Monitor going bad, or driver problem?

[dproberts]

I regularly had problems with my monitor on my old desktop - the screen would go black for a few seconds, and then come back on, with an error message saying that the "AMD driver had stopped working, but recovered successfully" or something similar.

I just built a new PC this weekend, new video card but the same monitor. The problem is getting worse. It's especially bad when rebooting -sometimes I get to the "windows" splash and then it quits, which made me think that it was still a driver problem. However, I also tried plugging it directly into the DVI port on my motherboard, and it still doesn't work- does that eliminate the drivers as the issue?

Secondly, I also swapped it out with my wife's monitor, which has been working just fine with my video card (with no attempt to fix any drivers), and I connected my monitor to her new PC (which has the same model of video card), and I get nothing but a black screen on her computer too.

Is there any chance it's still a driver problem I should continue to investigate, or should I give up and get a new monitor?

 

[techgeek]

I'd say if you've moved the suspect monitor to a known working computer and it doesn't work there, then the monitor is the problem.

However the one troubleshooting step you took whereby you plugged your monitor into the DVI port on your motherboard isn't valid unless you remove your graphics card. The onboard video will automatically be disabled when the BIOS detects an add-in graphics card. So no video in this case would be normal.

Have you tried another cable? What sort of connectors does your monitor have? Obviously DVI is one, does if have HDMI? It'd try another DVI cable if you have one, or HDMI if the monitor has an HDMI input.

 

[techgeek]

It's possible that you have a bad cable on the suspect monitor. That's why I suggested that you try a different cable or different input type on the monitor (if available).

 

[dproberts]

I thought about the cable too, but when I swapped monitors I left the cables in place, and my wife's monitor is working fine with that cable on my PC. So, it doesn't appear to be the cable.

I didn't realize that having a video card in place disabled the onboard video from the mobo DVI port. Hmm.

My monitor doesn't have HDMI, only DVI.

I think I might try my monitor on her PC again - if I can't get it working there I'll probably give up on it - it has the same model of video card, but it seems unlikely that both PCs would have the same driver problems.

 

[techgeek]

I'd say it's you tested your suspect monitor on your wife's computer with her cable, then your monitor is the problem.

Just thought I would throw out the cable. Wouldn't be the first time a cable was the cause of display problems.

It's most certainly not a driver issue if its misbehaves on two different computers. Can you get into the menu on the monitor, assuming it has an OSD?