Monitor display problem

Osem · 08-11-2011, 09:07

Hi guys. In the last few days when booting up this pc the monitor has twice now caused problems with the display being lost and a black screen appearing after a few seconds even though the blue 'on' indicator light is still on. Pressing the on/off button twice restores the picture only for it to be lost a few seconds later and today I had to do this at least 6 times before the display remained on and stable. During this sequence of events the PC appears to be responding normally but I did today get what I think was a 'new hardware found' box open for no apparent reason although I was able to close this in between turning the monitor and and off and shortly afterwards the display appeared and stayed on as normal.

Anyone got any ideas what might be wrong?

TVM as always.

funkyCable · 08-11-2011, 09:14

Do you have another monitor to plugin and test? Perhaps the monitor is on its way out?

arcimedes · 08-11-2011, 09:17

There are at least 3 possibilities.
1 cable between monitor and PC playing up e.g perhaps its loose or power cable loose.
2 Monitor failing
3 graphics card failing or loose
4 perhaps also check that everything is properly pushed in on the motherboard.

Osem · 08-11-2011, 09:31

Thanks funkyCable . Yes I do and I was intending to swap them later today but thought I'd try to gather some feedback here before doing so just in case the problem is something else.

---------- Post added at 10:31 ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by arcimedes

There are at least 3 possibilities.
1 cable between monitor and PC playing up e.g perhaps its loose or power cable loose.
2 Monitor failing
3 graphics card failing or loose
4 perhaps also check that everything is properly pushed in on the motherboard.

Cheers. As it's an intermittent problem (for now anyway) I've had a quick fiddle with the exterior cables but it may be a few days before I know if the problem's still there. I'll do a backup before turning off the PC and opening up the case so that'll have to wait until later.

Mick Fisher · 08-11-2011, 11:58

If I was a betting man I would put my cash on a failing GFX card.

Symptons are identical to the last failure I experienced.

Osem · 08-11-2011, 12:40

I've just come back in having left the PC on but the saem thing happened when I turned the monitor back on. This time it took 2 only attempts with the on/off switch to get the display to stay on.

If it turns out to be a dodgy graphics card how would I work out what to replace it with and how? This is a fairly old low spec machine (XP SP3, 448mb ram, Celeron 3.06ghz) but we still use it for surfing etc so I'd ideally like to fix the problem. Anyway having checked the Display folder in Control Panel, it appears my card is a VIA/S3G Unichrome Pro IGP.

TVM as always.

arcimedes · 08-11-2011, 15:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Osem

I've just come back in having left the PC on but the saem thing happened when I turned the monitor back on. This time it took 2 only attempts with the on/off switch to get the display to stay on.

TVM as always.

I would put my money on the monitor assuming you mean the on/off switch on the monitor.

Osem · 09-11-2011, 08:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by arcimedes

I would put my money on the monitor assuming you mean the on/off switch on the monitor.

Yes, the monitor has a power on/off button on the front fascia and it's been pressing this a few times which has resulted in the display coming back for a few seconds and eventually staying on as it should. Interestingly, each time the fault has happened the monitor's blue 'power on' light adjacent to the on/off button has still been showing even though no picture is being displayed. Not sure if this necessarily tends to indicate a monitor or graphics card problem.

Ayway, the PC started up fine this morning and the display is working OK for now. I'll report back if/when it happens again.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It's much appreciated.

Osem · 16-01-2012, 12:44

Just an update guys. After a few weeks of the problem gradually getting worse I managed to find another suitable old monitor to swap it with and that seems to have done the trick. Fingers crossed as always of course...

Thanks all.

heero_yuy · 17-01-2012, 08:27

Sounds like the power supply inside the monitor is struggling to boot up. Like as much a simple fault to fix but usually not worth getting an engineer to look at it unless it's a top-of-the-line unit.

One of my PC's started this a while ago and it was simply a resistor (that starts the power supply) gone high in value, only fixed 'cos I'm an engineer and make it worth my while to fix my own stuff.

Osem · 17-01-2012, 08:50

The unit was only a cheapy 4x3 type really so, as you say, not worth repairing unless it's a DIY job. Osem Jnr. always said he could hear a sort of high pitched 'hissing' sound coming from the screen as it cycled on/off but I never heard it (probably because my ears are just too old

)

I really hate chucking stuff that could easily be fixed but electronics and me aren't best buddies. If I knew someone who could fix it and use it I'd give it away.