Monitors turn off during Gray Matter (and other games)

[DeadPoolX]

To start off, here are my specs:

Windows XP Professional SP3
P4 3.6GHz w/ HT
2GB RAM
512 MB ATI Radeon HD 3870
Dual Monitor setup (two 19" LCD monitors side-by-side)

While playing Gray Matter, my two monitors will randomly turn off and remain that way until I reboot. The power button lights turn orange (as opposed to green, when they're displaying an image) and the screen goes black.

Oddly enough, I can hear sounds and music. The keyboard and mouse also continue to interact with the game. I tried clicking when the monitors went blank and Sam started talking about an inventory item. I can even exit the game by hitting ALT F4, so the computer is still very active.

This exact same thing happens with two other games -- Borderlands and Bejeweled 3. No other game causes these issues.

The monitors can turn off at ANY time during those games. What I mean is this can happen after my PC has been on for hours or after first booting up.

I realize my machine is old, but I can play games like Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age 2, Crysis, Batman Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare without any issues. Certainly no problems like the one described in this thread.

All of those games are FAR more taxing than Gray Matter and Bejeweled 3; Borderlands is more system intensive than B3 and GM, but I still far exceed the minimum system requirements (plus, it doesn't help that Borderlands is an excessively buggy game for most people, regardless of their specs).

My video drivers are updated, so that isn't the issue. I can't imagine my video card is overheating when playing B3 and GM if it doesn't overheat when playing higher-end system intensive games.

Oh and Tawmis, before you suggest updating my audio drivers, this same problem occurred even after doing it. I wish that had fixed it, but unfortunately, it didn't.

So... any ideas, guys?

[Tawmis]

There's something wonky there for sure...

My GRAY MATTER issue (where it was EXTREMELY CHOPPY! I mean EXTREMELY!!! choppy) was a simple fix. A reboot. And now it plays flawlessly. I recall you mentioning the monitor issue before with Bedazzled, correct?

[Collector]

A couple of PCs back I was having a nearly identical problem, but not limited to just games. I tried updating the graphics driver, and even replacing the graphics card, but that didn't solve the problem. I then tried an old PCI card and that did fix it. in the end I was able to determine that it was the AGP bus on the motherboard on its way out, which prompted me to build a new PC, which of course solved the problem.

[DeadPoolX]

I think I found the problem and fixed it.

I needed to go into DISPLAY PROPERTIES, click the SETTINGS tab and then disable my second monitor. Once I did that, the games I mentioned here played just fine.

I don't know WHY this happened with those games and not others, but apparently some games don't like me having two monitors active at once. This is despite the fact I'm playing the game on only one monitor, so the other is just sitting there.

Whatever the reason, it's an easy fix. Now I disable my second monitor when playing ANY game, just to be safe.

[Tawmis]

Weird, because I have dual and it plays fine. :/

Computers, like people, are often completely unpredictable.