- Sep 22, 2006
- 17
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I just built a new system (specs are at the bottom) with an evga 7900gs and a Samsung Synchmaster 204B. I've got crazy display errors going on and none of the "IT professionals" I've talked to say the same thing or offer anything that helps. I'm hoping someone here can give me good advice.
Here's what's happened: I ordered all the parts from Newegg (minus monitor and keyboard/mouse bought at Bestbuy) and a local comp store put it together for me. They loaded the OS, it worked fine (their monitors are all analog). I took it home (hooked up via DVI to my monitor), after about an hour, while downloading drivers, etc. the screen started flashing violently. It looked like the screen does when it's changing resolution or refresh rate, as in you'll see a glimmer of the display for an instant then it goes back to black, and it would flash like that for maybe 5 to 10 seconds, then have a second or two of consistent display, and then start flashing again. This continued until I restarted the computer. On the next boot it was flashing DURING the boot sequence. I restarted a couple times, and every time, even in safe mode, the same problem. I tried booting from the WIN XP CD and the flashing lasted until the OS loaded, at which point they stopped completely. No display errors until my next boot, when it'd flash during boot-up and stop when the OS loaded. Since then it'll randomly start flickering, but inconsistently, when the OS is running. Then after playing with installing new drivers, trying different monitors, etc. the problems randomly stopped during the boot sequence. Since then I've noticed at lower resolutions the problem almost never occurs, but is more likely to occur at higher resolutions. I've also found that it ONLY happens when the computer is connected to the monitor digitally, and not once has it happened when connected by analog (which seems particularly weird to me as it's the same plug on the VGA card, only using a DVI to VGA adapter, weirder still is that the graphics of the flashing is slightly different depending on which of the two plugs I use, one adds a green pixelation snowy effect). I took the first monitor back to Bestbuy and got another samsung 204B and the problem has persisted. Most recently it's been a problem at lower resolutions as well. Also, the problem is inconsistent, sometimes the computer will run for 8 hours and not so much as flicker, at other times it'll be terrible until I reboot or reinstall the video adapter drivers, both of which seem to fend it off temporarily.
Has anyone experienced similar problems?
Does anyone know if there are inherent compatibility issues between the 7900gs and the samsung 204B?
Does anyone have an idea of how I might fix the problem, or will it probably require buying a new video card?
And if so, does anyone know if the ATI Radeon X1900XT might be less likely to exhibit such problems?
Thanks so much for any input...
Here's the system I've built so far (aside from the display problems it runs like a dream...)
Antec Performance I P180
ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard -
eVGA 256-P2-N625-AR Geforce 7900GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO HDCP Video Card
PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510-SLI ATX12V 510W Continuous @ 50°C Power Supply
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop
SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM
EVERCOOL EC8015 80mm Ball Case Cooling Fan -
LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/LightScribe and 5X DVD-RAM Write Black ATAPI/E-IDE Model SHM-165H6S -
Antec 77095 120mm Blue LED Light Case Cooling Fan
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Track 1 NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3550A
Track 1 ZALMAN VF900 ? CU 2 Ball VGA Cooling Fan/Heatsink
Here's what's happened: I ordered all the parts from Newegg (minus monitor and keyboard/mouse bought at Bestbuy) and a local comp store put it together for me. They loaded the OS, it worked fine (their monitors are all analog). I took it home (hooked up via DVI to my monitor), after about an hour, while downloading drivers, etc. the screen started flashing violently. It looked like the screen does when it's changing resolution or refresh rate, as in you'll see a glimmer of the display for an instant then it goes back to black, and it would flash like that for maybe 5 to 10 seconds, then have a second or two of consistent display, and then start flashing again. This continued until I restarted the computer. On the next boot it was flashing DURING the boot sequence. I restarted a couple times, and every time, even in safe mode, the same problem. I tried booting from the WIN XP CD and the flashing lasted until the OS loaded, at which point they stopped completely. No display errors until my next boot, when it'd flash during boot-up and stop when the OS loaded. Since then it'll randomly start flickering, but inconsistently, when the OS is running. Then after playing with installing new drivers, trying different monitors, etc. the problems randomly stopped during the boot sequence. Since then I've noticed at lower resolutions the problem almost never occurs, but is more likely to occur at higher resolutions. I've also found that it ONLY happens when the computer is connected to the monitor digitally, and not once has it happened when connected by analog (which seems particularly weird to me as it's the same plug on the VGA card, only using a DVI to VGA adapter, weirder still is that the graphics of the flashing is slightly different depending on which of the two plugs I use, one adds a green pixelation snowy effect). I took the first monitor back to Bestbuy and got another samsung 204B and the problem has persisted. Most recently it's been a problem at lower resolutions as well. Also, the problem is inconsistent, sometimes the computer will run for 8 hours and not so much as flicker, at other times it'll be terrible until I reboot or reinstall the video adapter drivers, both of which seem to fend it off temporarily.
Has anyone experienced similar problems?
Does anyone know if there are inherent compatibility issues between the 7900gs and the samsung 204B?
Does anyone have an idea of how I might fix the problem, or will it probably require buying a new video card?
And if so, does anyone know if the ATI Radeon X1900XT might be less likely to exhibit such problems?
Thanks so much for any input...
Here's the system I've built so far (aside from the display problems it runs like a dream...)
Antec Performance I P180
ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard -
eVGA 256-P2-N625-AR Geforce 7900GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO HDCP Video Card
PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510-SLI ATX12V 510W Continuous @ 50°C Power Supply
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop
SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM
EVERCOOL EC8015 80mm Ball Case Cooling Fan -
LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/LightScribe and 5X DVD-RAM Write Black ATAPI/E-IDE Model SHM-165H6S -
Antec 77095 120mm Blue LED Light Case Cooling Fan
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Track 1 NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3550A
Track 1 ZALMAN VF900 ? CU 2 Ball VGA Cooling Fan/Heatsink