Monitor problem, screen blacking out

[Skybird]

Since two days, every couple of minutes my monitor goes black. The power LED indicates it still is working, it does not go into standby. I need to switch it off and on, and there it is again, until the next blackout.

What could this be? The gfx board? The monitor? Or an infection? The mainboard?

[Herr-Berbunch]

Roll back your graphics drivers, I've got (had) the same problem with the current round of nvidia drivers.

[Skybird]

Rolling back? I have had no new one since long! :)I sticked to an older driver, the new ones all gave me problems and artifacts with some games. It does all games that I have, flawlessly. More I cannot demand.

Have not touched the graphics driver since long time!

Anyhow, which version is recommended today, I mean: is said to be stable and not known for having many problems? I am on 275.33 currently. The later range from 28x.xx to - 302.xx all caused artifacts when I tried three or four from that range. Latest version I see is 326.xx. But a Beta.

P.S. I have cleaned and removed dust just some weeks ago, just did it again the past hour. All wires disconnected and reconnected, case opened. I still hope that maybe a flock of dust was just shortcutting something, somehow. Had the same issue with a USB port some weeks ago, the whole system did not boot due to a shortcutted USB port. I thought I have a clean system usually. Clean it 2-3 times a year. Others let pass years, with no issues. :-?

[Skybird]

Cleaning and maintenance did not help. It just blacked out again. Think it is not the monitor.

And just again. Trying the driver via windows update now. Hope it does not break my games.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Yep, I had problems with the 326.xx, can't remember what I've gone back to at home as I'm at work. I had issues with a couple before that, 314.xx springs into my mind but I don't know for good or bad reason.

It could just be a corrupt driver and you may find reinstalling 275.33 works fine again.

When it was happening to me I checked the event logs and a nvlddmkm.sys issue was either causing it or being caused by it just as it happened. Lots on the interwebs about this but nothing concrete to do apart from try other drivers or reinstall current.

Edit, the driver I had installed before the black screen issues used to freeze everything and turn the curser to 8-bit colour, with an obvious increase in size. It was hideous.

[Skybird]

It seems I also cannot enter the BIOS anymore. Holding the key when booting, does nothing. Instead, since some days already, after the "press button to enter BIOS", I now have a long pause with a black screen and only the mouse cursor, before the screen for entering my PIN appears. That break is around 30-40 seconds, and was not there before.

Just did a memory test as well, though accidentally.

Google shows many people having this symptom. I still wait for someone having an answer.

In other words: I think I'm in trouble.

Checking the logs now, and then have another intense AV scan and malware scan.

[the_tyrant]

The NSA has caught on to you!:haha:


Ok, so assuming you have tried to fix your drivers, have you tried looking at your motherboard? Try clearing your BIOS?

[Skybird]

All things I tried did not work, including new driver 327.xx. So it ended with a reinstall via an externally stored backup from three months ago. Much time spend on copying, defragging :doh:, manually tuning to make up for changes over the past three months... I always fear that the HD spinning for six hours in a row will kill the HD next...

So far, no more blackouts since then. The Klingon method still works well, it seems.

[Skybird]

Celebrated too early. Having played some rounds of Skyrim, I had the issue showing up again when entering or leaving buildings. Sometimes the newly loaded scenery is just a black screen. Switching off the monitor in game and switching it on again, brings up the scene, it also runs in the background of the black screen (you can hear action sounds if you hit keys and run into walls or tables, or jump).

I have run out of ideas then. Its a new driver.

GFX board? Possible, but how to test it. Monitor? Unlikely, it has run for hours inbetween. PSU? How to check that?

:06:

[the_tyrant]

Celebrated too early. Having played some rounds of Skyrim, I had the issue showing up again when entering or leaving buildings. Sometimes the newly loaded scenery is just a black screen. Switching off the monitor in game and switching it on again, brings up the scene, it also runs in the background of the black screen (you can hear action sounds if you hit keys and run into walls or tables, or jump).

I have run out of ideas then. Its a new driver.

GFX board? Possible, but how to test it. Monitor? Unlikely, it has run for hours inbetween. PSU? How to check that?

:06:


Can you borrow a graphics card from a buddy, swap it in there and try it maybe?

[Skybird]

No.

It seems I am one of the very few desktop PC users anymore... The few people I know all have gone laptop or tablet/smartphone already. I wonder why, but that's just me.

Considering a manual reinstallation by hand now. Damn, i hate this dance, costs you a day with all finetuning of options in sims and such.

System is 2,5 years old. The PSU unlikely already has worn out, I think, it is a 750W unit for an Asus P8H67 B3, i2500@3.3, 8 GB, GTX460SE. The symptom seems to be not performance-dependent anyway, happening even in idle sometimes. This morning I had two blackouts quickly after booting, and since then nothing until now.

[Skybird]

It spreads, and I will now embark on a fully manual reinstallation. The system just suffered a total system-wide lockup, and not even software reboot worked anymore. After hardware reboot, it took some minutes - and again the system locked up completely, no HD activity, not even a small blinker of the Hd LED, no Keyboard or mouse (USB) recognised, no nothing.

:/\\!!

The basic stuff installation and tweaking alone is worth one day's work , things like FSX (60GB of manually tuned addons) or simulations not even included. :dead:

Promises to become a really bad weekend over here. :hmph:

And it has started raining outside. Great weekend.

[the_tyrant]

It spreads, and I will now embark on a fully manual reinstallation. The system just suffered a total system-wide lockup, and not even software reboot worked anymore. After hardware reboot, it took some minutes - and again the system locked up completely, no HD activity, not even a small blinker of the Hd LED, no Keyboard or mouse (USB) recognised, no nothing.

:/\\!!

The basic stuff installation and tweaking alone is worth one day's work , things like FSX (60GB of manually tuned addons) or simulations not even included. :dead:

Promises to become a really bad weekend over here. :hmph:

And it has started raining outside. Great weekend.

I have a feeling that its actually your hardware failing, just a hunch.

[Skybird]

I have ordered a new monitor, since the old one detoriates even further. It seems to be the most reasonable hardware component to check first, obviously. I hope it is like that indeed, and the money is not wasted (shop said for giving it a full diagnosis they would request 150 bucks, well that IS the money for a new monitor). If the problem remains with the new one, than I have wasted money, and the gfx board needs to follow. Hope it aint so.

Monitor is older than the system, btw, around 4-5 years.

Old CRT TV's used to hold 12-20 years, and more.:-?

[the_tyrant]

I have ordered a new monitor, since the old one detoriates even further. It seems to be the most reasonable hardware component to check first, obviously. I hope it is like that indeed, and the money is not wasted (shop said for giving it a full diagnosis they would request 150 bucks, well that IS the money for a new monitor). If the problem remains with the new one, than I have wasted money, and the gfx board needs to follow. Hope it aint so.

Monitor is older than the system, btw, around 4-5 years.

Old CRT TV's used to hold 12-20 years, and more.:-?


Did the moniter ship yet? Make sure it is an IPS monitor. Trust me, your eyes will love you for it.

[Skybird]

Just an update on the state of things.

It began as an annoyance. It ended as a major battle.

Not going into details, I have reason to assume it is not the monitor, but the gfx card or HD. Too complicated to explain in two sentences. Then the ventilator of the gfx. turned loud, and the HD stuttered during booting. Both 2.5 years old.

I then wanted to reinstall an image once again, and learned the Acronis images were not working anymore, maybe something in the USB category of things, I noted erratic behavior with my 3.0 ports earlier. I wanted to use a very old Windows-made image next, and fkr that wanted to clean the hd, kill partitions, but Windows denied the option to do so, also denied to delete partitions when wanting to reinstall W7 from DVD, option greyed out. Tried again with old xp-disc, and then with even older w98-disc, but to no score. Finally, with partitions halve-formatted and not deleted, I used a windows-repair disc to install the old windows-images - and was denied for Windows did not recognize them on a external drive. I theninstalled the usb driver from the mainboard tool disc, but found out that having the driver for the external hd afterwards as an executable on stick is not good enough for windows, it wants those files all listed separately, especially one with some basic file list, if I understand it correctly.

well, that's it in brief, typing from a tablet. installation destroyed, 3 windows images and 6 Acronis images worthless, hardware partially still broken, nerves ruined, frustration on parade.

I ordered a new hd and a gtx660 additionally, and hope it is nothing with the main board. So, gfx, HD and monitor get replaced, two of these items do not last forever anyway, like brakes on a car, you have to replace them occassionally. Then manually doing the installation dance and tuning options and sims - I hate the idea, usually, for all stuff I want to have set up, having databases updated and such things, I'm busy for three days and more. :dead: Just lucky I have the time. But after having it done so often in the past 15 years, it has lost its fascination.

On the good side, it is an opportunity to do a through clean-up, and also to switch from FSX to P3D. SBP also needed a replacement, and some stuff could go that I did not need anymore and just cluttered the HD.

Still, I hate how this turned out. And not little money leaving my pockets again - and these are not the biggest. If the hardware replacements deleted the technical problems, at least I get a new and clean installation again then, on a not worn-out HD. - IF.

Skybird grounded - expect no flights soon.


exit:
the monitor is no ips, but a typical hd gamer screen by Asus for the mass market, amazon had it for 170 Euros and plenty of praise. GTX660 is with 2 GB and manufactured by Gigabyte, Toms Hardware reviewed it okay and it is in the middle of the price range for this card type, with low noise level, which is an important criterion to me, I am sensible to loud noise. HD is 1TB by WD, Blue-label, 6 GB/sec. SSD is desired, but not in the budget.

[RickC Sniper]

Did the moniter ship yet? Make sure it is an IPS monitor. Trust me, your eyes will love you for it.

I thought the IPS monitors were designed to get better viewing angles...meaning if you watch television from a side angle it is still bright.

If you plant your body directly in front of the thing, like you do when using a pc, what is the benefit?

[the_tyrant]

I thought the IPS monitors were designed to get better viewing angles...meaning if you watch television from a side angle it is still bright.

If you plant your body directly in front of the thing, like you do when using a pc, what is the benefit?

Here is an argument for IPS against TN:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/07/the-ips-lcd-revolution.html


IPS is damned amazing. The colors on my Surface Pro is probably the best I have ever seen! A nice, bright IPS panel is probably the best investment you can make for you computer. The display quality is easily noticeable.

Now when that article was written, cheap IPS was still in the domain of no name Korean companies. My local Costco sells pretty damned good HP IPS monitors for less than 200 now.

[Skybird]

the article makes no additional argument to the wider viewing angle and says that they become less expensive. however, I have seen ips panels in stores. I fail to see an additional, obvious image quality advantage at same screen size, only that the stability of colours and contrasts indeed is better when watching from the side.

But you can count on having to pay 30-40% more.

So its nice, but nothing to start a hype over. Maybe they become the norm over tft, that will be decided not by image quality, however (the difference is too small beyond the viewing angle thing), but price niveaus. The feature is more important for mobile platforms, I think. Its possible my Galaxy Note 10 has ips, some say so, others object, most seem to not know for sure. however, it has a very good display with a greater viewing angle stability than other tablets I held in my hand when buying, and yes - it is a benefit indeed. But for the monitor on my desk and me sitting reltively "stable" before it, I fail to see the need.

I had a 21 inch monitor 1650x1050 so far, it now becomes a 24 inch with 1980x1080. I hope I find an nVidia driver easily that work flawlessly with the few games I have and the new card. I still manually uninstall gfx drivers before installing new ones, the automatted procedure they claim to work now always has left remains and artifacts on my HD - a clean driver replacement it never has been. I hate to do that dance.

Any recommendations for driver versions above 302.xx that have gotten good reputation? For this card http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B009NY7L38/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1380015291&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

[CaptainHaplo]

Sorry I wasn't on lately, I would have offered some suggestions.

First - it sounds like either a hd sector failure or a overheated graphix card.

Glad you have a solution.

[Skybird]

Glad you have a solution.
That remains to be seen... :-?