Screen goes black for a few seconds

[Thomas Mlynarczyk]

Hello,

I have the problem that my screen suddenly goes black for a few seconds.
This happens randomly, without any apparant connection to my activities. And
it happens with both my notebook and PC.

My hardware:
a) Notebook acer Aspire 1203XC
b) PC acer Aspire T135-T975, monitor acer AL1916

I have no idea what could cause this behaviour. I'm not even sure if it is
the monitor, the graphics card, the OS or some driver/software. It seems
that the monitor "reboots" somehow, as it shows the acer logo during that
"blackout".

Does anyone know anything about this phenomenon?

Greetings,
Thomas

 

[Bob I]

Bad connector on the input cable? Monitor electronic starting to fail?

 

[Thomas Mlynarczyk]

Also sprach Bob I:

Bad connector on the input cable? Monitor electronic starting to fail?

The PC and monitor are just a few months old (the notebook about 3 years).
And it happens on the two machines. Could the same hardware defect happen
twice like that? At first, the PC worked okay, then, some time ago, I
noticed the phenomenon for the first time, but the last few days it became
much more frequent and thus annoying. And as it happens in such an
unpredictable manner it is quite difficult to get to the bottom of the
problem.

Greetings,
Thomas

 

[Bob I]

Also sprach Bob I:




The PC and monitor are just a few months old (the notebook about 3 years).
And it happens on the two machines. Could the same hardware defect happen
twice like that? At first, the PC worked okay, then, some time ago, I
noticed the phenomenon for the first time, but the last few days it became
much more frequent and thus annoying. And as it happens in such an
unpredictable manner it is quite difficult to get to the bottom of the
problem.

Greetings,
Thomas

I'm sorry, I was reading it that you attached the monitor to the laptop
to test it, so you had the same results with the monitor attached to two
computers. Are you describing the problem happens with two computers and
two screens? If so, I would wonder if you have done a driver update from
Microsoft that should not have been applied to your systems?

 

[Thomas Mlynarczyk]

Also sprach Bob I:

Are you describing the problem happens
with two computers and two screens?

Yes. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough about that.

If so, I would wonder if you have
done a driver update from Microsoft that should not have been
applied to your systems?

No. I haven't done any updates on the systems since I bought the computers
(the laptop has WinXP without any SP and the PC with SP2, automatic updates
are disabled and the hardware has not been changed). Meanwhile I have
googled a bit more and tried reducing the monitor frequency from 75Hz down
to 60Hz as was suggested on a website, but the problem still persists. Other
suggestions I found include reducing AGP to 2x in the BIOS, but I have not
checked that yet. Still, as the problem occurs on two different machines, I
wonder if it is hardware related at all.

Greetings,
Thomas

 

[Bob I]

Also sprach Bob I:




Yes. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough about that.




No. I haven't done any updates on the systems since I bought the computers
(the laptop has WinXP without any SP and the PC with SP2, automatic updates
are disabled and the hardware has not been changed). Meanwhile I have
googled a bit more and tried reducing the monitor frequency from 75Hz down
to 60Hz as was suggested on a website, but the problem still persists. Other
suggestions I found include reducing AGP to 2x in the BIOS, but I have not
checked that yet. Still, as the problem occurs on two different machines, I
wonder if it is hardware related at all.

Greetings,
Thomas

Does the computer/s actually reboot itself or is it purely a
monitor/screen issue?

 

[dvw]

Hello,

I have the problem that my screen suddenly goes black for a few seconds.
This happens randomly, without any apparant connection to my activities.
And it happens with both my notebook and PC.

My hardware:
a) Notebook acer Aspire 1203XC
b) PC acer Aspire T135-T975, monitor acer AL1916

I have no idea what could cause this behaviour. I'm not even sure if it is
the monitor, the graphics card, the OS or some driver/software. It seems
that the monitor "reboots" somehow, as it shows the acer logo during that
"blackout".

Does anyone know anything about this phenomenon?

Greetings,
Thomas

Just as part of your troubleshooting, take a look at your antivirus
programs- the same on both machines? do you have the problem with AV
disabled? It's a long shot, but worth checking.

 

[Thomas Mlynarczyk]

Also sprach Bob I:

Does the computer/s actually reboot itself or is it purely a
monitor/screen issue?

It is purely a monitor/screen issue. This morning the problem became so bad
that working was absolutely impossible. I tried the monitor with a different
PC - same problem, so it is definitely an issue with the monitor. I took it
back to the vendor and hopefully I will get a replacement.

Still, I wonder what could be the cause of the problem. At the beginning
everything worked fine and then - :-((( And there is the display of my
notebook, even though there the problem is not critical - it just occurs now
and then. Could it be a general issue with acer products?

Greetings,
Thomas

 

[Thomas Mlynarczyk]

Also sprach dvw:

Just as part of your troubleshooting, take a look at your antivirus
programs- the same on both machines? do you have the problem with AV
disabled? It's a long shot, but worth checking.

I used to have Norton (2003?) on the notebook, now I use AntiVir. On the PC
I use Norton 2005. But as I said in my other post, it meanwhile turned out
to be a hardware issue with the monitor. At first, though, I had suspected
it to be software-related as the problem became apparant to me only after
having installed Anno1701.

Thank you for your suggestion.

Greetings,
Thomas

 

[Bob I]

Also sprach Bob I:




It is purely a monitor/screen issue. This morning the problem became so bad
that working was absolutely impossible. I tried the monitor with a different
PC - same problem, so it is definitely an issue with the monitor. I took it
back to the vendor and hopefully I will get a replacement.

Still, I wonder what could be the cause of the problem. At the beginning
everything worked fine and then - :-((( And there is the display of my
notebook, even though there the problem is not critical - it just occurs now
and then. Could it be a general issue with acer products?

Greetings,
Thomas

Hardware failure may occur anytime. As to Acer? I have never really
considered purchasing one, as I usually custom build. But I suppose the
timing of the failure would be coincidence not contagious effect.

 

[Thomas Mlynarczyk]

Also sprach Bob I:

Hardware failure may occur anytime. As to Acer? I have never really
considered purchasing one, as I usually custom build. But I suppose
the timing of the failure would be coincidence not contagious effect.

You mean like it happens once in a thousand years and so I should be "safe"
for the foreseeable future? ;-)