killing monitors

Hi,
I have a matrox G550DH.
It is currently driving a Samsung 172N LCD.

Two months ago I had one of my 19" crts start to hum and then blink on and off after a few hours of usage. I put it aside as it was several years old and that behavior was hurting my eyes. Then the other 19"crt started humming a week or so later, I thought that old age had caught with both of them so I bought this LCD with plans on getting another if I liked it.
So...two months (I do like it) and I just noticed that it is starting to hum.
The big question......could my video card be causing these monitors to die an early death or is it just the alignment of the stars?
wj

How's your power quality? Are there any sources of magnetism nearby? Any sources of RF? I doubt it could be your video card.

What kind of card is it, out of curiousity?

donny_paycheck said:

How's your power quality? Are there any sources of magnetism nearby? Any sources of RF? I doubt it could be your video card.

What kind of card is it, out of curiousity?

Click to expand...

matrox-g550 dual head

antec 430
no magnetism other than speakers 5 feet away, no rf other than mouse/keyboard thingy that comes with logitech setup.

wj

My dad's friend had this same problem with a geforce2. It killed a monitor, PSU (generic POS), and his Soyo mobo. So he then built a new system and put the same card in because he didn't know it was killing stuff. He had switched to a 15in LCD and that started acting funky. So he swapped vid cards for an AIW 8500dv. That didn't fix it either. Turns out the geforce2 fried his second mobo. He gave the LCD and AIW to me because he siad he wasn't putting those back on his system as he thought they might be the reason too. I'm using the AIW and 15in LCD right now

BTW, he also gave me the Geforce2. I tried it on an older system and about 2 days later, it started acting wierd. Started out as flickering screen, then system lock-ups, then full reboots. Then I took out the card and everythings been normal since. Best part was, the card had been fine for about a year, then started acting up.

Thanks, I think I'll replace this older vid card and hope it hasn't done too much damage. In this situation there is no real way of knowing if it is the culprit or if it has damaged or if the damage is severe.......oh well, life goes on.
wj

Funniest thing.

At my work, we put a computer at a corner to monitor some data outputs and a week later the monitor wouldn't turn back on. We thought it was the monitor and replaced it. A week goes by and same thing.

So, we moved the computer to another corner with a new monitor and it was fine for months, but my boss really hates turning his head that way to look at the monitor so we moved it back to the original corner. Guess what? A week later, the monitor died.

We were never able to figure out what it was, but we never put a computer or monitor in that corner again.

So, my point is it could be anything and not neccessary related to the computer.

We put a sign up at the corner and called it the "Kiss of Death" and that's all my boss stared at everyday...hahaha...until he changed offices.

wymjym said:

matrox-g550 dual head

antec 430
no magnetism other than speakers 5 feet away, no rf other than mouse/keyboard thingy that comes with logitech setup.

wj

Click to expand...

Whoops, I missed the video card type in your first post, heh.

Given that both a CRT and LCD monitor have experienced this problem, I still suspect a power problem. By this I mean line power, and not the ATX PSU.

Do you live in the US where utility power is 115 volts @ 60 Hertz? My suspicion is that your monitor is being fed bad power of some sort. My suggestion is to get a line analyzer like this one for $7 and see if the input power to the monitor is alright. Your PC won't be as sensitive because ATX PSUs are fairly resilient to power input problems. Moreso than monitor PSUs.

Thanks for the thoughts but I don't think power (ac) is the prob. I wired this place some 15 years ago and know what/where the power goes. I have 8 monitors up and running and only this computer (same video card for the past two years) has ever had issues. Of course this is the one that is used much more than any of the others.
I just got a shuttle mobo that has built in video...I'll try it over Xmas and see what is what.
wj

Well if you've got other monitors on the circuit then my suspicion is moot. Keep on with the isolating process. You'll find it eventually. Just hope you don't lose your LCD before then, heh.