Strange Video behavior overheating or power problems?

[louise]

Running a Dell Dimension 8200, 2.8 with 1024 RDRAM.
Windows XP home.

I've recently had some very strange monitor behavior which
I don't think is actually coming from the monitor which is
a two year old Sony 21" CRT. Using an ATI 8500 which was
recently replaced by ATI because the fan started making
terrible noises.

My monitor will suddenly start to lose it's picture as if
the power plug was pulled but it comes right back in at
most, one second and never goes completely - it just sort
of shrinks and then returns. This happens infrequently (a
few times a day at most)- but it never used to happen at
all.

Tonight the whole screen started going out of focus and
then coming back in, only to go out again.

I checked all the wiring and changed things around a bit in
terms of what is plugged into which extension etc. At the
moment it seems ok but I don't think I've solved it.

I'm running a Dell Dimension 8200. The AGP slot is too
close to the next slot which holds a full size Creative SB
Live card.

I'm thinking of moving the sound card to another slot and
moving a smaller card such as my modem card into the slot
next to the ATI. Think it's worth it?

Could heat cause the video to suddenly lose clarity and
then return a minute later etc.? Or is this the result of
a power problem on the line?

I have a small AC plugged into the same line. The line is
on a 20 amp fuse in an old apartment building in NY. I had
the same electrical setup last year and had no trouble.

Any ideas as to what is the most likely culprit?

TIA

Louise

 

[Themroc]

That´s a high voltage collapse due to arcing.(especially if the picture needs
some time to stabilize afterwards,like if you switch the crt on).I had a
monitor doing this about once in 15hrs,which didn´t bother me much,but after
about 3yrs something finally got damaged(in your case much sooner)