Display problems when second monitor is attached to desktop PC

Theo Johnson · Jan 19, 2014

Hi,

I have a Mesh custom PC with an ATI Radeon HD4550. For a few months, the fan on the card was having issues (weird noises, slowing down/stopping etc.) but everything seemed to be working fine still so I ignored it. A few days ago, however, both of the attached monitors began to have a display issue. It's a bit hard to describe, but it's as if they have static like on an old TV over the normal picture. Everything is still visible and usable, but there are moving lines of static constantly overlaying everything. The second monitor also started turning itself off and on every few seconds, and sometimes not displaying anything at all. As soon as the second monitor's VGA cable is unplugged, everything returns to normal.

Some days, everything works fine again for seemingly no reason, and some days it's totally unusable. I figured the fan was responsible, so I re-oiled the bearing and it spins quietly and at full speed now, but the display issues persist. Perhaps there's a chance it could have overheated and damaged the card itself when it wasn't working properly?

The monitors both work fine with other computers, and changing VGA cables has no effect.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

jonno121 · Jan 19, 2014

Take the card out and check all the capacitors and see if any of them are popping, i had a capacitor go down on my old gpu and it caused lines to constantly show up on my monitors when gaming

eodeo · Jan 19, 2014

I feel silly for pointing it out, buy maybe you could just replace the GPU. 4550 is hardly top of the line. You can get a new better one for 50e/$... Just a thought.

Theo Johnson · Jan 19, 2014

I know it's a crappy old card, but I'm a poor student trying to make this PC last as long as possible, I've picked out a laptop to replace it with if the graphics card does go (I've been wanting to switch from desktop to laptop for a long time anyway) but if I can keep it going for a while longer it'd be great.

Been a while since I've done any electronics, so might not be identifying the components right, but it doesn't look like there's any electrolytic caps on the card, they're all these kind:

...which I think are SMD caps, right? Not sure how to check if they're blown, as they don't bulge out like electrolytics.

Thanks for the quick responses, though!

eodeo · Jan 20, 2014

If you don't mind getting a used gpu, you can replace the one you have, with a similar one for about 10e/$.

Im a student too, and Ive built a whole new computer capable of playing SC2 maxed out for less then 150euros to use when Im in the other city. I find my nexus tablet far more convinient and light, when on the go.

I bought a new tablet and a used computer for less then a price of a half baked laptop. laptops are expensive solutions for when you have to move frequently and you dont have wifi. If you do, you can just remote control your computer, from say a tablet, when youre on the go with teamviewer or something like that. That way you have all the power of a desktop, all the convince of a tablet and none of the price of a capable laptop.

However, due to remote controlled fps, you can only work, like 3d modeling/rendering and not acutal playing on a tablet. for gameing, tablet has some very fun games too while my 2ndary computer handles most workloads and demanding games very well. For actual rendering I remote control my quad core. This works fine for me because I effectively have two homes I swich every couple of days. I use tablet when on the bus between cities. It worked out for me for over a year now ☺

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Display problems when second monitor is attached to desktop PC

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