External displays garbled & flickering - same time every day?!

peanutismint · 19 Oct 2010 at 17:27

Filed under 'Windows' because of the predictable/reproduceable nature of the problem -

We run external plasma displays from a PC with a quad output graphics card in a students union; these show adverts for upcoming events etc. Every day at the same time (around about 5:15pm) the screens randomly begin to flicker/show garbled images. This goes on for about an hour and then all returns to normal.

Can't see this being a hardware/overheating issue as it happens so regimentedly at the same time every day (if I see it happening I know it's time for me to go home!). Any ideas??

SiriusB · 19 Oct 2010 at 17:30

Is anything running at 5:15 that could be taking resources away from the GPU/CPU? Anti-virus, backup jobs etc. Take a look in the Task Scheduler, also check what processes are running before 5:15 and after.

Raumarik · 19 Oct 2010 at 18:11

Interference? What's on the other side of the wall from where the monitors are?

peanutismint · 19 Oct 2010 at 21:10

Nothing obvious scheduled, or happening on the primary display when the garbling starts. The monitors are in stairwells so nothing major on the other sides; all the cables are shielded anyway so hopefully would be impervious to any interference.... Funny one!! Will keep checking possible bugs, just thought I'd mention it to see if anyone else had ever experienced similar weirdness!

lumpeh · 19 Oct 2010 at 21:37

Cleaner aint plugging in her vacuum on the same circuit is she?

definitely sounds like some kind of interference to me.

SiriusB · 19 Oct 2010 at 23:07

The telly doesn't do anything at the same time every day does it? A long shot, but what else could be causing interference at 5:15PM every day in a stairwell... heating system come on? Air conditioning?

peanutismint · 20 Oct 2010 at 00:04

SiriusB said:
The telly doesn't do anything at the same time every day does it? A long shot, but what else could be causing interference at 5:15PM every day in a stairwell... heating system come on? Air conditioning?

Something like the heating/air handling system is where my bets are placed...will have to ask the facilities dept. but even if it is that, I doubt there's anything we could do about it from their side, just have to come up with a serverside workaround, so to speak.....

Thanks for all the input dudes; good to know you've thought of the same things i did!

SiriusB · 20 Oct 2010 at 00:11

ALIENS? STUDENTS?

Wait.. they're the same thing...