Funky Monitor Problem...
 

I hope I can describe this well, but ever since I moved in to my place at school my monitor has been acting a little bit strangely and I can't figure out why.

It's not flickering, but it's sort of like that. If you can imagine, the screen is obviously (almost) a square (you know what I mean) and very slowly - almost unnoticeably - it rotates clockwise and gets darker. Now, like I said, this is very slow, so it doesn't get very far at all - in fact I probably wouldn't even notice it, until it jerks back to its proper position and returns to its proper brightness. It does this perhaps about every 1-2 minutes or so.

I've fiddled with the cables, making sure everything is fully plugged in, and it still does it. It didn't do this before I moved in.

Any ideas as to what could be wrong? I really hope I don't need a new monitor or anything - my taste in monitors is expensive :(

That sounds expensive... it could be anything from a magnet nearby, to the monitor being a week away from blowing up.
Many monitor fabricants have a 3-year warranty where they exchange the screen if you have a problem. Check out if that's the case.

yeah I agree with hu-man.
Try with another monitor (from you roommate or friend) and see if it works better.

Ive seen that before. most likely magnetic interference. since its rotating clockwise, look at everything to the right of the monitor. if you can find no obvious source of magnetism, try repositioning the monitor in another part of the room and observe the results.

goood monitors have internal calibration for trapezoid and rotation, its possible the control for the rotation is getting flakey and drifting. most likely its an internal fault on one of the controller boards.

whats the model number ?

Are you getting good power to it from the wall outlet?

It's a Viewsonic G90f

As far as something magnetic having an effect, I looked all around and couldn't find anything that I think has magnetic properties, let alone strong ones, around the monitor.

I haven't had a chance to try a new outlet yet, but I did check to make sure all cords were completely plugged in, etc.

Thanks for the ideas everyone

Go into you monitor menu find "Degauss" See if that fixes it.

hehe, yeah I definitely tried that ;) Thanks though

Are there any fans or speakers/subwoofers near your monitor? That would definitely cause it.

-Lasereth

Magnetic interference is one possibility.

FedEx dropped my SGI GDM-90W11 (24" CRT that weighs about 70 pounds) and it rotated clockwise very slowly thereafter. I am guessing your monitor might have suffered similar mishandling.

It is VERY important to handle a monitor very carefully and smoothly. It may be heavy, but it's still relatively fragile.

I have a subwoofer but it's sitting on the floor, so I really don't think it's close enough to cause any problems. I suppose when I get back to school I could try moving it. Speakers are near it, but they've always been and never caused this trouble before.

When I moved, I made sure to take very good care of it. Sure, there was a slightly bumpy ride, but I certainly didn't drop it or bang it anywhere.

It's a thought thouugh.

Thanks for all the ideas, this gives me some stuff to look into when I get back to school tonight.

Re: the 3 year warrenty, I'm not so sure that I still have the receipt for the monitor unfortunately :( Think there's any way they would still honor it?

My best guess is that you have the monitor in a spot near strong EMF or there is a lot of EMF radiation in your new spot.

I have this same exact problem at work. Found out that the cause of this was the subway station that is under my building.
The "solution" to this problem is to get a LCD monitor, although newer monitors seem to be better sheilded to prevent this.

The cheapest thing to try is moving the monitor do a different spot and see if that fixes it, it's possible that the other side of a wall has a microwave or something that is causeing the interference. Either way good luck.

If it got bumped around on the way to school, shielding inside of the box may have shifted or come lose. Try moving your speakers three feet away and seeing if it helps. If the subwoofer is any closer than it has been, try moving it away, 3 feet can still cause problems. If there's an air conditioning unit on the roof, and you're on the top floor, that could be doing it, and it snaps back to normal when it cycles off. If any of these does turn out to be the problem, you should look into getting some sort of magnetic shield around the monitor. Of course by magnetic shield, I mean sheet metal.

Another thing to do is check not only the current from the outlet, but make sure it's 60hz A/C and not dropping too low. Also, check to see if your monitor's switch was set to 220v instead of 110. I had an odd problem where the frequency of the curren tdropped too low due to a transformer problem, and the monitor would get progressively worse until it reset itself and degaussed.

In my case, the droppage resulted in the face of the monitor coming off partially at the top. That could not happen unless they dropped it quite a bit. So if you're sure you were careful not to let it fall more than about 2-3 inches it should be able to survive a car trip.

Regarding warranties, I know I've gotten hard drive manufacturers to replace the drive without proof of purchase. So perhaps Viewsonic will do the same for the monitor, especially since you have a relatively good one.

I feel your pain too, my taste in monitors is also expensive. Resolution & refresh rate is king for me (so I'm not moving to LCDs yet either).

i'd be very suprised if it was caused by an EMF since its getting darker as it rotates, then snaps back, and it sounds like its happening uniformly, i stil think its a fault with one of the head or calibration boards, its hard to diagnose without seeing it and or poking around inside it with a scope.

Couldn't find a manual for it online, you might want to call around local shops and get a repair estimate, often its a lot cheaper than you'd think.

A lot of stores will take it back sans receipt for a repair, just not a refund, viewsonic themselves might warranty it.

Most monitor manufaturers will go by the build date on the back of the monitor if you don't have the receipt. Just look at the back of it and see if there is a build date near the serial number.

Thanks for the help everyone - I think I'll try giving Viewsonic a call sometime today.

I cut off power to my speakers to see if that would have an effect, just in case, but there was no change. I also tried plugging it directly into the outlet rather than through my surge protector, but that didn't change anything - maybe I'lllug the whole comp over to another outlet to test it out sometime tonight, but that's more work than I feel like doing in my hour break between classes ;)

Interesting you mention the subway - My comp is on a desk against a wall which faces the El (Chicago's elevated train). I am about 2 floors above it however. I guess we'll see if maybe moving it to the other side of the room does anything then!

EDIT: Well...I think I found the source of my problem :(

I was using my roommate's computer - which is about 10 feet or so away from the same side of the building my computer is against - the one that faces the El - and I was going to look into warrenty information and customer support from viewsonic. No sooner did I open the viewsonic website, that I noticed his monitor doing the exact same thing mine has been doing :( The exact same, barely noticeable but enough to annoy you, screen location instability. So, I guess it's probably the El that's causing it then...but now I don't know what the solution is, if there even is one :( I certainly don't feel like surrounding my monitor with ugly sheet metal and taking up all my desk space :(

Hmmm....I'm getting a little worried that this may permanently damage my monitor. I mean, I have no proof of it, but it just seems like it can't be good to have EM fields going through it every time a train passes by.

Is this something I should be concerned about? Or is it alright? And, either way, are there any reasonable methods to blocking the monitor from EMFs?