Can you tell me what kind of monitor you have? If it's a CRT, then the green color might indicate a failure of the monitor. If it's an LCD, I would first check the VGA cable. A loose cable can do this.
If all that looks good, the way to check your video card is with the diagnostics. I've got a link to the procedure below.
Haven't talked to you in awhile...glad you're here. This was very surprising...it just went to that light green color that most of us use for the background on the desktop. After the shutdonwn, It started up OK and I also did a restart. My graphics card is ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO and the monitor is a Dell SE198WFP LCD. I will do the diagnostic and get back to you tomorrow.
I was just trying to be cute with my naming...but it just went to a green screen. I did the diagnostic and and it came up clean except for:
Error Code 0F00-131C Msg DVDRW_ Block 512 (and 513) Non Recoverable Hardware Error Timeout on Logical Unit. .
I looked that one up and it appears in might be the video card.
I have the utility from Piriform called "Speccy" which all kinds of information on the system. It shows the temperature of the video card wavering around 50 degress centigrade. All the temps on the CPU are around 40. At any rate the computer started up fine and is working OK so far this morning.
DVDRW_ Block 512 - That error is your DVD drive, not the video card. Did you have a DVD or CD in the drive when you ran the diagnostic tests? If not, that might explain that error, or just try the tests again with a different data DVD or CD in the drive.
I get the feeling what you're saying is you use the "green screen" as your regular background wallpaper on the desktop. And suddenly, all your icons and shortcuts etc. disappeared, leaving only the wallpaper. That sounds to me like Windows crashed due to some error.
After you rebooted everything seems to be fine and I gather it hasn't happened again. So in that case, I'd not worry about it unless/until it happens again.
If you're still curious, open Windows Event Viewer. Click "System" and look for an error entry at the date/time of the "green screen". If Windows was able to log the fault, it might point you at what caused it. If you don't see an error associated with date/time of the crash, that doesn't tell you anything, because Windows has to retain a certalin level of function during a crash to capture it to the log.
NOTE: If you see lots of errors in Event Viewer that happened at other times, not necessarily associated with the crash, you may need to take some action to fix whatever problem is indicated by the log.
I was able to find they correct part of the event viewer, but didn't see anything specific there. There was a disc in the drive while the diagnostic was running. The system is working fine today, so perhaps it was a temporatry glitch.
osprey4
4 Operator
•
34.2K Posts
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July 17th, 2012 15:00
Hi Dalem29,
Can you tell me what kind of monitor you have? If it's a CRT, then the green color might indicate a failure of the monitor. If it's an LCD, I would first check the VGA cable. A loose cable can do this.
If all that looks good, the way to check your video card is with the diagnostics. I've got a link to the procedure below.
dalem29
2 Intern
•
2.2K Posts
0
July 17th, 2012 16:00
Hi Osprey4:
Haven't talked to you in awhile...glad you're here. This was very surprising...it just went to that light green color that most of us use for the background on the desktop. After the shutdonwn, It started up OK and I also did a restart. My graphics card is ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO and the monitor is a Dell SE198WFP LCD. I will do the diagnostic and get back to you tomorrow.
celavey
49 Posts
0
July 17th, 2012 21:00
Have you tried using a different monitor to see if the problem will persist. This is the first time I heard about the green screen of death.
dalem29
2 Intern
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2.2K Posts
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July 18th, 2012 08:00
I was just trying to be cute with my naming...but it just went to a green screen. I did the diagnostic and and it came up clean except for:
Error Code 0F00-131C Msg DVDRW_ Block 512 (and 513) Non Recoverable Hardware Error Timeout on Logical Unit. .
I looked that one up and it appears in might be the video card.
I have the utility from Piriform called "Speccy" which all kinds of information on the system. It shows the temperature of the video card wavering around 50 degress centigrade. All the temps on the CPU are around 40. At any rate the computer started up fine and is working OK so far this morning.
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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July 18th, 2012 12:00
DVDRW_ Block 512 - That error is your DVD drive, not the video card. Did you have a DVD or CD in the drive when you ran the diagnostic tests? If not, that might explain that error, or just try the tests again with a different data DVD or CD in the drive.
I get the feeling what you're saying is you use the "green screen" as your regular background wallpaper on the desktop. And suddenly, all your icons and shortcuts etc. disappeared, leaving only the wallpaper. That sounds to me like Windows crashed due to some error.
After you rebooted everything seems to be fine and I gather it hasn't happened again. So in that case, I'd not worry about it unless/until it happens again.
If you're still curious, open Windows Event Viewer. Click "System" and look for an error entry at the date/time of the "green screen". If Windows was able to log the fault, it might point you at what caused it. If you don't see an error associated with date/time of the crash, that doesn't tell you anything, because Windows has to retain a certalin level of function during a crash to capture it to the log.
NOTE: If you see lots of errors in Event Viewer that happened at other times, not necessarily associated with the crash, you may need to take some action to fix whatever problem is indicated by the log.
dalem29
2 Intern
•
2.2K Posts
0
July 18th, 2012 16:00
I was able to find they correct part of the event viewer, but didn't see anything specific there. There was a disc in the drive while the diagnostic was running. The system is working fine today, so perhaps it was a temporatry glitch.
osprey4
4 Operator
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34.2K Posts
0
July 18th, 2012 16:00
I agree with Ron. I don't think it's a video card error.