Problem Solving; intermittent video signal...

[Jingo...]

Good morning all,

I'm trying to determine the cause of a niggling video fault with my self-build of around 2.5 years.

1GB Radeon HD 4670
Samsung Syncmaster T220

The monitor loses signal intermittently- sometimes during boot, sometimes when trying to view a pdf, certain websites (i.e. twitter/online pdf) and on occassions when I am just viewing my desktop; strangely (or perhaps not), when I alt+tab to outlook express/pshop the signal returns.

I have tried...

- swapping dvi cables: no change.
- using the vga cable: no change.
- 're-seating' the graphics card: no change.
- checking the gpu fan is spinning etc: all appears clean and 'normal'.
- GPU seems to be running at 34c - which doesn't strike me as excessively hot.

My instinct is telling me the graphics card needs replacing - but I wouldn't like to fork out for a new one if I could be overlooking a simple issue I'm unaware of.

Any thoughts or ideas on the above would be greatly appreciated

Many thanks,
Jingo

 

[Plec]

Have you tried the following:

• MB BIOS flash
• Different gfx drivers - even older revisions.
• Dedicated VDU drivers
• GFX BIOS update

A bit of a scatter gun approach - but they're all worth considering.

 

[mmj_uk]

Have you tested with another monitor?

 

[Jakus]

99% chance it's the monitor !

 

[Jakus]

Hang on a sec....How long has this been happening ?

 

[Jingo...]

Have you tried the following:

• MB BIOS flash NO; having worked for 2.5 years would this really be an issue?
• Different gfx drivers - even older revisions. Yes - roll back and newest: no change.
• Dedicated VDU drivers - I don't have a clue about this ; no.
• GFX BIOS update I don't have a clue about this ; no.

Have you tested with another monitor?

No - I don't have that option at the moment.

99% chance it's the monitor ! So you're almost certain it is the monitor? Can I ask why you think it is that and not the Graphics card?

Hang on a sec....How long has this been happening ?

A week or so after 2.5 years of working without any issue

 

[Jakus]

Ok, I would say the monitor then, ATI cards work differently to Nvidia in as much as if they don't detect a "monitor" they do not output a signal.

I'm thinking the monitor is dropping off line and the card is falling asleep.

You used to have advance power options in the motherboard set-up to "kick"! the VGA device coming out of S3 sleep.
DVI / HDMI connections were more problematical for ATI cards in this regard

Little hard to work on display problems as you need the thing that's not working to fix the fault

Simple enough to drop in an old video card to test or connect the pc to a TV...bet You have one of them

 

[Jingo...]

Thanks for your input - I still can't see how you're justifying this problem as being the monitor and not the video card.

The monitor works fine when used as an alternate screen for a laptop or xbox - surely this shows the monitor not to be at fault?

 

[Jakus]

Thanks for your input - I still can't see how you're justifying this problem as being the monitor and not the video card.

The monitor works fine when used as an alternate screen for a laptop or xbox - surely this shows the monitor not to be at fault?

Educated guess and seen it before,spent hours on a similar problem with an ATI card on a HTPC system ! and the only fix was a Gefen DVI Detective

"the DVI Detective continually transmits the EDID to the computer, essentially "tricking" the computer into thinking that the video is present, even when it is not connected"

Anyway My friend I can help You no more, You will have to substitute one or other components to be 100% sure

 

[Jingo...]

Thanks for your advice

 

[Jakus]

Thanks for your advice

No problem,

But be sure to let us know when You fix it

 

[mmj_uk]

If you can test with another monitor/TV and get back to us we can go from there if it's still doing it, given what you've tried it looks like it's either the monitor or graphics card output... you said it happens during boot (Windows splash screen?) so that points to a hardware fault rather than anything driver related and you've tried a different cable etc.