This is a follow-up on my question from two years ago (Display goes black with Skype and Zoom), the resolution to which I never posted! From my own notes in my system log:
“Finally solved the problem of the display suddenly going black. After
discovering the commands “inxi” and “sensors” (as well as “hddtemp”), it
turned out that the GPU reached 128C just before one of the black-outs.
Blew the dust off under the fan of the graphics card → fixed!”
That simple! But thanks for all those of you who gave me advice - I learned a lot. Not surprising that it was the relatively graphics-intensive Skype and Zoom that initially triggered the overheating.
Lessons to learn:
- if it looks like a hardware fault, it probably is a hardware fault
- unless you are operating in a dust free data centre, open you box every now and then and use an air duster can and/or a vacuum cleaner
and a request to the folks in Nuremberg: try to design an automated warning if temperatures of hardware components exceed the recommended tolerances.
Thanks again to all