Hi, I have an nvidia 8800 GT. So far I've been using an LG 17" artistic series for 2 years, on the exact same machine, exact same configuration, without a problem. A month ago the screen stopped coming back from the 'standby' state induced by windows power management. You basically wiggle the mouse, and the screen wouldn't wake up. I started experimenting by unplugging the screen from the mains and plug it back in, and that often helped. Unfortunately, it soon became harder and harder to use that trick (it would take more and more power cycles to make it come back to life), and so I just decided to turn off power management and leave the screen constantly on. This worked OK, until I accidently turned off the screen one day and it never came back on. That is, when you reboot, the bios info is not displayed. So, like all good fathers, I went and borrowed my daughter's screen, different brand. It worked great until today. Guess what? Computer won't wake up from sleep. Bios info not showing when rebooting. Screen always displays 'NO SIGNAL' no matter what. So now I'm obvioulsy very concerned about having to buy a new screen, which could get expensive if it dies suddenly like the other two. I'm also really puzzled - I worked in IT for 15 years and I have *never* seen or heard of a video card 'killing' a monitor (short of the very old CRTs and refresh rates issues, but that's prehistory). Another puzlling issue is that my wife tells me she saw the latest broken screen turn to a red hue, then a green hue after she power cycled it, and finally exhibited the above behaviour of not coming back from sleep. I don't want to exclude any potential issues here - as anyone heard of something similar? Could it be the video card? A power surge (but wouldn't that have tripped the mains)? Aliens? Any help or pointers would be much appreciated. Cheers!!!
Thank you for your quick reply, yes I am sure, because if I: a) turn off everything at the mains and b) reboot everything, no display is shown on the monitor(s) whatsover, at boot time. That is, the information usually displayed at POST is not visible because the screen is blank (ie black). The bit that's killing me is that usually monitors (these ones included) auto-sense when they are plugged in. It's as if my video card is dead, but it isn't because I can remote desktop the computer and see it in my hardware device list, etc.
Have you tried unplugging it when it's turned on (out the VGA/DVI)? Then try plugging it back in, it's worked for me before.
Yes I have tried that many times - in fact that's how I was still able to operate the first screen for a little while, unfortunately that trick stopped working after a while as described in my original post.
Hmmm, PITA screens. Have you tired just powering down normally? I couldn't see it in your post that you had, IIRC, someone had this problem on another forum, the only way they fixed it (or that they said) was to fully shut down the PC and boot it up.
Yes, I did indeed. This is the second screen that dies in the exact same way, which is why I'm wondering: can a GPU 'kill' a monitor? Let alone 2.
Right, here's the latest update. I've asked around and everyone thinks it's not possible for the vid card to 'kill' the monitor, especially LCD. However, when really quizzed, people tend to do a double take and think 'mmm come to think of it...'. So the jury is still out. I've ran further tests on my end. First, the first screen, the one that went first, is definitely dead. I've 100% identified the source of the problem to be a dead backlight. The screen 'works', but without a backlight, it appears black. By the way, flashlights are handy to identify these The second screen came back to life. But it wasn't because of a new dvi cable (I tried that earlier), it was just random. One second it's not working after 10 reboots, and the 11th reboot it's back on. So I'm leaving it on, and when it goes again I'll check for the backlight issue. I'd be delighted if it wasn't the backlight, because if it is, what are the odds? Pretty damn high.
Could it be something to do with the plug the monitors are plugged into, Backlight going would be power, and AFAIK Video cables carry no current (Enough to Power anything)
Short empirical answer: It does happen. We had a 7300GT here @ the office that killed LCD's (off 4 monitors, 2 old ones ,a brand new one and one at the hardware junkie's place, so there goes the probability factor ) by (what we suspect) not having a decent grounding and feeding current into the vga/dvi cable(tried both ofcourse). Short theoretical answer: It really shouldn't be supposed to happen, but there was no other viable explanation other than it being the video card that went on a killing spree
wow. when i clicked on this thread i honestly expected that all 10 replies would be saying "no, of course not silly". that is weird, and kind of cool. didn't think it could happen, and it doesn't make any sense, but i guess it does. the only thing i can think of is that perhaps instead of shutting off the monitor and just leaving it off, it infrequently flicks the screen on and off so quickly that you don't notice it and eventually this fries the power circuits.
I have a similar problem with a Dell, however I think mine is mains related, If I turn it off at the mains it won't come back (no standby light) and I have to flick the power switch a few times to get it to power up. However if I leave it on standby it's fine.
Have you got a multi meter? Try a earth contunity between the screen (outer of the plug) and your computer chassis, may be a earth problem... could be aliens or a conspiracy by the government to get you to buy another GFX card
