Grey screen of death?

Question

I built my computer in July of this year and have had no problems with it until about a month ago. Generally I leave my pc on overnight. (It goes to "sleep"). But sometimes I'll wake up in the morning and the display will be on and frozen. Cant move mouse, ctrl-alt-delete or anything. I have to manually shut it down and turn it back on.

Other times I will be using it as normal and on of my three monitors will turn grey and the computer freezes.

I was thinking it could be a graphics problem but after research i heard someone say the "grey can" looking things on the motherboard may be overheated so i should check if they are swelled or discolored. My asus sabertooth mb though has a shell on it so that would be hard to check.

I am a web developer and avid gamer so my computer goes through heavy use. Any ideas what this could be?

Solution

If you suspect that your hardware is overheating, you could use a program like Hardware Monitor to check the temperatures. No hardware disassembly required!

You should also try updating your graphics drivers. You mention that you are using three monitors; make sure that the graphics card that you are using can handle the workload.

Comments

[Thalys]

'grey can' = capasitors, and its mostly electrolytic caps that gave issues. Good motherboards tend to use solid capasitors, and electrolytics went off the formula that tended to blow up. Its more likely to be a 'bad' sleep, caused by drivers than hardware failure.

[Ramhound]

You need to check the motherboard before we even attempt to guess what your problem is.

[Dylan Buth]

Sorry forgot to mention. I have two cards. a $450 nvidia and a $40 peice of junk for my 3rd monitor.

[Dylan Buth]

Graphics drivers did it. I turn auto update off to keep Microsofts crap off my computer and forgot about drivers. Thanks man for pointing out my noob mistake.