Gateway FPD2185W - Blinking Pixels (Strange) [VIDEO ADDED]

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brendanlim

Member
Dec 29, 2002
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Okay, I really love this monitor but my first one had a dead pixel out of the box so I changed it for a new one. The new one has been working great but for some reason, every once in a while I will notice a bunch of light blue pixels (about a dozen of them) on my wallpaper -- blinking. If I bring up a program such as FireFox over my desktop, they are not there. When I minimize FireFox and view my wallpaper again, they are visible.

I changed my wallpaper, and bam they are GONE. I change it back to the same wallpaper and they are back. I try to logoff and I see some of the blinking pixels on the VERY LEFT of the screen in a vertical line. I log back in since I noticed that that did not fix the problem.

I ended up turning off the monitor and turning it back on and all of the blinking pixels were completely gone. Very strange. Obviously not dead pixels but what the hell were they? Should I return the monitor?

This does not happen all of the time. It has happened to me twice this week. Both times I remember playing CS: Source a few hours prior if that matters. I tried to replicate the issue but with no luck.

I have a GeForce4 Ti4200 if that matters and I am using the DVI connection.
 
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brendanlim

Member
Dec 29, 2002
33
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Read up on subpixels and I'm not sure if it's the monitor -- because sometimes it happened twice on the same pic -- but it doesnt happen 90% of the time. If the pixels were bad wouldn't it do it all of the time on those exact colors? Did that make sense?

Bad card? I know the fan's been on the fritz on my card.
 
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darkswordsman17

Lifer
Mar 11, 2004
23,444
5,850
146
Hmm, yeah thats strange.

Could be your card might just be too old and doesn't play well with the newer monitor (I'm assuimng its the Ti4200 in your sig?).

I don't have enough knowledge about all this stuff (basically I just know if I like a monitor or not) to be of any real help.

Maybe try a different video card if possible. Even just try switching the input (see if it does the same thing through VGA), and see what happens might be helpful.
 
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xtknight

Elite Member
Oct 15, 2004
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Do you see any blinking at all in a grayscale (at bottom of page): http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Calibration/monitor_gradient.htm
Or in my test here? http://xtknight.atothosting.com/tools/gradlin-v0.1.exe

Look very carefully at the whole spectrum (the continuous ones). If you see it, adjust your contrast or brightness and see if the blinking migrates. If it does, the monitor is dithering. If that happens it could still be defective as well but that's unlikely. If the blinking pixels just stay there no matter what you adjust on the monitor it's probably defective. You may want to see what happens in VGA mode too, or with a different DVI cable.
 
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brendanlim

Member
Dec 29, 2002
33
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xtknight - Did both of the test and I looked very carefully and I did not see any blinking at all.

Do you think it could be the video card? This problem has only happened twice and lasted 1 min each time out of the 5 days of usage.
 
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xtknight

Elite Member
Oct 15, 2004
12,974
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On second thought it could be the video card, yeah. If the TMDS transmitter on it is inadequate, it's going to give you some weird results even with DVI. Even though it probably looks terrible, does the problem still happen at 640x480@60 Hz? Are you looking at the *exact* same colors and it's only happening once in a while on them? They must be the exact same color, brightness, contrast, gamma, and image being exactly the same. One color shade out of 255 off and it might not occur.
 
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brendanlim

Member
Dec 29, 2002
33
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Yes, it's the "exact" same colors. Because it only occurs at the exact same spots on a certain wallpaper that I use -- and I've had this same wallpaper on my desktop for those 5 days and out of hours and hours of usage, this has only happened for a few minutes.
 
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brendanlim

Member
Dec 29, 2002
33
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The only thing that gets me is that the only way I got rid of the blinking/flashing pixels the last time was to turn off the monitor and to turn it back on.
 
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xtknight

Elite Member
Oct 15, 2004
12,974
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Originally posted by: brendanlim
The only thing that gets me is that the only way I got rid of the blinking/flashing pixels the last time was to turn off the monitor and to turn it back on.
Click to expand...

Hmm, it definitely sounds like it's a faulty monitor to me then. RMA?
 
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brendanlim

Member
Dec 29, 2002
33
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Went ahead and exchanged it (2nd exchange - 3rd monitor). We'll see if it happens again. The new one has no dead pixels so that's a plus. If it happens again in the same spots then it's definately a vid card issue! -- Which will be a great excuse for a new one.
 
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brendanlim

Member
Dec 29, 2002
33
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0
Well, it happened again. With the new monitor. Only after the computer was on power save mode for 6 hours. I moved the mouse, monitor came back on. Looked at wallpaper -- artifacts everywhere. Uhm, recorded a video -- uploading it right now so you guys can take a look at it.

I think it's my video card.
 
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