PC turning to no screen output shortly before login screen?

alexjholland · 26 Feb 2009 at 00:34

Hey,

For some reason my PC, which has otherwise been operating fine, has started turning to no output after the Windows loading, but before the login screen.

The mouse cursor appears, then turns to a hourglass on a black screen for a while, then goes black and my monitor informs me there is no signal.

Occasionally it will load, but 8/10 times this happens.

- I checked a tip recommending changing my jumper cable (turns out I have a SATA drive so this is invalid).

- I loaded the latest NVIDIA drivers whilst in safe mode.

No change.

I have been playing around with Creative drivers, trying to get my EQ to work (a whole other story), but I think this might have started before hand, and either way, it surely can' be related?).

Any advice for a very frustrating and intangible problem would be appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Alex

MrMacca · 26 Feb 2009 at 00:57

How many display devices do you have connected to your PC? Do you have a TV out connected?

Inferno99 · 26 Feb 2009 at 01:00

Try another monitor and see if the problem persists. Also try hooking up using VGA as opposed to DVI. If either of those work it may be a corrupt EDID on your monitor.

alexjholland · 26 Feb 2009 at 01:41

I have one ASUS VH226H, I use:

DVI for my PC
VGA for my Macbook
HDMI for my XBox 360

I'm on my Macbook right now, and it's a brand new monitor. And the only screen I use for anything in my room.

linktoinsanity · 26 Feb 2009 at 10:27

Try hooking the VGA up to your pc, and see if it still happens, as previously suggested, it could be a problem with your DVI.

Dingleberry88 · 26 Feb 2009 at 10:32

I got this problem a week or so back. My monitor doesn't seem to be detected via DVI (just goes into standby), but VGA works fine. I've tried it on 2 other PCs and the problem remains, so I reckon the DVI port's dies somehow.

I should be getting it swapped out from Dell some time today, so hopefully that'll sort the problem.

Inferno99 said:
If either of those work it may be a corrupt EDID on your monitor.

What's EDID?

Edit: And the guy's just come with a new monitor!

Plugged it in (via DVI) and it works!

Even better is where my last monitor was a rev A03, this is A04! Don't seem to be any dead pixels either.

Edit 2: My old monitor had very faint steps in gradients - this one looks to be pretty much completely smooth. Very happy.

Sorry for the semi thread hijack. I had what sounds like exactly the same problem, so I reckon it's a dodgy port on your monitor.

alexjholland · 26 Feb 2009 at 16:39

Finally logged in again, and it has a "your system has recovered from a serious error' message - I seem to remember it did last time to.

Looks like it's more to do with my PC.. Any ideas?