Monitor driving me nuts

[Malfeasant]

Good day all myBB forum peeps

My monitor's really been acting weird lately. It started about a week ago, where the screen would just suddenly go black at random intervals. This went on for a few days before it abated. Then it started again roundabout Thursday, but this time it was accompanied by random changes in my screen resolution and even shifting of the onscreen image, (with some distortion). Fast-forward to today, and and the screen goes black religiously every five seconds. I cannot even begin to describe how annoying this is.

I've noticed that on inspecting the CONTROL PANEL>All Control Panel Items>Display>Screen Resolution screen, my display is now listed as a generic non-pnp monitor whereas before the monitor's model was there. Google decreed that to remedy this I had to reinstall my monitor drivers, which helped for a bit, but the problem returned only now the display device deviates between "generic non-pnp" and "display device on: VGA". I have of course run the obligatory scan for malware using MSE, Avast and Malwarebytes. I've even installed a fresh copy of windows on a spare HDD, to no avail.

Does anybody have any idea what the problem could be? The monitor isn't that old, but I have considered that the problem might be hardware related. However, I am unfortunate in that I don't have a spare one at hand to test. I had plans to purchase a new one, but I'll only be able to get down to that over the weekend and in the meantime I have a whole week in which I still have to use the computer. So... I was really hoping some genius here could save my ass with sound tech advice to hold me up till then.

[potti]

I had this same problem, screen would also go black and the come back with a wierd resolution etc etc. i found a restart fixed the problem until the next time it happened. upgraded my graphics card and havent had the problem since. could just be coincidence or it was the graphics card. try running a spare graphics card if you have one and see how it goes..

[bawrak]

The screen going black makes it sound like the LCD backlight is failing. You can check by shining a strong flashlight on the screen when it goes blank and seeing if you can make out any windows or text.

Most likely due to power supply issues (capacitor plague). If you are confident with soldering it's an easy five minute job to replace the Caps.

[Malfeasant]

I had this same problem, screen would also go black and the come back with a wierd resolution etc etc. i found a restart fixed the problem until the next time it happened. upgraded my graphics card and havent had the problem since. could just be coincidence or it was the graphics card. try running a spare graphics card if you have one and see how it goes..

I use the PC for office use mainly, so I chug along with onboard graphics. The only spare graphics card I have is an old AGP one that's not compatible with my current mobo. So no potato.

The screen going black makes it sound like the LCD backlight is failing. You can check by shining a strong flashlight on the screen when it goes blank and seeing if you can make out any windows or text.

Most likely due to power supply issues (capacitor plague). If you are confident with soldering it's an easy five minute job to replace the Caps.

I tried this. But either my flashlight isn't strong enough, or this isn't the problem because I can't really see anything when it goes black.

[chrisc4290]

My Samsung 23" wide will no longer display anything in the HDMI socket. The VGA socket is ok. Tried it with a display card and DSTV receiver. About 2 weeks ago, it just went blank during the morning. The power LED is constant, showing the presence of a signal (it blinks during sleep mode). Have tried a different display card, another HDMI cable which I know works but no go.

[skusku]

Depending on how regular the screen goes off, you can maybe try go into the bios and stay there to see if it goes black.
Next you need to remove a variable, graphics card or the screen it self.
Maybe you can borrow one somewhere

One other thing is to clear your motherboard cmos setting to default. I doubt that would work but its worth a shot and takes so quick to do.

My number 1 suspect is the screen it self, but you should try the other options as mentioned above just for the sake of testing all variables.

[Malfeasant]

Depending on how regular the screen goes off, you can maybe try go into the bios and stay there to see if it goes black.
Next you need to remove a variable, graphics card or the screen it self.
Maybe you can borrow one somewhere

One other thing is to clear your motherboard cmos setting to default. I doubt that would work but its worth a shot and takes so quick to do.

My number 1 suspect is the screen it self, but you should try the other options as mentioned above just for the sake of testing all variables.

Surprisingly enough it doesn't do that in the BIOS. What does that mean? Tried clearing the CMOS, nothing.

[Tim the Techxpert]

Hi All Have you checked your Windows updates? If you have automatic updates windows may have downloaded drivers that have "updated" your manufacturer specific ones. This may account for it working for a while and then stopping again. If it works fine on the Bios then it can't be a hardware problem.
I would look at installing the latest drivers for the screen and see what happens there.

Let us know

[Malfeasant]

Hi All Have you checked your Windows updates? If you have automatic updates windows may have downloaded drivers that have "updated" your manufacturer specific ones. This may account for it working for a while and then stopping again. If it works fine on the Bios then it can't be a hardware problem.
I would look at installing the latest drivers for the screen and see what happens there.

Let us know

I have installed the latest drivers. They would be fine for a little bit, but when I check later they'd just be uninstalled and my monitor would just be listed as "generic non-pnp monitor" again. And as to windows updating the manufacture specific drivers, I forgot to mention in the OP that I ran a system restore to a time when everything was working fine when the problem first appeared. I'm guessing that would've undid any changes windows update made to the drivers, though I could be wrong in this. The fact that it doesn't happen in the BIOS is really confusing. I was really leaning towards it being hardware related, seeing as how not even a fresh windows install stopped the problem.

[Malfeasant]

Just tried something. I noticed that in the intervals when the screen goes black, I can still continue with tasks as normal in windows, just like when the monitor is off. So I thought I'd try to fiddle with the Monitor's control menu (accessed by the buttons on the monitor itself) when the screen goes black. As it turns out, the control menu is completely unresponsive (i.e. I can't change the brightness/contrast/zoom/etc...) in those short intervals, even though they work perfectly fine when the screen is normal. What do you guys think? Is that confirmation enough that it's definitely the monitor that's the problem and not a software-related issue? The absence of the blackouts in the BIOS made me doubt that it's monitor, but surely a software problem wouldn't be able to tamper with the hardware controls of the monitor, would it?

If all goes well I should have bought a shiny new screen by tomorrow (possibly tonight) but I don't wanna go and buy the monitor then it turns out its not even the problem. :-/ That would just suck.

[House]

Try this:

1. Turn off your PC
2. Remove the power cable
3. Press and hold the 'ON' switch for 30-60 seconds
4. Insert the power cable again and switch on your PC

See if this helps.

[MickZA]

Boot from a linux "live" CD and see if the problem persists, if it does you can forget a windows driver problem you have a hardware fault.

[skusku]

Boot from a linux "live" CD and see if the problem persists, if it does you can forget a windows driver problem you have a hardware fault.

That should tell you exactly where the problem is. Still sounds to be the screen from my opinion. If its the screen, make sure to go as BIG as you can while you have the opportunity. Bigger is always better!

[Malfeasant]

I didn't get a chance to do the Linux Live CD thing, but I've noted that the problem isn't apparent when windows is in safe mode. Sooo... I'm guessing its NOT a hardware problem then? I've held off buying the screen for now, as my mate will be bringing an old machine of his around today, so I'll be able to test everything out one by one! Hopefully I'll be able to find the culprit. Thanks for all the replies thus far.

And lol @Skusku, I don't think I'd go over 20", maybe 23" with regards to size, seeing as how I'm a bit limited on desk space.

[graviti]

May be the monitor itself, even though the problem doesn't exist in safe mode. The frequency and resolution that safe mode uses may not stress the monitor, but as soon as you head into higher frequencies and resolutions, you start stressing the monitor. Thus checking for swollen capacitors may be a good idea.

Set your standard windows resolution right down, and see if problem resolves. If it does keep going up. If setting to low res and refresh rate doesn't sort it, then you can be sure it's a driver issue. But it sounds like capacitors to me.