Video Card/Monitor trouble

[soas]

In two years I have had two different monitors have the same problem on the same computer. The first time I figured it must have just been a defective monitor cause I replaced the monitor with a new one and things went back to normal.

What has been happenning to both is a color will go out, on the first one the blue went out completly, on this one the red is starting to go out. I am starting to think its my video card obviously now. I have read forums before about this and it was a matter of cleaning connectors and making sure cables were connected securely and all that. But I am pretty sure thats not it for me. Right now it hasnt completly gone but its progressing slowly. I think I might be able to tell more about the problem this time, right now the color only works in Higher resolution modes but i can see its going to go out in these modes too. In 800x600 and below the red is completly gone. When I start my computer the red is out even on high resolutions but after about 5 minutes the red comes back, so I was thinking maybe its only comming back after the video card or monitor heats up some. So.. maybe something is heat damaged? Well what I was wondering is.. Is it normal for monitors to go out after a year? I do use it alot but still I never would have figured monitors to have such a short life span. If I dont turn my monitor off it seems to slow down the deterioration of my monitor. Is it possible that my video card could be damaging my monitors? Is it possible that all this is my video card and maybe my monitors are not damaged? My video card is Diamond Stealth III S540 it has performed very oddly every since I have had it, especialy when it switches between resolutions and direct draw and such. I dont know, this is a confusing mess of a post but if anyone can give me any kinds of sugguestions or wants to comment on the performance of their diamond card or maybe some comments about monitor performance, I really want to know what I should do before I go spending 300$ on a new monitor or a new video card

 

[Guest_imported]

Not come across this one before myself...

I don't consider it normal at all for a monitor to "expire" after a year - I would be extremely annoyed if one of mine needed replacing that quickly!

You don't mention what op system you're using, but can you boot up your PC in DOS and run a programme like CHECKIT which will run, amongst other checks, a video colour screen test?

Can you temporarily connect your monitor to a friend's PC and check if it exhibits the same colour problems?

Have you tried reducing the refresh rate (Hz) of your video card?

I take it you have tried manually degaussing the monitor? Although having said that, most modern monitors do this automatically on switch-on.

If you have any pieces of equipment which give off a magnetic field (motors, transformers, etc.), then try moving them away from your screen, say at least 12" or more.

Good luck!

ROGER - GØAOZ.

 

[soas]

My monitor is fairly new so it has its own deguassing but I have tried deguasing it, and I dont have anything around that radiates a magnetic field, my regular pc speakers are beside it but I am pretty sure that doesnt affect it. I am using windows 98 , I dont have access to anyone elses comp to test but I have the feeling my monitor is shot. What you said about the refresh rate though.. I have a feeling that might be it, on my comp I checked the refresh rate and it was set to optimal, my monitor says its set up for 75hz, when you change the refresh rate it warns that it can damage your monitor if you set it wrong.. but could a bad refresh rate wear out my monitor in this way?

 

[soas]

one more weird thing, when I switch to 800x600, the red is completly out, but then I change it down to 85 hz and the color returns to normal, I still dont know if it was just the refresh rate, but its starting to look more and more like that was it. I spent alot of time in lower resolutions on dos based applications and maybe the refresh rate for those was too high and maybe with larger resolutions it slows down?? so it hasnt gone out on the higher resolutions yet?? I have no clue Im just guessing about all this, but I dont want to just go on guesses if im going to be replacing expensive hardware. I dont like my video card anyways but I doubt I can buy a monitor and video card both right now, so if its the refresh rate I can at least keep the next monitor from being damaged until I can afford a new card. I dont know, I'm open to other possibilities about whats wrong still though.

 

[cowboy405]

You'll find your problems solved by replacing the video card.

You didn't tell us whether or not you've tried the same monitors
on on different machines. That's your first diagnostic tool.

Dennis

 

[soas]

I dont have access to other machines to try it on, but I hope you're right about the video card, I really want to replace the video card anyways but with if my monitor is damaged from this I would have to replace that first though. I was hoping it wasnt, I guess its hard to expect a deffinite answer without trying it on another machine.

Thanks for all the help guys