Monitor problem?

[Frank Booth Snr]

Over the past 2 months, a fault seems to have developed with my
monitor which is a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 720, nearly 10 years old,
but still a very good picture.

Whenever the computer goes into hibernation or standby mode, and I
power off the monitor, then come back later and switch it back on, the
standby light is blinking, instead of being a constant amber. Any
attempt to bring the monitor back to life (moving mouse or hitting
keyboard) will not shift the monitor out of its blinking standby
state. If I switch off the monitor disconnect the power and disconnect
it from my PC, then just reconnect the power and switch the monitor on
again it is still is in the blinking state. What should happen is a
constant standby light.

The only success I have had in restoring the monitor back to normal is
to disconnect the graphics card cable at the monitor end then power up
my PC and immediately push the cable back in while the monitor light
stays green. This sometimes works but not always. If it works then the
monitor stays an and all is fine. But sometimes, even when the monitor
does switch on normally, it will behave for a couple of minutes, then
the picture will fade and the blinking standby mode is resumed. When
that happens, switching the monitor power button off for a few
minutes, then on can solve the problem, but more often than not it
doesn't.

I suppose the obvious solution is never switch off the monitor power
button while the PC is in standby/hibernation, but as explained even
if I do that when constant standby light is on, when the monitor wakes
up it can often resort to the blinking standby state 2 minutes later.

My main suspect is the cable or even the monitor itself. After all why
does it stay in the blinking state when disconnected from the PC and
its power switched off then on again.

Any ideas?

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

Over the past 2 months, a fault seems to have developed with my
monitor which is a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 720, nearly 10 years old,
but still a very good picture.

Whenever the computer goes into hibernation or standby mode, and I
power off the monitor, then come back later and switch it back on, the
standby light is blinking, instead of being a constant amber. Any
attempt to bring the monitor back to life (moving mouse or hitting
keyboard) will not shift the monitor out of its blinking standby
state. If I switch off the monitor disconnect the power and disconnect
it from my PC, then just reconnect the power and switch the monitor on
again it is still is in the blinking state. What should happen is a
constant standby light.

The only success I have had in restoring the monitor back to normal is
to disconnect the graphics card cable at the monitor end then power up
my PC and immediately push the cable back in while the monitor light
stays green. This sometimes works but not always. If it works then the
monitor stays an and all is fine. But sometimes, even when the monitor
does switch on normally, it will behave for a couple of minutes, then
the picture will fade and the blinking standby mode is resumed. When
that happens, switching the monitor power button off for a few
minutes, then on can solve the problem, but more often than not it
doesn't.

I suppose the obvious solution is never switch off the monitor power
button while the PC is in standby/hibernation, but as explained even
if I do that when constant standby light is on, when the monitor wakes
up it can often resort to the blinking standby state 2 minutes later.

My main suspect is the cable or even the monitor itself. After all why
does it stay in the blinking state when disconnected from the PC and
its power switched off then on again.

Any ideas?

The problem could also be your video card as well as a partially corrupted
operating system.
You can rule out the operating system by booting one of the Live Linux CD's.
If you don't have one you can download and burn one from
http://www.livecdlist.com/.

I have had pretty good luck with "Puppy Linux" and the "Ultimate Boot CD"
when testing something like this. All that counts is that it is able to
boot a couple times in a row in this case with no problems.

Testing the monitor and cable on another computer or trying another video
card should rule out either of them as the culprit.

 

[Frank Booth Snr]

The problem could also be your video card as well as a partially corrupted
operating system.
You can rule out the operating system by booting one of the Live Linux CD's.
If you don't have one you can download and burn one fromhttp://www.livecdlist.com/.

I have had pretty good luck with "Puppy Linux" and the "Ultimate Boot CD"
when testing something like this. All that counts is that it is able to
boot a couple times in a row in this case with no problems.

Testing the monitor and cable on another computer or trying another video
card should rule out either of them as the culprit.

I don't think it can be the operating system. Anything wrong with that
and all kinds of crashes or error messages would prevail. Besides the
Event Viewer isn't showing anything abnormal, neither is Device
Manager.. I did suspect the video card, but again if anything was
wrong with that, I'd have a problem all the time, with strange
graphics or no picture at all.. At the moment the monitor's working
fine.

 

[Grinder]

I don't think it can be the operating system. Anything wrong with that
and all kinds of crashes or error messages would prevail. Besides the
Event Viewer isn't showing anything abnormal, neither is Device
Manager.. I did suspect the video card, but again if anything was
wrong with that, I'd have a problem all the time, with strange
graphics or no picture at all.. At the moment the monitor's working
fine.

At any rate, you can easily test if the OS is causing a problem by using
the aforementioned LiveCD, without having to speculate.

 

[Gorby]

At any rate, you can easily test if the OS is causing a problem by using
the aforementioned LiveCD, without having to speculate.

Ooh! I had this behaviour with Vista RTM. Vista SP1 fixed it.

I'm trying to remember how I got over it, but it's disappeared like a
bad nightmare.

I think it was to do with Vista forgetting the Plug and Play ID from the
monitor after resuming. I used to do something, like rebooting and
forcing it to go into Safe Mode. Safe Mode runs with a different video
resolution, so Vista would re-ask for the plug&play ID then it would be
OK. Just reboot, then all OK.

Or did I simply press the logoff key on the keyboard. Sorry, I really
don't remember.