Don Schlesinger: Problem with display

[Don Schlesinger]

About a month ago, my son reported that the display had "gone bad" on his monitor, because, whenever there was white area in the display with dark nearby, the dark "ghosted" or "bled" into the white area, causing streaks.

Foolishly, we went out and bought a new monitor for him, believing that the old one was defective. Upon installing the new monitor, the problem is still there! So, the fault must lie with the computer itself and not with the monitor. Do you have any idea as to what could be causing this or what he could check out on his computer?

Thanks very much.

Don

[Parker]

> About a month ago, my son reported that the
> display had "gone bad" on his
> monitor, because, whenever there was white
> area in the display with dark nearby, the
> dark "ghosted" or "bled"
> into the white area, causing streaks.

> Foolishly, we went out and bought a new
> monitor for him, believing that the old one
> was defective. Upon installing the new
> monitor, the problem is still there! So, the
> fault must lie with the computer itself and
> not with the monitor. Do you have any idea
> as to what could be causing this or what he
> could check out on his computer?

Did the problem occur after moving the monitor, or perhaps re-routing some power cords near it or installing a new accessory? Monitors are notoriously susceptable to AC line interference.

For example, I recently tried to set a small desk fan on top of my monitor, so it would blow cool air right in my face. The picture did weird things whenever the fan was within a couple of feet of the monitor.

The little transformer "cubes" that many computer accessories use for power supplies are some of the worst offenders for this sort of thing.

The problem is almost certainly caused by some sort of interference, since you have already established that the monitor itself is okay. The only other component involved is the video card in the computer. When these go out, the usual symptom is either no picture at all, or your computer "freezes" or locks up.

[Don Schlesinger]

> Did the problem occur after moving the
> monitor, or perhaps re-routing some power
> cords near it or installing a new accessory?
> Monitors are notoriously susceptable to AC
> line interference.

I'll ask him.

> For example, I recently tried to set a small
> desk fan on top of my monitor, so it would
> blow cool air right in my face. The picture
> did weird things whenever the fan was within
> a couple of feet of the monitor.

We had similar problems when I was at MS, and we had four or five monitors on our desks!

> The little transformer "cubes"
> that many computer accessories use for power
> supplies are some of the worst offenders for
> this sort of thing.

I'll tell him to check around.

> The problem is almost certainly caused by
> some sort of interference, since you have
> already established that the monitor itself
> is okay. The only other component involved
> is the video card in the computer. When
> these go out, the usual symptom is either no
> picture at all, or your computer
> "freezes" or locks up.

Not that serious. Display sometimes looks all right, until you look more closely and realize that all is not well.

We'll check around. Thanks.

Don

[Bill W]

> About a month ago, my son reported that the
> display had "gone bad" on his
> monitor, because, whenever there was white
> area in the display with dark nearby, the
> dark "ghosted" or "bled"
> into the white area, causing streaks.

> Foolishly, we went out and bought a new
> monitor for him, believing that the old one
> was defective. Upon installing the new
> monitor, the problem is still there! So, the
> fault must lie with the computer itself and
> not with the monitor. Do you have any idea
> as to what could be causing this or what he
> could check out on his computer?

> Thanks very much.

> Don

The symptoms you describe can be caused by a faulty or poor quality monitor cable. Cable routing can also cause ghosting. If the new monitor came with a new cable, then the fault is probably the video card. Before replacing it try cleaning the connection (at the computer) with contact cleaner and re-routing the cable.

Hope this helps.

Bill

[paranoid android]

This was my thought too. Perhaps he just used the same cable as before. If so, try the new cable. Also, make sure he's plugging the monitor directly into the computer and not using a switch box for 2 or more computers to share a monitor. These switch boxes can cause signal problems.

If it's not this or the interferance that Parker mentioned, it could be the video card (although when a video card goes, it usually doesn't fade away quite so gently). Or it could be some software settings for the video card are messed up. Some video cards allow you to change video settings via a program.

Also make sure he's running the card at the highest refresh rate that the monitor allows. Do this by right clicking on the desktop, selecting properties, select settings tab, click on advanced, click on the monitor tab, then you should find the available refresh rates.

Good luck.

> The symptoms you describe can be caused by a
> faulty or poor quality monitor cable. Cable
> routing can also cause ghosting. If the new
> monitor came with a new cable, then the
> fault is probably the video card. Before
> replacing it try cleaning the connection (at
> the computer) with contact cleaner and
> re-routing the cable.

> Hope this helps.

> Bill

[Don Schlesinger]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The problem is that, without changing anything that he could put his finger on, the display simply "went bad" one day. And, as you read, buying a new monitor and using its new cable did not fix the problem.

We'll keep looking.

Don

[bfbagain]

If it's an older Gateway, it is certainly the video card. If not, it is "almost" certainly the video card.

Simply stated, it is the video card.

But wait, there's more. It could be the video card....well, not exactly. Yes, it is the video circuitry, but by that I mean you may have a micro atx mainboard where the video card is integrated into the mainboard. This means that you can disable the built-in video, and install a new pci or AGP (more likely AGP) video card to solve the problem.

Hope this helps.

cheers
bfb

[Don Schlesinger]

Technical jargon WAY beyond my knowledge. But, hopefully, my son will understand.

Thank you.

Don