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Monitor help

John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 30 2008 06:49 PM

Not sure whether it's my video card or my monitor that's dying on me but something's no good. The monitor on the home PC goes black and comes back randomly, but mainly during times of activity -- web page loading or fast typing or scrolling. The green indicator light remains on and everything else works during the black periods. More recently, but infrequently, looks like some horizontal disturbance travels up and down. I reinstalled video driver, doesn't seem to have solved the problem. The Dell tech the other day ... not sure he knows what he's talking about, suggested I reinstall windows. I can do that but not sure I actually want to. Is this an indication of a bad video card? Some kinda malware? Or would I need a new monitor? Thoughts, prayers, help? Google not helping as much as I'd like.

metirish Oct 30 2008 06:54 PM

Can you get the loan of a monitor to check it that way before you go spending money , can you take the tower to your job and hook it up to see what's up. I've done that and the guy I work with fixed mine with a total reinstall of windows. That was a few years ago on a Windows 98 system, it took all day and these guys knew what they were doing.

Edgy DC Oct 30 2008 06:59 PM

That sort of thing happens when you've been looking at too much porn.

Nymr83 Oct 30 2008 08:09 PM

]More recently, but infrequently, looks like some horizontal disturbance travels up and down. i've seen this before as a result of an electro-magnetic field being too close to the monitor... in our case it was a desk fan sitting right next to the monitor, as soon as the fan was turned off everything was fine, turn it back on and the weirdness started again

A Boy Named Seo Oct 30 2008 08:52 PM

I'd try what irish said first. Eliminate/identify the monitor then go from there.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 30 2008 09:17 PM

Actually, now that I think of it the Dell tech guy determined the monitor was ok by demonstarting there were no issues in "safe mode". Looks like I'm gonna wash the windows tomorrow.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 31 2008 09:55 AM

Well that's 3 hours of my life I'll never get back... and of course, re-installing windows did dick to solve the issue. Next up: Buy and install new video card and cross fingers.

metirish Oct 31 2008 10:15 AM

3 hours wasted , that's a Mets game. I'm sure you have done this but you can check to see if the video card/network adapter is working from your desktop. on this PC here at work I have XP so on the desktop I go to" my computer "and right click , that brings up System Properties , click on Hardware then Device Manager , there you can see if the card is working , if it shows a yellow ? next to then it's not working properly...you can see the monitor in the same place.

Kong76 Nov 01 2008 05:43 AM

The slot that the card is in could be shot, moving the card to another slot is worth an extra five minutes before buying one.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Nov 03 2008 07:27 AM

KC wrote: The slot that the card is in could be shot, moving the card to another slot is worth an extra five minutes before buying one. Too late on that suggestion, though now that you mention it maybe that's what the tech guy was trying to talk me through when I cracked open the case. Getting live help on a phone from a guy in India is a pita, I don't have to tell you. I like how they lie and say their name is "Brian" We'll see what happens when the new card goes in tonight. Monitor performance became so poor, and needing to reinstall all my software to accomplish anything, I had to shut the whole system down for the weekend.

themetfairy Nov 03 2008 07:29 AM

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Getting live help on a phone from a guy in India is a pita, I don't have to tell you. I like how they lie and say their name is "Brian" Yeah - like making up Anglo names means that we won't notice that we can't understand a friggin' thing they're saying.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Nov 07 2008 08:01 PM

Hard to belive but the issue is finally fixed. The windows reinstall didn;t work, so they mailed me a new video card. I go to install it only to find they sent the complete wrong part. Ordered a new one and of course get the message that it will be late in arriving. Finally came today, poipped it in and it seems to work fine. Of course have to re-install all my data and programs. Did give me a chance to try a differnt antivirus program, Kaspersky, so far so good.

metirish Nov 07 2008 08:06 PM

A whole week , that sucks but it's fixed.