LCD frequently goes black for a couple seconds.

[rurp]

I have a 24" Acer lcd that is constantly going blank for a second or two. I tried a different 19" and had the same problem. My video card is an ATI Radeon x1650 and I'm running the monitor at it's native resolution of 1920x1200.

Things I have tried so far:

--- Drivers are up to date for the video card and monitor.

--- Windows Vista is up to date.

--- I downloaded the Catalyst Control Center and fiddled around in there but didn't find a fix.

--- I've sent a few emails to AMD but haven't gotten any advice aside from repeatedly telling me to update the drivers that I have already updated.

--- The two options it gives me for refresh rate are 59 and 60. Neither seems any better than the other.

When the screen goes black it's just the screen not the computer freezing up, I can still type etc. I also see horizontal lines flicker across the screen at times. I have absolutely no idea what else to try and this is really frustrating. Any help you can give me would be much appreciated.

Aaron

 

[geoffry]

When does it go blank?

Are you adjusting some kind of setting or for no apparent reason it just goes black?

 

[rurp]

Just goes black for no reason at any time. Some times it will keep blacking out every minute or so for a while and some times it will go 30 minutes without trouble. This seems to be random; it's not noticeably more frequent while watching a video or browsing, etc.

 

[geoffry]

Maybe try plugging the monitor into the 2nd output on the video card.

After that try a different video card or another computer if possible, that will narrow it down if its the vid card / PC or the monitor.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Try a different monitor cable if you are using a digital cable.

 

[rurp]

I tried a different dvi cable, same problem. When I plug it in with the analog cable I get no signal. I exchanged the monitor for a new one of the same type and still have the same problems. I tried plugging a different lcd monitor in and had the same problem with the dvi cable but it worked with analog.

 

[PliotronX]

My X1800 did the same thing. The only thing to temporarily mitigate it was to turn the monitor off then back on. Was also annoying how applying 3D settings blanked the screen. My 9700 Pro didn't have either of those issues, and not a single problem with my 8800GT. Regarding analog, I had to have it plugged into the video card upon bootup or else analog would not work.

 

[rurp]

Ok, I got another response from AMD. One thing they said was to make sure my power supply was 350+ watts. It looks like my actual power supply is 300w. Is that enough of a difference to cause something like this?

 

[exitous]

This used to happen to me when I switched to a 24 inch monitor. The fix was to enable the 'reduce dvi frequency' option in the driver settings. A few driver versions back they removed it if you have a monitor that connects via hdmi, but it might still be there for a monitor that uses dvi.

 

[rurp]

I just tried checking the 'reduce dvi frequency' button and the screen began flickering and blanking out uncontrollably.

 

[ronnn]

my samsung monitor will start to flicker black occasionally. Turning it on and off solves the problem.

 

[exitous]

how about alternate dvi mode? you may need to mess with both of those. reboot too afterwards. be careful though with the alternate dvi mode, it can make the screen go black and not come back until you hook the monitor up vga style. i messed with those options for quite a while before i got it right.

 

[rurp]

Originally posted by: exitous
how about alternate dvi mode? you may need to mess with both of those. reboot too afterwards. be careful though with the alternate dvi mode, it can make the screen go black and not come back until you hook the monitor up vga style. i messed with those options for quite a while before i got it right.

Are you talking about where there are two boxes: Reduce DVI frequency and Alternate DVI operational mode?

Checking either of those totally messes up the display. Curiously if I do both it's the same as neither. The display looks fine except for the random black screens.

 

[kmmatney]

Originally posted by: rurp

Originally posted by: exitous
how about alternate dvi mode? you may need to mess with both of those. reboot too afterwards. be careful though with the alternate dvi mode, it can make the screen go black and not come back until you hook the monitor up vga style. i messed with those options for quite a while before i got it right.

Are you talking about where there are two boxes: Reduce DVI frequency and Alternate DVI operational mode?

Checking either of those totally messes up the display. Curiously if I do both it's the same as neither. The display looks fine except for the random black screens.

I had the same problem briefly with my Soyo monitor. PLaying with those 2 checkboxes (Reduce DVI frequency and Alternate DVI Mode) fixed the problem and it has been gone for at least 6 months.


Edit: Does it blank out at other resolutions? When I had the problem, it would blank out only at 160 x 1050 or higher resolution. It worked fine at 1440 x 900. I think I played with the check boxes at lower resolution - then when I switched to higher resolution the monitor was fine, and I've never had any problems since then.

Edit: I should mention that I never had this issue with my old X850XT video card with my same monitor. It was when I bought the 2900Pro that this happened, but thankfully playing with the DVI settings fixed it fairly quickly).

 

[rurp]

Is there anything more to it than checking/unchecking the boxes? I've tried that but not had any success.

 

[kmmatney]

How does it run at lower resolution? Say 1280 x 800?

 

[rurp]

It runs fine at a lower resolution. 1920x1200 is what causes the trouble but that's the native resolution of the monitor and so I'm not sure where the problem is.