PC off...either on the tower or...yesterday I just pulled the plug and start it all over. Then it works fine all day. Any idea what is wrong and how to fix it???? TIA

[Nancy Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Nancy]

Also had problem

We had a problem with Hubby's laptop that when it goes into sleep mode it loses connection with Router (including Printer and Internet) and has to be rebooted. Believe we upped the time for sleep mode and it's been better lately.

Nancy

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

We had a problem with Hubby's laptop that when it goes into sleep mode it loses connection with Router (including Printer and Internet) and has to be rebooted. Believe we upped the time for sleep mode and it's been better lately.

Nancy

There should be more power save options than just setting the sleep time. I don't know what laptop you have so I don't know what your options are. It is normal to lose the connections if it is truly in sleep mode.

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

The last two mornings when I get to the PC I have a dark screen, which is usual, but when I hit a key to 'wake' it up, it flashes the screen saver & icons, then turns black. I can hear it dialing and all the little sounds, but no picture. So I turn the PC off...either on the tower or...yesterday I just pulled the plug and start it all over. Then it works fine all day. Any idea what is wrong and how to fix it???? TIA

It appears that you have a piece of hardware that is being left in a strange state. This is fairly common with modems which I gather you have if you hear a dialing sound. Powering it down resets the device which is why it works. Simply restarting does not initialize the hardware. It must be powered down to do this. If it is your modem, you can often fix modem problems by setting the initialization string. You need to know what make and model your modem is and then you can search the Internet for initialization strings for that modem. An initialization string is simply a string of characters that you type in. You can do this as follows.

1. Click on "Start" in left lower corner and select "Control Panel".
2. Double click on "System" and then select "Hardware"
3. Select "Device Manager". This will show all of your hardware devices.
4. Click on the + sign next to "Modems". This will show the modem device you have.
5. Right click on the device and select "Properties"
6. Select the "Advanced" tab at the top. You should see a box where you can type in the Initialization characters.

[JoAnn Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoAnn]

Thanks to all...this infernal machine has been working fine now. Yesterday I checked the modem info, but never could find the 'initializing' stuff, but I went in and re installed it (or followed the instructions). Then I went in and changed some settings for 'sleep' time. Now when I get up, the screen is more Grey than black, but starts up immediately. No I do not have it connected to the net all night. I've got my fingers crossed that what ever the problem is/was, it's gone.