Monitor goes blank, now and again...

[Baron]

I've a Sony 17" SDM-HS73 model, and a BFG GF7800GTX OC 256MB card.
The problem is that every now and again the monitor will go blank and sometimes the 'box' will show saying 'no power' which is kind of annoying when I am in a battle in BF2142 or some other game.
Sometimes it will go black for a second or so and come back on and not happen again for a bit, or in the worst case, the display can go on and off for quite a few seconds.
There doesn't seem to be a regular pattern.......it just happens.
One minute I have a display, the next the screen goes black and then comes back on again, and then it may not happen again for the rest of the day/evening.
Anyway, I figure it is either the monitor or the gfx card.
From the temps displayed on the Nvidia control panel, it idles at around 52-56C depending on the temp where my comp is, and runs to about 70ishC when playing a game.
The danger cut off temp is set at 115C and that has never been triggered.
It's not life threatening :D just annoying as the screen will go on/off/on etc at the most inconvenient times...:confused:

[Chozart]

It just goes off and when it's back on it works as if nothing happened, and in the 'dark' period, the action on the screen continues?

Seems to be there has to be a loose cable/contact between the video card and the monitor. Try replacing the VGA cable.. check if the VGA connectors on both the video card and the monitor are both ok.

I don't think it's really something bad with the video card... if something were wrong with it, I'd expect freezes or artifacts, and not just cutting the signal while continuing the processing (since the action continues).

[Baron]

It just goes off and when it's back on it works as if nothing happened, and in the 'dark' period, the action on the screen continues?


Yes, it does.......everything continues, I just can't see it.

I will re-check the monitor-gfx card cable, and try plugging it into the other gfx card port.
Thanks mate.

[high_voltage_maniac]

You could also try plugging it into a different computer, that would help you eliminate the video card as the cause.

I stronly suspect the monitor cable, or the monitor itself.

[Spectre]

The monitor is telling you to go outside.

[Baron]

The monitor is telling you to go outside.


I know, I know, it's as bad as my wife........."Get out there and cut the grass !!" :D

I have disconnected the monitor cable, and for good measure, turned it round and reconnected it into the monitor and gfx card making sure that the plugs are in tight....:D
So far, there has been no on/off business, but time will tell if that has cured it.
One of the plugs may have just been that little bit 'loose' and been enough to cause the problem.
Similar maybe to a stick of memory in son No. 1's machine. He was getting lots of errors and stuff. I eventually found that the stick of memory I had put in had stick on heatsinks on the chips. Now one of these heatsinks was hitting on top of a capactor on the mobo and it wasn't quite seated properly.
Removing the heatsink cured it as the stick would then sit in the slot nice and tight.
Now it must have been 'out' by a fraction of a gnats whisker, but enough to cause memory errors.
Weird eh ?
Oh, a tip for any other person as daft as me...........don't stick a heatsink back on a memory chip while the computer is installing XP..........it brings it to a halt....:o
Rebooting though, brings everything back to life again..........

[Baron]

I have since moved my computer upstairs into a spare bedroom, so it is on on a different mains circuit from downstairs.
No problems with the monitor going blank randomly.
Thinking about it, it used to happen if the shower was in use, or the freezer kicked in etc, so maybe it was sensitive to sudden mains fluctuations ?
Anyway, so far so good, so maybe the problem is solved...:)