A ghost is turning off my monitor...

[sidell]

[fixed]Op. System : Windows XP SP3 (32bit)
Motherboard : TA880GB+ (Bios: 88PEP524 BS (5/24/10))
CPU : AMD ADX445WFGMBOX (Athlon II X3 445) 3.1 GHz
Video : Onboard/ATI Radeon HD 4250
RAM : ADATA DDR3 1600G, 2GB x 1
HDD : Western Digital, 36GB SATA / 250 GB SATA
PSU : Dynex 500w[/fixed]
I assembled a PC with the above components in a fresh Windows installation. It works well except for one problem:

When I connect my monitor (Acer x223w) to the onboard HD4250 graphics using the DVI connector, the screen will shut off for less than a second and then turn back on. The monitor doesn't turn off, just its screen. When this happens the screen turns off and on like the power button was pressed twice fast, but the power light stays blue. (The monitor has a light that turns off when it is disconnected, turns orange when it is on standby OR has power but no graphics signal, or turns blue when it has power AND a signal). When this happens the monitor's backlight completely shuts off, it doesn't emit any light. This happens randomly, sometimes 4 times within ~10seconds, sometimes once every 20 minutes.

This happens whenever I use DVI output and install any of the following versions of the display driver for WinXP32:
■from CD/Drivers that came with motherboard
■from Biostar website - v8.71 (2010-04-16)
■from AMD/ATI website - Catalyst Software Suite v10.6
■from AMD/ATI website - Catalyst Software Suite v10.11 (2010-11-17) <- current and first drivers


It doesn't matter what I'm doing: it will happen at the same rate whether I'm playing a 3D game, writing a text file, or if the computer is idle with no programs running.

(actually: I've noticed that it DOES tend to happen slightly more often when I switch from one window to another, or anytime I switch from one folder to another in win explorer, though it still happens otherwise. Doesn't seem to matter what kind of window ie both switching to a tab heavy firefox windows, or a tiny text file can trigger it, but it's still very random. Seems to happen when I haven't 'visited' a window in a while.)


I've turned off power management in Windows, screensaver, power management and toggled some above-or-below-4g setting (no clue what it does) in BIOS, tried different options in Catalyst Control Center (including "Reduce DVI frequency on high-resolution displays"/"Alternate DVI operational mode"). I've tried using different DVI cables, too. The problem happens even when the system is at around 25 degrees Celsius/idle. Nothing has been overclocked.


This doesn't happen:
■before I install display drivers
■if I install official ATI drivers in a Linux operating system (Ubuntu 10.10)
■if I install any of the the above WinXP32 drivers but connect to the monitor using D-Sub out instead of DVI out (the monitor has a D-Sub connector, too)


If I use the two monitor feature, one output DVI and the other D-Sub, and switch from 'DVI primary-monitor/D-Sub secondary-monitor' to 'D-Sub primary-monitor/DVI secondary-monitor', the DVI output doesn't seem to have any problems anymore, even with the same monitor that it originally had problems with. But if I switch DVI back to primary, it starts happening again. Since I only want to use one monitor, and I want to use the DVI connection, this isn't a solution. (This problem never happens to the D-Sub connection, no matter how it's setup.)


Ideas?

 

[mrjericho1991]

buy a new graphics card and then this problem will be solved,i had the same problem with f**king monitor.a hd 5670 would be best choice.

 

[Annisman]

Who you gonna call ? GHOST BUSTERS!

 

[cheesesubs]

[fixed]Op. System : Windows XP SP3 (32bit)
Motherboard : TA880GB+ (Bios: 88PEP524 BS (5/24/10))
CPU : AMD ADX445WFGMBOX (Athlon II X3 445) 3.1 GHz
Video : Onboard/ATI Radeon HD 4250
RAM : ADATA DDR3 1600G, 2GB x 1
HDD : Western Digital, 36GB SATA / 250 GB SATA
PSU : Dynex 500w[/fixed]
I assembled a PC with the above components in a fresh Windows installation. It works well except for one problem:

When I connect my monitor (Acer x223w) to the onboard HD4250 graphics using the DVI connector, the screen will shut off for less than a second and then turn back on. The monitor doesn't turn off, just its screen. When this happens the screen turns off and on like the power button was pressed twice fast, but the power light stays blue. (The monitor has a light that turns off when it is disconnected, turns orange when it is on standby OR has power but no graphics signal, or turns blue when it has power AND a signal). When this happens the monitor's backlight completely shuts off, it doesn't emit any light. This happens randomly, sometimes 4 times within ~10seconds, sometimes once every 20 minutes.

This happens whenever I use DVI output and install any of the following versions of the display driver for WinXP32:
■from CD/Drivers that came with motherboard
■from Biostar website - v8.71 (2010-04-16)
■from AMD/ATI website - Catalyst Software Suite v10.6
■from AMD/ATI website - Catalyst Software Suite v10.11 (2010-11-17) <- current and first drivers


It doesn't matter what I'm doing: it will happen at the same rate whether I'm playing a 3D game, writing a text file, or if the computer is idle with no programs running.

(actually: I've noticed that it DOES tend to happen slightly more often when I switch from one window to another, or anytime I switch from one folder to another in win explorer, though it still happens otherwise. Doesn't seem to matter what kind of window ie both switching to a tab heavy firefox windows, or a tiny text file can trigger it, but it's still very random. Seems to happen when I haven't 'visited' a window in a while.)


I've turned off power management in Windows, screensaver, power management and toggled some above-or-below-4g setting (no clue what it does) in BIOS, tried different options in Catalyst Control Center (including "Reduce DVI frequency on high-resolution displays"/"Alternate DVI operational mode"). I've tried using different DVI cables, too. The problem happens even when the system is at around 25 degrees Celsius/idle. Nothing has been overclocked.


This doesn't happen:
■before I install display drivers
■if I install official ATI drivers in a Linux operating system (Ubuntu 10.10)
■if I install any of the the above WinXP32 drivers but connect to the monitor using D-Sub out instead of DVI out (the monitor has a D-Sub connector, too)


If I use the two monitor feature, one output DVI and the other D-Sub, and switch from 'DVI primary-monitor/D-Sub secondary-monitor' to 'D-Sub primary-monitor/DVI secondary-monitor', the DVI output doesn't seem to have any problems anymore, even with the same monitor that it originally had problems with. But if I switch DVI back to primary, it starts happening again. Since I only want to use one monitor, and I want to use the DVI connection, this isn't a solution. (This problem never happens to the D-Sub connection, no matter how it's setup.)


Ideas?

have you try just d-sub for one monitor? this is comment issue for multi display that's on igp. probably the driver is bad. or simply your dvi connector is f*** up. however i would say the connector is bad.

 

[jilky]

i have the same problem except it turns on by itself...life is hard.

 

[cheesesubs]

ik there's only 2 thing you can do, grab your mobo and send it back to repair that bad connector. or get a discrete card if you have only one computer in the house.

 

[sidell]

I actually do have a Sapphire HD 5750 waiting to install, just trying to figure out this problem first.

I have notoriously awful luck with video cards, so I specifically bought a motherboard with integrated graphics so that if/when my discrete card dies or malfunctions I will have something to fall back on this time.

I guess I don't have better luck with IGPs, huh?


Right now I am using just D-Sub out from the motherboard to the D-Sub in on the monitor. It works fine like this, but I'd rather have DVI available.

If it's the connector that's bad, wouldn't the problem show up when I don't have any drivers installed, or when using Linux? DVI output works fine in those two scenarios. Or could the problem still be the connector despite that?

 

[cheesesubs]

I actually do have a Sapphire HD 5750 waiting to install, just trying to figure out this problem first.

I have notoriously awful luck with video cards, so I specifically bought a motherboard with integrated graphics so that if/when my discrete card dies or malfunctions I will have something to fall back on this time.

I guess I don't have better luck with IGPs, huh?


Right now I am using just D-Sub out from the motherboard to the D-Sub in on the monitor. It works fine like this, but I'd rather have DVI available.

If it's the connector that's bad, wouldn't the problem show up when I don't have any drivers installed, or when using Linux? DVI output works fine in those two scenarios. Or could the problem still be the connector despite that?

the problem is already shown as you described above. when d-sub running primary the dvi will use signal from d-sub in secondary so you don't any problem occur. but when dvi is set to be primary because of malfunction signal from the lane which cripple the displays ability and d-sub cant share the signal due to pin limit. so that's why i doubt dvi is f*** up.