For 2+ weeks, display goes black for ~ 4+ seconds

[Muse]

Suddenly and without warning at seemingly random times the screen blanks and then recovers after around 4-5 seconds. I'd say it happens maybe every couple of hours of usage. I remember having such problems in the past and reinstalling the video driver stopped it. I tried that this time and it hasn't stopped the problem. I think it even happened once when I wasn't in Windows (i.e. in the BIOS or something). What could be the problem? The monitor going bad?

System specs:

Gigabyte GA-K8n Pro motherboard Specs: http://ee.gigabyte.com/products/page/mb/ga-k8n_pro/ PDF of manual: http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Manual/motherboard_manual_k8npro_e.pdf
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (socket 754, FSB1600, E6, Venice, 90nm, L2-512KB)
BFG Tech GeForce 6600GT OC 128MB DDR3 AGP Dual DVI Video Card w/TV-Out
2 sticks Crucial 1GB PC3200 400MHz 184-pin DDR Memory - CT12864Z40B, 2 GB total
Corsair vx550w PSU
USR Model 2977 PCI hardware modem
Hercules GTXP soundcard PCI with breakout box
MyHD MDP-130 HDTV PCI
MyHD MDP-130 HDTV DVI daughterboard

Windows XP SP3
Samsung S23a350H LED/LCD 23" monitor (refurb, bought off Amazon 3rd party in July)
nVidia video driver version 8.4.2.1 (I was told this was an excellent version for my video card)

Needless to say it's stunning and disconcerting when the screen suddenly goes black for 4+ seconds!

The display has an HDMI input that's being used. The connection from the computer is with a DVI---HDMI cable to an HDMI switch, to allow my Sony BD player access to the display. I suppose the problem could be involved with that switch, something to test. I don't often use the BD player with the display, only rarely. However, I've had that switch in this usage for several months, not a hiccup.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Try replacing the HDMI cable first. I ran into issues with my GTX460 1GB card over HDMI to my 26" KDS LCD. It would randomly black out, especially in Windows, but not at the BIOS screen (it would display that, and suddenly sometimes go black once the Windows drivers initialized).

I thought that the problem was the HDMI to mini-HDMI adapter that came with the video card, and the mini-HDMI port on the video card.

But after I connected a different PC to that same HDMI cable and LCD monitor, I realized that the problem was with the cable. Replaced it with a different brand cable (that had been working reliably with another identical monitor), and it started working without issue.

 

[Muse]

Thanks. I'll try that basic tactic. I'll swap out the cable, whatever else is in the connection path, including the switch, which is inessential.

 

[Eureka]

Sounds like the monitor's power supply is going bad. Chances are it'll blow soon. When it does, come back and we'll help you fix it.

(This happened to me before. Blown cap on the power input. Board was scorched.)

 

[Muse]

Sounds like the monitor's power supply is going bad. Chances are it'll blow soon. When it does, come back and we'll help you fix it.

(This happened to me before. Blown cap on the power input. Board was scorched.)

Hmm. I have another 23" LCD I can swap it with and see which system gets the blanking screen, should tell us something... I bought both LCDs about the same time this last summer. The other one's an Acer S231HL bid 23-Inch Widescreen Ultra-Slim LED. This one is a Samsung S23a350H LED/LCD 23". I like the Samsung on my desktop because for some reason the Acer on that system has little specs that look like stars when I look at JPGs, it's weird. On one of my laptops it doesn't do that. However, I can swap them again for testing purposes.

 

[Homeles]

Sounds like the monitor's power supply is going bad. Chances are it'll blow soon. When it does, come back and we'll help you fix it.

(This happened to me before. Blown cap on the power input. Board was scorched.)

Could be bad caps anywhere, not just on the PSU. I had a bad cap problem in an old Samsung LCD, from when the competition in the LCD market just started heating up.

Soldered new caps, and ended up getting another two years out of it before the back light went out.

 

[Eureka]

Hmm. I have another 23" LCD I can swap it with and see which system gets the blanking screen, should tell us something... I bought both LCDs about the same time this last summer. The other one's an Acer S231HL bid 23-Inch Widescreen Ultra-Slim LED. This one is a Samsung S23a350H LED/LCD 23". I like the Samsung on my desktop because for some reason the Acer on that system has little specs that look like stars when I look at JPGs, it's weird. On one of my laptops it doesn't do that. However, I can swap them again for testing purposes.

Don't know about the specking, could be the coating or whatever panel they used.

If it shows up again then we'll know it's not the monitor. But monitors going bad isn't unheard of, if you only bought it last summer it might still be under warranty and you can just get it replaced completely.

 

[tynopik]

i've had something similar happen to me, but perhaps slightly different

1. screen goes black but comes back fairly quickly (~1 second)
2. two times screen froze for ~1 second, went black for maybe 4 seconds, then came back with a taskbar notification that "Display driver stopped responding has has recovered: Display driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 306.97 stopped responding has has successfully recovered". Shows up in System log as a Display Warning "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered." (Event ID 4101)

this was always at desktop and not while gaming or doing anything graphically intensive

Zotac GeForce 210 (passive cooler)
Windows 8
driver 9.18.13.697
Supermicro X9SRA
Xeon E5-1620

edit: the second one at least can't be the same as you because the driver recovery feature was only implemented in Vista and thus isn't in XP