Monitors fried: graphics card's fault?

[Arkanus]

Greetings.

A few hours ago my main monitor's screen (I have dual monitors setup) went totally blank while playing Starcraft 2. The computer works fine but the monitor doesn't get back to normal even if I unplug its VGA cable from the back of my graphics card (ATI HD 4870). The white screen remains there (the monitor's LED remains green) even with the computer turned off.

3 or 4 days ago... my second monitor suffered a slightly similar problem. I tried to "wake it up" from standby mode but it showed image just for a single second before the screen turned off (the monitor's LED remains green too). The day after it got back to life and now it's dead again. I turn the monitor on, shows image for a sec and turns off. Maybe it'll work again tomorrow... maybe not.

I've tried to turn both monitors on without connecting them to the PC for checking if it's a graphic's card failure, but they keep dying so I'm starting to think that the monitors got fried.

I'm not sure about if I should try a third monitor if it's going to get fried too. Any idea about what can be the cause of this "sudden death" in my screens? Maybe the graphics card fried them?

The main monitor is about 4-5 years old, the second one is about... 7 or 8 years old. They're not that old, I think

Thanks a lot in advance and keep up this great forum.

 

[Guest]

There's a lot of it about. Seems to be heat affecting the capacitors on the power supply board so that they fail .

Fortunately diagnosis is simplified because they often bulge and leak. Replacement is a simple solder job and the components are very cheap.

So either a repair guy or do it yourself will be cost effective.

 

[jaguarskx]

I can't really see a video card "killing" a monitor since very little amps is sent through the cable.

It is unusual that both monitors seem to have stopped working at about the same time. I would recommend you test it in another PC because it may be the video card. Just don't tell anyone that your video is a homicidal maniac (at least as monitors are concerned).

 

[Guest]

This sounds very interesting. I have experienced something similar with the same radeon 4800 series graphics card. My old samsung syncmaster stoped working for the second time a month ago. From one second to the other it started fading and shows strange colors. The exact same thing happened 1 year ago and I had the screen replaced on the warranty. Now the warranty has expired and I bought a new monitor, promising myself never to buy samsung again. But then the first night i watch a movie on the new monitor it does the exact same thing. Start fading and the colors get unsharp. Luckily it went back to normal after a couple of hours. But after reading your post I now stongly suspect the radeon 4800 series graphics card for being the sinner here. Anyone knows if and how I can check this and maybe prevent the card from damaging my new monitor as well?
/Jakob