Monitor shuts off on older computer

[Steve Pope]

I have a new Samsung 216BW monitor, which works correctly
with the modern computer I normally use it with. However,
I sometimes want to connect it to the VGA port of an
older machine. When I do this, the display works for
about a minute then shuts off displaying a "suboptimal
resolution" message. I have to power cycle the monitor.

I'm not worried about the resolution setting being wrong --
it still displays okay -- but how do I get it to keep
from shutting off?

(Hopefully I explained this adequately, it's a little
hard to describe.)

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Steve Pope]

According to the manual:

you can get the "not optimum mode" message if something has happened to the
signal, or the signal is out of range. I don't know why that would be
affected by power cycling the monitor.

Is the display set to 60 Hz (in the old PC's control panel)? The 216BW is
spec'd to allow 75 Hz, but 60 should be safe. I have no idea why the monitor
should run for any length of time at all with an out-of-range signal, but
it's worth a look.

Good luck.

Thanks. As another point of information, this monitor does
not exhibit the shutting-off problem with a different,
not quite as old computer also set for a "non optimum" resolution
(i.e. 1280 x 1024, when the monitor wants 1680 x 1050).
It is only with this very old computer (which I still wish
to use sometimes) that the problem occurs. I'm thinking it
has a quite old rev of the VGA spec on its display card.

Steve

 

[Steve Pope]

You missed the important part of his advice. The resolution is essentially
irrelevant. It's the refresh rate you need to look at. If the old computer
is set to 75Hz, but fluctuates, that could explain why the monitor gives up
after a minute. Make sure the refresh on the old computer is set to 60Hz.

Thanks, sorry for being a bit slow here. I'll look at the
refresh rate.

Steve

 

[Steve Pope]

Thanks, sorry for being a bit slow here. I'll look at the
refresh rate.

That did seem to be the problem. I had to go into
safe mode to get it to function well enough that I could
reset the refresh rate, which I may have had at some very
high setting like 85 Hz.

Thanks for your help!

Steve