Should I assume my video card killed my monitor?

[Flatbroke]

I have a GeForce 4 ti4200 and had a 19" KDS AV195TF, (lot of people have have problems with these), the monitor was fine for 2 years with a couple of previous video cards, but just last week, started with some horizontal "breathing" and "jumping" problems. It progressed to jumping to a 1/2" on both sides wider view horizontally, and having blips in the retrace lines, with some wavy scan areas. It went dark while it was on and I was in the other room, so its sitting on the floor waiting for me to call KDS and get a RMA to send it back, still under warranty by one month. I hooked up a MAG 800v, about 3-4 years old, but not used much, and can see flicker at 72hz, (never could before), and see the same horizontal "breathing" that the KDS started with. Different video cable and power cable. I would say KDS had power supply problem until I saw the Mag doing the same thing the KDS started with. Can not see anything close to the monitor or cables that would put external interference on the screen. Could the video card be sending some defective refresh rate signal to the monitors or some other abnormal signal that damages the monitor? Thanks.

 

[CubanlB]

You wouldnt happen to have one of the "value" gainward 4200's that had all sorts of problems, would you?

 

[Blastman]

No. Video cards don?t kill monitors.

If you have the same problem with 2 monitors it?s likely your 4200 is bad. Have you got an old backup video card? Try it and see.

 

[Peter]

Yes they do. If the graphics card feeds a frequency the monitor doesn't take, and the monitor is cheap/stupid enough to try, it'll have a much shorter lifespan.

The above however sounds like normal death of horizontal deflection - either from a bad solder joint or a dying component in the voltage regulation, amplification, or transformer.

The horizontal "breathing" (or pumping) with brightness changes is a common design problem of cheap monitors. It's poor voltage regulation.

 

[Blastman]

Stupid monitors don?t count.