Screen blanks out for a second... ?

[bdunosk]

GF4 ti4200, for some reason I'll be browsing the web and the screen will go black for one second, then go back to normal. I clocked the card way down in case it was a heat issue, but it did it again. Did it with both the 41.xx drivers and now the new 43.xx drivers (whatever they are, I don't know the exact number, but they are not beta drivers).

Does anyone have any ideas, anything I'm overlooking? Thanks in advance.

 

[Antoneo]

I have had that exact same problem with a Gainward GF4 Ti4200 64MB non-golden sample card. Monitor would lose signal for a fraction of a second (about half or so, it was noticeable) and then go back to normal. This behavior seemed pretty random and would happen even when only browsing the web or nothing at all. My card was not overclocked and I was using 41.xx drivers at the time I believe.

Since then, the card has gotten the infamous "Pink Screen of Death" and was promptly RMA'ed back. The PSoD has been a rampant and well voiced problem by owners of that exact line of cards from Gainward.

 

[bdunosk]

Whoops... should have mentioned it's a PNY, from the now-famous BB deal. The monitor isn't necessarily losing the signal (I'm assuming that you mean that as if you were to remove the cable from the video card). It's like the screen goes all black for one second and then back to normal. Knock on wood, it hasn't happened since I posted this, and I've been playing on my computer all day... yup, away from home on Easter.

 

[Naruto]

I have the same problem with my geforce 3 ti200. It started with the detonator 40.xx and above. But I prefer these dets since the older dets caused boot problems, were slower, and would lock up occasionally. I have spent some time trying to find out causes, but its not overclocking. It has something to do with the detonator 40.xx and above.

Does anyone know how to fix this? This problem has been pissing me off for a while now.

 

[slpaulson]

I've been having the same problem with my leadtek geforce 4 since I got my shiney dell lcd.
Could it be a problem with DVI in the new drivers? I never had this problem with my crt.

 

[PowerMacG5]

Originally posted by: cRazYdood
I've been having the same problem with my leadtek geforce 4 since I got my shiney dell lcd. Could it be a problem with DVI in the new drivers? I never had this problem with my crt.

Same with me. Under a VGA connection I don't get any blank outs, but on a DVI connection, I get the blank outs only on boot, or using vmware. Weird, but I still love my 1800FP. BTW, I'm using the latest non-beta Det's.

 

[Naruto]

This on my crt. BTW, i did extensive mods on my card, used as epoxy on the ramsinks and stuck a copper heatsink on the core. But the one mod i did was remove a series of transistors to improve image quality. It was on a anandtech article posted a while ago. But after doing all these mods, i experience no problems... until i started using detonator 4's. I don't even know if the mods caused this problem.

 

[bdunosk]

I'm using a CRT too. I also did mod my card... well, removed the RAMsinks and put them back on with something other than a peice of foamy tape. THey actually get hot now, instead of insulating the RAM. Maybe that's it, the RAM gets chilly and blanks out for a second? Sheesh... maybe it's time to jump ship to ATI.

 

[Intelman07]

I have never had this problem. Looks like all you people need to call tech support. (do de dum)

 

[bdunosk]

Heh, tech support... will they even deal with problems from custom systems? I mean, technically it could be absolutely anything in my system causing this problem. Who knows... probably the ti4200 though. I never had this problem with my ti200, which used the same drivers (41.xx). What makes me curious, though, is that the new 43.xx drivers make the screen blank out at boot-up, right when windows starts... almost like it's adjusting the clock frequency or something. I think it also does it when i click on the ti4200 tab in advanced display properties... i'm on another computer right now so I'm not entirely sure.

 

[loafbred]

My GF3 Ti 200 128MB did this in my KT333 machine with the 43.45 driver. I put it in a friend's i850-Rambus-Intel machine, and it's doing the same there with that driver (both with CRT monitors using NV Refresh tool set to use default scan rates). My new Ti 4200 128MB doesn't do it. I'm going to have my friend change to 30.82 driver with the GF3, will let you guys know if it helped in a couple of days.

 

[Naruto]

Do you guys have windows xp service pack 1 installed? I just did a reformat, not installing sp1 this time, and i haven't received and blank outs yet =D.

 

[loafbred]

Both of the machines I had the problem with have WinXP with SP1 and all updates. I got the 30.82 driver installed on the i850 Intel machine, but won't know for sure about the impact for a couple of days.

 

[bdunosk]

No SP1 eh? If that's the fix, I'm S.O.L. because the nf2 requires it.

 

[slpaulson]

Yeah I have sp1 installed...
I guess I'll live with it. It only happens maybe once or twice a day.

 

[Naruto]

hmmmmm..., i don't think sp1 is the problem. My dad said he experienced those same problems today.

 

[loafbred]

My friend said the 30.82 driver stopped the GF3 from blinking.

 

[Naruto]

Do anyone of you guys know how to report this to nvidia? I have am able to use the 30.82 to get rid of flashing, but I think its a huge performance step down. I think its just a minor problem in the drivers that nvidia should easily fix.

 

[bdunosk]

I went back to the 41.xx drivers earlier this week, no problem as of yet.

 

[bdunosk]

Ok, I think it's heat related. It got warmer, and it started blinking again. This AM it's cool and no problems thus far. Ridiculous... I have excellent air flow in my case. Guess I'll have to cover everything that feels warm with a heatsink?

There's a guy over at hardocp's hardforums.com that has posted leaking capacitors on his PNY ti4200... much like the motherboards? I'll take out the card this weekend and see what's up.