Strange problem with display, not sure what's going on

[Dolfan349]

This just started happening a few days ago after my machine had been working fine for weeks.

After having my PC off for a while (more than three hours straight), when I go to turn it back on from a cold boot, my monitor turns itself off when the Welcome screen is supposed to load. After that, the monitor just sits there blinking its LED at me: green, off, green, off, green, off. NOTE: it doesn't give me a "no signal" message, or an "out of range" message -- it just sits there with the LED blinking and displaying no image. In fact, the LED doesn't blink orange like it would if there was no signal -- just green, off, green

In the meantime, the PC is running perfectly in the background -- I can hear RivaTuner load up my fan speeds etc. I can successfully shut down the PC using Alt+F4+U; nothing is freezing or locking up or BSODing.

To get it working again, I have to completely shut the PC down, turn it back on again, switch the DVI port the monitor is plugged into, then turn it back off and on again. Restarts don't work, it has to be a complete shut down or the display won't initialize.

The thing is, once it initializes, it's perfectly fine -- no graphics instability whatsoever. I can game for hours with no problems. In fact, I can even shut the PC completely down, but I can't let it sit for more than a few hours or it'll go back into this problem state.

So yeah, a big WTF from me. Any ideas? My 8800GTX isn't overheating, it's perfectly stable for the month I've had it, and so is the rest of my system. Like I said, when the monitor turns off, nothing is unstable in the background. I'm using the 158.27 WHQL drivers and I've tried reinstalling them two or three times...

Any ideas?

 

[dreddfunk]

Dolfan - just to clarify, could you answer a couple of questions?

1) What video ports are available on your monitor (VGA/DVI, DVI/DVI, or just DVI, or VGA)?
2) Are you switching the DVI port on the GTX or on the monitor's input?
3) Is there a consistent port on either that doesn't seem to work?
4) Do you have any DVI to VGA cables available (if your monitor has a VGA port)?
5) Do you have any other DVI cables available to test?

If you can reasonably conclude that the system is booting properly without video, your problem might just be with a DVI port that's going bad, or a cable that's going bad (or both). Or it could also simply be something wrong with the monitor itself.

Cheers.

 

[Elfear]

I'm having the exact same problem. I've switched back to using XP until I can figure out what is up with Vista. I've tried the 158.27 and 158.45 drivers using every uninstall/install method I can think of. Nothing seems to work and every time I reboot, the monitor just shuts off at the Windows welcome screen. I can switch DVI ports like you and I get a picture but I am limited to 1024x768 (1680x1050 monitor). Hopefully someone can chime in with a fix.

 

[Dolfan349]

Originally posted by: dreddfunk
Dolfan - just to clarify, could you answer a couple of questions?

1) What video ports are available on your monitor (VGA/DVI, DVI/DVI, or just DVI, or VGA)?
2) Are you switching the DVI port on the GTX or on the monitor's input?
3) Is there a consistent port on either that doesn't seem to work?
4) Do you have any DVI to VGA cables available (if your monitor has a VGA port)?
5) Do you have any other DVI cables available to test?

If you can reasonably conclude that the system is booting properly without video, your problem might just be with a DVI port that's going bad, or a cable that's going bad (or both). Or it could also simply be something wrong with the monitor itself.

Cheers.

Sure:

1) The monitor has one DVI port (which I'm using now) and one VGA port
2) I'm switching the DVI port on the 8800GTX
3) Both DVI ports work (and conversely don't work) on the GTX; I have to switch between them every time I turn my PC off, so both are inconsistent but fully functional once I get them working
4) No, I don't have any DVI to VGA cables
5) No, I don't have any extra DVI cables... just this one

I do have a lot of VGA cables, so I guess I could try using the VGA connection.

 

[Dolfan349]

TTT, tried using the VGA connection but the problem persists...