MSD

eMachines C2782 (don't give me shit about it, I didn't buy it)
AMD Athlon XP+ 2700
256MB PC2700 DDR 60ns No ECC Std EDO
XP Home w/ all SPs and updates
S3 UniChrome onboard video (it's bad if I have never heard of it)

Playing Diablo II, display turns into wavy horizontal lines, then snow crashes. I had previously diagnosed the monitor with a bad power supply, due to random shutoff that caused the display to fade to a bright blue/white vertical line, then to a dot, then off. I tried it again, and it mysteriously started working. I'm guesssing the internal power supply is overheating.

I subsequently tried 5 other monitors, none of which was newer than 10 years old, and had the same happen with each, sometimes taking as long as 30 seconds to develop the problem.

I'm getting a new monitor, but I'm sort of concerned about frying that, too. Is it possible that something as simple as a refresh rate that worked on the original monitor is causing the others to bug out?




P.S. I'm using my other computer to type this, stop wondering how I'm posting this.

Fearless_Hyena

Some monitors are more sensitive to resolution and refresh rate settings than others. Certain monitors get screwed up if they're "overclocked" -- i.e. set to a refresh rate & color depth that they're not designed for.

Monitors don't have drivers per se but they do have driver files you can download which setup the resolution, refresh rate & color profile that the monitor is spec'ed out for. So first make sure you have latest video drivers and then find the monitor driver from the support section of your monitor's manufacturer.

Unless your card or monitor(s) are defective, you should be good to go.

BTW I'm not familiar with the "snow crashes" you're talking about, you don't mean like TV snow do you?

saltfish

Older monitors are not built to take higher frequancies from videocards. If you synch rate is too high, your monitor will TRY to display the signal; newer monitors are built to not display the signal if they are over-synched.

Sounds like you used too high of a refresh rate on an old monitor that was not designed for such rates.

We used to blow up old monitors by trying to write code that would change the refresh to >200Hz. Many old monitors designed to shut off the input when the refresh freq went over-limit, the result, fried monitor... and SMOKE!

-SF

mikec

is this why your username is MrSelfDestruct? hehehhe

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bacon_masta

you just need a newer monitor, i have a thinkpad that has a bad lcd running xp pro, but when i hooked it up to a 9 year old monitor monitor one of my friends had (60 hz) it worked for a few seconds, then did exactly what you described. i don't know enough about onboard vid cards to help you out with anything there, but i think you should be safe with a more recent monitor

Elitegibson

Try booting into VGA mode and resetting the refresh rate. Then you might stop nuking ancient monitors.

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-Erik

Stupid people shouldn't breed.

Kllr Wolf

Your cure will defnatily to use neweer monitors. Like others have mentioned, if you run an older monitor above it capablitlies they stat acting funny and die.

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MSD

Yep, TV-style snow.



Just so you can all have closure for the story, I just got a new monitor and it works fine. The others (all 1992-1994 manufacture dates) are getting a long overdue trip to the dumpster.