help with refresh problem please

[Michelle]

Hi everyone,

I've been having a problem and I'm hoping someone here can help me... first my
stats:

WinXP home, sp1
768 ram
1.7 gig P4
brand new viewsonic 19" monior
ATI Radeon 9200 128 mb graphics card (also brand new)
40 gig HD, plenty of free space.

Now for the problem ... about a month ago I started noticing display
problems. After doing a bunch of research on the web (and calling Dell even
though my service had expired with them) we determined we needed a new monitor.
The screen was shaking badly intermittently and at times, it would seem almost
as if someone shined a flashlight across it. The size of the display was also
shrinking the longer I had the monitor turned on. If it was in sleep mode long
enough,the full size would return, but after a few minutes it would shrink
again. This was a 17" monitor running 1024 x 768 with a 75 hz refresh rate.
So... I bought a new monitor, set it up, installed the viewsonic drivers and
the problem was still there...
Also, I should mention that when I right clicked the display properties and
choose properties, settings, all was ok but the second I clicked the advanced
button on the settings tab, the screen would either shrink to almost nothing or
black out, then come back. (this was without making any changes at all).

So, after the new monitor didn't fix anything we determined that the graphics
card could be the problem so I had someone install it for me on Saturday. At
the time he installed it, we also downloaded the latest drivers for the
graphics card and the new monitor at MS. After all was said & done, we still
had the same problem.

We rebooted a few times, then the screen appeared more stable but flickering
because it had defaulted to a 60 hz refresh rate. I accessed the display
properties again (but this time it accessed normally, no blacking out-I'm
guessing this may have been due to the new graphics card?) and noticed it had
set the display back to 16 bit color. I changed it back to 32 bit, hit apply,
all was fine. Then I tried upping the refresh rate to 75 hz (I was going to
try 75, then 85 which is supposedly optimal for the resolution I'm running now,
1152x864). The second I upped the refresh rate, the problems returned so I
turned it back to 60 hz which is just not high enough, the flickering is giving
me eyestrain. Whatever I've tried, it just doesn't seem to want to accept
anything higher, even though I have the display set to hide modes that the
monitor can't handle and 60, 70, 75 & 85 are the listed refresh rates.

This afternoon, I'm planning to move the monitor and tower to another part of
the house to see if it makes a difference but before I do that, I wanted to see
if anyone here may have some ideas about what the problem could be. (btw, I
don't play games on my pc, mainly e-mail, websurfing and graphics)

I did recently get a new TV that is located 3-4 feet away from the monitor and
tower, could this possibly be the problem? (it's only 2 inches bigger than the
older one, a 27") I've been pulling my hair out (figuratively) over this
problem, it's really driving me nuts and my house is small so I'm kind of
limited to where I can put my computer desk, not to mention the tv is in a
large (heavy) entertainment center which will not be fun to move, but I'll do
whatever I can to get this problem fixed.

Thanks in advance for any help, ideas or advice from all of you. I hope
someone can help me )
Michelle ;-)

Michelles Paint Shop Pro & More!
http://members.aol.com/Mish234/index.html
Original tubes, links to PSP sites, fonts, clip art, wavs and other fun stuff!

 

[Rene Lamontagne]

Hi everyone,

I've been having a problem and I'm hoping someone here can help me... first my
stats:

WinXP home, sp1
768 ram
1.7 gig P4
brand new viewsonic 19" monior
ATI Radeon 9200 128 mb graphics card (also brand new)
40 gig HD, plenty of free space.

Now for the problem ... about a month ago I started noticing display
problems. After doing a bunch of research on the web (and calling Dell even
though my service had expired with them) we determined we needed a new monitor.
The screen was shaking badly intermittently and at times, it would seem almost
as if someone shined a flashlight across it. The size of the display was also
shrinking the longer I had the monitor turned on. If it was in sleep mode long
enough,the full size would return, but after a few minutes it would shrink
again. This was a 17" monitor running 1024 x 768 with a 75 hz refresh rate.
So... I bought a new monitor, set it up, installed the viewsonic drivers and
the problem was still there...
Also, I should mention that when I right clicked the display properties and
choose properties, settings, all was ok but the second I clicked the advanced
button on the settings tab, the screen would either shrink to almost nothing or
black out, then come back. (this was without making any changes at all).

So, after the new monitor didn't fix anything we determined that the graphics
card could be the problem so I had someone install it for me on Saturday. At
the time he installed it, we also downloaded the latest drivers for the
graphics card and the new monitor at MS. After all was said & done, we still
had the same problem.

We rebooted a few times, then the screen appeared more stable but flickering
because it had defaulted to a 60 hz refresh rate. I accessed the display
properties again (but this time it accessed normally, no blacking out-I'm
guessing this may have been due to the new graphics card?) and noticed it had
set the display back to 16 bit color. I changed it back to 32 bit, hit apply,
all was fine. Then I tried upping the refresh rate to 75 hz (I was going to
try 75, then 85 which is supposedly optimal for the resolution I'm running now,
1152x864). The second I upped the refresh rate, the problems returned so I
turned it back to 60 hz which is just not high enough, the flickering is giving
me eyestrain. Whatever I've tried, it just doesn't seem to want to accept
anything higher, even though I have the display set to hide modes that the
monitor can't handle and 60, 70, 75 & 85 are the listed refresh rates.

This afternoon, I'm planning to move the monitor and tower to another part of
the house to see if it makes a difference but before I do that, I wanted to see
if anyone here may have some ideas about what the problem could be. (btw, I
don't play games on my pc, mainly e-mail, websurfing and graphics)

I did recently get a new TV that is located 3-4 feet away from the monitor and
tower, could this possibly be the problem? (it's only 2 inches bigger than the
older one, a 27") I've been pulling my hair out (figuratively) over this
problem, it's really driving me nuts and my house is small so I'm kind of
limited to where I can put my computer desk, not to mention the tv is in a
large (heavy) entertainment center which will not be fun to move, but I'll do
whatever I can to get this problem fixed.

Thanks in advance for any help, ideas or advice from all of you. I hope
someone can help me )
Michelle ;-)

Michelles Paint Shop Pro & More!
http://members.aol.com/Mish234/index.html
Original tubes, links to PSP sites, fonts, clip art, wavs and other fun stuff!

Thats a tough one Michelle, It sure would seem to be a monitor or Video card
problem, but seeing you have replaced both with new ones it kinda rules them
out.
Have you installed the latest drivers from ATI? Catalyst 3.9, also the
driver inf files from Viewsonic?
The next suggestion I would say may be a bad power supply. but this is only
an educated guess.
My 29 inch tv sits only about a foot from my system and has never intefered
with it.
Another possibility is a bad motherboard AGP slot or system, again hard to
check out.
sorry I can't help much more than that, keep us updated on any progress.

PS. You don't see me on the PSP NG anymore as I decided I have had enough of
the 3 or 4 Idiots on there, Life is too short .

 

[Michelle]

Hi Rene,

Yes, I recognized your name right away . Nice to see you're still around. I
don't go there much lately myself for the same reason but PSP opened a forum on
their site and it's not only a web forum, it can be accessed with a newsreader
using NNTP and messages are posted simultaneously to both groups Think
about coming over there, it's a lot better, although I have to say, the one
major PITA has shown up there in the last few days (I killfiled him
immediately.)

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to try moving the computer today to see if it
helps, if not, it looks like I'm going to have no choice but to bring it into a
shop :-( We did d/l the latest drivers from MS for both the card and the
monitor. I appreciate the help and I hope to see you over at the new forums

Subject: Re: help with refresh problem please
From: "Rene Lamontagne" (e-mail address removed)

Thats a tough one Michelle, It sure would seem to be a monitor or Video card
problem, but seeing you have replaced both with new ones it kinda rules them
out.
Have you installed the latest drivers from ATI? Catalyst 3.9, also the
driver inf files from Viewsonic?
The next suggestion I would say may be a bad power supply. but this is only
an educated guess.
My 29 inch tv sits only about a foot from my system and has never intefered
with it.
Another possibility is a bad motherboard AGP slot or system, again hard to
check out.
sorry I can't help much more than that, keep us updated on any progress.

PS. You don't see me on the PSP NG anymore as I decided I have had enough of
the 3 or 4 Idiots on there, Life is too short .

Michelle ;-)

Michelles Paint Shop Pro & More!
http://members.aol.com/Mish234/index.html
Original tubes, links to PSP sites, fonts, clip art, wavs and other fun stuff!

 

[TMack]

Hi everyone,

I've been having a problem and I'm hoping someone here can help me... first my
stats:

SNIP!

If I read your post correctly you have replaced both monitor and graphics
card so there are only two possibilities left. Either you have a hardware
problem elsewhere - in which case the motherboard or psu may be the culprit.
Alternatively it might be a software problem. My first guess would be the
PSU or motherboard power regulation - as soon as the card makes more than
basic demands on power, the power available is insufficient to meet the
demand which could explain the reduced display size and distortions. Use a
motherboard monitoring utility such as motherboard monitor (MBM), Hmonitor,
Mbprobe, Speedfan or similar to check the power available and whether or not
it is suficient or if it is fluctuating. If there seems to be a problem,
try replacing the psu first. If there are no apparent power problems, the
motherboard or psu might still be the problem but it might be worth
reinstalling XP first to see if that does the trick before replacing other
components.

Tony

 

[Michelle]

From: "TMack"

Thanks Tony, I'm going to have someone check these things out for me because
they're beyond my comprehension. The thing is, the monitor problem started
with my old monitor and old video card so the power demands that are new
shouldn't have affected the computer prior to the changes. (and post changes,
the situation is still the same, except that I can get the screen to be stable
at 60hz, I just get the horrible flicker at such a low refresh rate. I'll give
one of those apps you mentioned to monitor the motherboard a try. Thanks for
the advice, I appreciate it.


Michelle ;-)

Michelles Paint Shop Pro & More!
http://members.aol.com/Mish234/index.html
Original tubes, links to PSP sites, fonts, clip art, wavs and other fun stuff!

 

[Rene Lamontagne]

SNIP!

If I read your post correctly you have replaced both monitor and graphics
card so there are only two possibilities left. Either you have a hardware
problem elsewhere - in which case the motherboard or psu may be the culprit.
Alternatively it might be a software problem. My first guess would be the
PSU or motherboard power regulation - as soon as the card makes more than
basic demands on power, the power available is insufficient to meet the
demand which could explain the reduced display size and distortions. Use a
motherboard monitoring utility such as motherboard monitor (MBM), Hmonitor,
Mbprobe, Speedfan or similar to check the power available and whether or not
it is suficient or if it is fluctuating. If there seems to be a problem,
try replacing the psu first. If there are no apparent power problems, the
motherboard or psu might still be the problem but it might be worth
reinstalling XP first to see if that does the trick before replacing other
components.

Tony

Hi Michelle, Thanks, I will try PSP forums as you suggested,
Back to your problem, I concur with Tony's post as to the Hardware probably
being the culprit, but as he said it may not hurt to do a clean XP install,
Unfortunatly Dell use a proprietory Power supply and you cannot just use a
standard off the shelf ATX PSU to replace it, likewise for the motherboard.
I just did a Google newsgroup search for " monitor shakeing" and got
literaly hundreds of hits with the same type of problems, You may want to
peruse them, it may give you some things to check and try. Keep us posted,
we will try to help as much as possible

 

[Robert Pendell]

Try updating the bios. I had a very similar problem but not near as severe.
I replaced the video card and put another working monitor in place of the
one I had and it still was doing it. It appears a bios flash has now
corrected the issue for me. That may be all is required for you too. Just
a FYI, when it did start happening my voltages were rock solid stable.
Usually within 2% of where it should be.

 

[Michelle]

Thank you Robert
That was something my friend who put the video card in suggested although he
said he didn't like doing them because one wrong move and you can fry a
motherboard (his words) so there is no way a chicken like me will try it <g>.
I'll have to get someone in here to do it, it's worth a shot after everything
else I've tried. Thanks, I really appreciate your advice !

Subject: Re: help with refresh problem please
From: "Robert Pendell"

Try updating the bios. I had a very similar problem but not near as severe.
I replaced the video card and put another working monitor in place of the
one I had and it still was doing it. It appears a bios flash has now
corrected the issue for me. That may be all is required for you too. Just
a FYI, when it did start happening my voltages were rock solid stable.
Usually within 2% of where it should be.

Michelle ;-)

Michelles Paint Shop Pro & More!
http://members.aol.com/Mish234/index.html
Original tubes, links to PSP sites, fonts, clip art, wavs and other fun stuff!

 

[Michelle]

Hi Rene,

From: "Rene Lamontagne"

Hi Michelle, Thanks, I will try PSP forums as you suggested,

Good, it will be nice to see you there ;-)

Back to your problem, I concur with Tony's post as to the Hardware probably
being the culprit, but as he said it may not hurt to do a clean XP install,
Unfortunatly Dell use a proprietory Power supply and you cannot just use a
standard off the shelf ATX PSU to replace it, likewise for the motherboard.

I just did a Google newsgroup search for " monitor shakeing" and got
literaly hundreds of hits with the same type of problems, You may want to
peruse them, it may give you some things to check and try. Keep us posted,
we will try to help as much as possible
--

Thanks, but that was the first thing I did, for 2 weeks or so actually until I
ended up posting and asking for help. I spend hours and hours online reading
basically the same advice, none of which applied to me *sigh*. But I'm not
giving up yet. My eyes are but I'm not LOL. Thanks again, I appreciate the
help! )

Regards, Rene Lamontagne

(e-mail address removed)

Michelle ;-)

Michelles Paint Shop Pro & More!
http://members.aol.com/Mish234/index.html
Original tubes, links to PSP sites, fonts, clip art, wavs and other fun stuff!

 

[DaveW]

It could be a power supply unit or motherboard that is going bad.

 

[Rene Lamontagne]

It could be a power supply unit or motherboard that is going bad.

--
DaveW




even

SNIP

We are also assuming that the new monitor came equiped with a new video
cable to the video card, Most Do, If so this eliminates the cable, if not
then it could be a bad cable.
BTW Viewsonics are excellent monitors , I have had my Graphics Series G790
for four years, still sharp and bright as ever.

 

[Michelle]

Subject: Re: help with refresh problem please

From: "DaveW" (e-mail address removed)

It could be a power supply unit or motherboard that is going bad.

Thank you Dave. That seems to be what all things are leading to. I have to
say, I'll never buy another Dell <snort>. Thanks for replying


Michelle ;-)

Michelles Paint Shop Pro & More!
http://members.aol.com/Mish234/index.html
Original tubes, links to PSP sites, fonts, clip art, wavs and other fun stuff!

 

[Michelle]

Subject: Re: help with refresh problem please

From: "Rene Lamontagne"

We are also assuming that the new monitor came equiped with a new video
cable to the video card, Most Do, If so this eliminates the cable, if not
then it could be a bad cable.

Rene, the new monitor came with the cable that attaches to the tower only. I
didn't install the video card, but I'm guessing it didn't come with one either.
(and this is going by my assumption that you mean an internal cable, I'm
ignorant about these things) Could this be another thing to try (that would be
cheap for a change? ;-) TIA!

BTW Viewsonics are excellent monitors , I have had my Graphics Series G790
for four years, still sharp and bright as ever.

I agree, I replaced my old computers monitor with a viewsonic about 4 years ago
and it's still running perfectly in my sons room. Thats one reason I


Michelle ;-)

Michelles Paint Shop Pro & More!
http://members.aol.com/Mish234/index.html
Original tubes, links to PSP sites, fonts, clip art, wavs and other fun stuff!

 

[Rene Lamontagne]

Rene, the new monitor came with the cable that attaches to the tower only. I
didn't install the video card, but I'm guessing it didn't come with one either.
(and this is going by my assumption that you mean an internal cable, I'm
ignorant about these things) Could this be another thing to try (that would be
cheap for a change? ;-) TIA!


I agree, I replaced my old computers monitor with a viewsonic about 4 years ago
and it's still running perfectly in my sons room. Thats one reason I


Michelle ;-)

Michelles Paint Shop Pro & More!
http://members.aol.com/Mish234/index.html
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I Meant the big video cable which is usualy attxched to the monitor and
plugs into the back of the tower to the video card connector, it would
appear that the monitor came with one as you say (not internal cable).
Dells are ok most of the time but a real pain to upgrade due to those
prprietory parts I have upgraded a few for friends and it's always a chore.
I build my own systems and build them for friends and therefore I can choose
all components to fit requirements and budgets, It's usually not cheaper but
I get a much better machine out of it.(also it's a hobby).
Well In your case I guess I would recommend reloading XP and The 3.9
Catalyst drivers from ATI, this would eliminate all old drivers which is
very important.
Flashing the bios may also be a solution as it may have become corrupted
(unusual but not unheard of ).
If that does not help than it would nearly have to be power supply or
motherboard. :-(

 

[Michelle]

From: "Rene Lamontagne" (e-mail address removed)

I Meant the big video cable which is usualy attxched to the monitor and
plugs into the back of the tower to the video card connector, it would
appear that the monitor came with one as you say (not internal cable).

Ahhh, my stupidity, ok, gotcha ;-). Yes, the new monitor came with a new cable
so I guess that's ruled out. Bummer :-(

Dells are ok most of the time but a real pain to upgrade due to those
prprietory parts I have upgraded a few for friends and it's always a chore.
I build my own systems and build them for friends and therefore I can choose
all components to fit requirements and budgets, It's usually not cheaper but
I get a much better machine out of it.(also it's a hobby).

I've been hearing the same from others Rene. And the guy who put in my video
card & ram suggested building my own too but I think it would frustrate me too
much, but someday I just may take a class and try to learn how to do it.

Well In your case I guess I would recommend reloading XP and The 3.9
Catalyst drivers from ATI, this would eliminate all old drivers which is
very important.
Flashing the bios may also be a solution as it may have become corrupted
(unusual but not unheard of ).
If that does not help than it would nearly have to be power supply or
motherboard. :-(

--

Thanks Rene. It seems like a lot of people are suggesting the power supply.
I'm going to take a look at Dell later and see how much they cost. (if my
computer is still running that is, LOL)

Thanks for all the help & advice, I appreciate it. I probably wont be back
until after Thanksgiving (especially since I'm cooking) and I don't know if you
celebrate it but if you do, have a Happy Thanksgiving! (and if you don't, have
a nice Thursday? ;-) (my lame attempt to be funny, don't mind me, I've been
cooking for 2 days and it isn't over yet ;-) Thanks again! I'll let you know
what happens!

Regards, Rene Lamontagne

(e-mail address removed)

Michelle ;-)

Michelles Paint Shop Pro & More!
http://members.aol.com/Mish234/index.html
Original tubes, links to PSP sites, fonts, clip art, wavs and other fun stuff!

 

[Rene Lamontagne]

Thanks for all the help & advice, I appreciate it. I probably wont be back
until after Thanksgiving (especially since I'm cooking) and I don't know if you
celebrate it but if you do, have a Happy Thanksgiving! (and if you don't, have
a nice Thursday? ;-) (my lame attempt to be funny, don't mind me, I've been
cooking for 2 days and it isn't over yet ;-) Thanks again! I'll let you know
what happens!




Michelle ;-)

Michelles Paint Shop Pro & More!
http://members.aol.com/Mish234/index.html
Original tubes, links to PSP sites, fonts, clip art, wavs and other fun stuff!

And you and your family have a wonderfull Thanksgiving, We celebrate it in
October(Canada) and yes it was a great day with good food.
Till later.