Display Turns Black and Won't Wake Up Unless I Power Cycle the Mac mini

Question

Even when I disable all the power settings on my Mac mini, after a day or 2 at max my Mac mini's display will go black and stay that way. Whether I connect to it using VNC Screen Sharing, or connect a monitor directly to it, I can't get the screen back on unless I either power cycle the computer, or otherwise SSH into it via the terminal on my MacBook and force it to log off that way. Any suggestions? Does this sound like a hardware problem, setting, or software problem? I notice that it happens most frequently when the CPU is being worked intensively, like if I'm downloading a lot of files with Vuze or otherwise doing heavy video conversions with iSkysoft iMedia Converter. I heard that maybe the Mac mini is overheating, but it's not stacked and lately I've tried moving it to several different locations but still the problem persists. I also notice that usually when I SSH into it via the terminal while the problems occur that my CPU usage will be way lower than it should be, since it might have happened during the onset of a long/heavy video conversion process. I have a Core 2 Duo, 2.2 GHz Processor with 4 GB of RAM and about 140 GB of available storage. What do you all think I should do?

Answer 1

couple of things you should try:
boot up in _*safe mode*_, the restart normally
try _*resetting the System Management Controller SMC*_
try _*resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM*_
if none of the above makes any difference, run _*Apple Hardware Test*_ from the install DVD that came with your Mac to see if it reports hardware problems.
JGG