HELP! My computer has turned blue!

victor

Antediluvian as Feck
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First the sound stopped working, so I rebooted my PC, and now everything is blue for some reason. It's like someone put a blue filter over my screen. What the hell is going on?? This is an emergency, I have important files on the HDD.

*edit*

Fixed it by playing with the VGA cable a bit. Sound still doesn't work though. Media players freeze when I start mp3s, and it says my sound drivers are broken.
 
What kind of sound card do you have? I have an X-Fi and it's a piece of shit, as far as drivers and such go.
 
I have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. It's worked for years, only recently there's a loud electronic "beep" sound coming from the actual PC when I change sound volume on it.

I just yanked my headphones out, and then the problem was there (my headphones work, I tried them in the mp3 player).
 
The Overseer said:
I have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. It's worked for years, only recently there's a loud electronic "beep" sound coming from the actual PC when I change sound volume on it.

I just yanked my headphones out, and then the problem was there (my headphones work, I tried them in the mp3 player).

I know it sounds...off...but smell your soundcard, if it smells burnt, then it probably fried. It's actually very likely that you caused a short or some problem when you "yanked" out the headphones.

Either that, or your soundcard somehow disabled, so check your device manager list and look for your soundcard, if it's there, check it's functionality by double clicking it and checking the "device status" box. If it's disabled, under the device status box will be a menu for device usage and just re-enable it.

EDIT: It could also be listed as an unknown device, if it is, try re-installing the drivers.

Seeing as your PC speaker is being used instead of your real setup, it's definite that your main card is being bypassed for some reason, weather it's due to breakage or if it was just turned off, you'll have to see.
 
I have speakers and headphones I switch between often, how do I prevent that?
 
Nothing smells burned, but the soundcard isn't listed anymore (don't think so anyway). I tried reinstalling the drivers, to no effect. I can't even change the sound volume in Windows anymore.
 
Stag said:
I have speakers and headphones I switch between often, how do I prevent that?

Much like tender, tender lovemaking: insert and remove slowly. If you mean preventing the need to switch, you can go to a radioshack (or local equivalent) and buy a splitter, just keep in mind that it'll be splitting the signal, so it's going to come out a smidge weaker on your noisemaker of choice.

The Overseer said:
Nothing smells burned, but the soundcard isn't listed anymore (don't think so anyway). I tried reinstalling the drivers, to no effect. I can't even change the sound volume in Windows anymore.

Hoo boy. If you are able (don't do this if you are unsure), try moving the soundcard to a different PCI slot, if it's embedded (Built into the motherboard), well, that's a problem. Hopefully your PCI bus hasn't given up the ghost (see what I did there? Nice huh?). Another thing you could do, is go to a place that sells cheap parts, say "I'm looking to buy a budget PCI soundcard", he should say something about a damn fine coincidence (I'm on a roll), and point you towards their selection. Actually, before any of that, you should check Turtle Beach's tech support page. You might be able to find some info in Microsoft's Support page if you think it might be a Windows problem.
 
Babs, custard cakes, try re-plugging your monitor and check its connections.

The blue filter effect you talk of happens to me often when the monitor's not plugged properly.

In any case, I advise you to do some major back-uping right about now.
 
...Turtle beach.. still makes cards... Are you serious? They were the best of the best late 80's early 90's... Or is your PC THAT old? Either way, thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Edit: Holly hanna, I dont think the logo has changed! I find it hard to believe they are still around. As I recall they were the pioneers of audio on the PC as we know it today.
 
Maphusio said:
...Turtle beach.. still makes cards... Are you serious? They were the best of the best late 80's early 90's... Or is your PC THAT old? Either way, thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Edit: Holly hanna, I dont think the logo has changed! I find it hard to believe they are still around. As I recall they were the pioneers of audio on the PC as we know it today.

I had a TB Montego in my old comp. It was such a little trooper :')
 
The Overseer said:
First the sound stopped working, so I rebooted my PC, and now everything is blue for some reason. It's like someone put a blue filter over my screen. What the hell is going on?? This is an emergency, I have important files on the HDD.

*edit*

Fixed it by playing with the VGA cable a bit. Sound still doesn't work though. Media players freeze when I start mp3s, and it says my sound drivers are broken.

Video card is on it's way out. If not the video card, then the monitor.

To test:

1. Get a second monitor, hook it up to the same video card (monitor has to be proven to be in good condition);
if "display" is == "still.blue" then;
2. Get rid of video card.
elseif;
3. Get rid of monitor.
end

}
 
OS, could you tell us just how old your computer is? If it's glaringly old, you may just want to back up you important stuff and get a new comp, as any repairs may be a waste of time.
 
DarkLegacy said:
Video card is on it's way out. If not the video card, then the monitor.
Not necessarily. Since jigging the cable fixed the problem, it's more likely that there's a bent pin on the connector, the connector is simply loose, or the cable itself might be bad.

As far as the sound card goes... if it's not in your Device Manager at all, then the computer doesn't know it's there. This points to the sound card being bad, the PCI slot being bad, or a loose connection (it's always possible pulling your headphones out unseated the card slightly, especially if you were rough about it and the card wasn't screwed onto the case properly).

If you know what you're doing (otherwise find someone who does) try reseating the sound card in its slot. If this doesn't work, try moving it to another PCI slot. If it's still no go, then it's pretty certain the card is bad and you need a new one.

If it's in your Device Manager but has a question mark, then the drivers are messed up or missing. If there's an exclamation, there's always the possibility of a weird resource conflict occurring (not likely unless you recently installed something new). If it's a red X, it's disabled. Right-click it and turn it on. :P
 
DarkLegacy said:
Video card is on it's way out. If not the video card, then the monitor.

To test:

1. Get a second monitor, hook it up to the same video card (monitor has to be proven to be in good condition);
if "display" is == "still.blue" then;
2. Get rid of video card.
elseif;
3. Get rid of monitor.
end

}


Wooz said:
Babs, custard cakes, try re-plugging your monitor and check its connections.

The blue filter effect you talk of happens to me often when the monitor's not plugged properly.

In any case, I advise you to do some major back-uping right about now.


I already fixed the blue filter problem, it hasn't appeared since. Yeah, it's a pretty old VGA cable, as it's embedded in the screen, which is an early LCD screen, from 98 or so.


My PC is from 2001. I've replace the video card and added RAM since.

*edit*

Do you think the PCI slot might be fried? Otherwise I might just get a cheap soundcard to replace this one. No biggie.
 
Well the only way to see if it's the PCI slot is to move the soundcard to a different PCI slot, if it works in the new slot, your PCI is fried. If not: it the soundcard. And 2k1 is pretty old. :x
 
Weird. I changed PCI slots and now it's reinstalling my sound card. The PC speaker still beeps during error messages and such though. Must've been a fried PCI slot.
 
The Overseer said:
Weird. I changed PCI slots and now it's reinstalling my sound card. The PC speaker still beeps during error messages and such though. Must've been a fried PCI slot.
Has it installed all the correct drivers and restarted your system and it's still beeping using the system speaker rather than your external ones?
 
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