Hi, I bought this Dell Optiplex 270x computer a few days ago. As soon as I got it I promptly hooked it up and started it. The weird part was that the first time I started it up, it was loading and the screen went black, but the computer was still on. I HARD restarted it a couple of times and made it through the setup, and it didn't happen for a while. I installed WoW to have something to play and it seemed to install fine, besides taking forever with the "non-critical updates" but that's neither here nor there. After a couple days of playing, the screen went black again, but the computer was once again still running. It's now to the point that it does it when doing normal stuff, but especially when I try to open the GAME. Any help in simple terms would be fantastic.

I would tell you more specs but I can't get to them in time.

Dell Optiplex 270x
2gb ram
80gb hardrive
Windows XP

Sorry if in wrong section.By the looks of things I'd say your computer wasn't exactly built for gaming, but this wouldn't cause the monitor to blank out like this.
This doesn't particularly surprise me coming from Dell. I'm rarely coming across Dell USERS who are having a lot of luck. I run a small computer repair company from home, and the majority of PCs that come in are Dell. No shock there.

Besides the point. If your PC is new, I'd probably recommend getting it replaced on the warranty as it sounds like a fault with your (probably built in) GPU.
To quickly find out, can you tell me if the monitor is plugging in the same area as the mouse and keyboard, or is it PLUGGED into a separate card?

LukeHello,

The Dell GX270 systems are known to have issues with parts called capacitors on the motherboard, it cost Dell computer 330million to cover the replaced motherboards that were still under warranty.  Here is a link to an article that shows what capacitors are: http://www.ccl-la.com/blog/index.php/capacitors/  Check your board if you have bulging capacitors then you need to go BACK where you purchased it and either get it exchanged or get your money back. When the capacitors start failing it can cause the system to not boot, lockup, give memory errors and have video problems.  Your board can be repaired by replacing the capacitors on the board but since you just got it they need to cover it for you.