gfx problem: black flashes zotac 7300le 128Mb - ideas please?

[kbobiller]

Hiya - first post, so let me know if it's a load of cr*p.

I have a Zotac 7300LE 128Mb (512Mb turbo cache) PCIe video card. It has DVI and VGA connectors, TV out (not used), passive heatsink yadda yadda; when installed in PC using the DVI the screen goes black like it's lost the signal and then comes back; it lasts for perhaps 2 seconds, not long enough for the display to go to powersave mode or display the "no signal" message. Using the VGA connector the screen does not go black, instead it gives a little "shimmy" which looks like every other scan line is yanked a bit to the left and then a bit to the right; again it lasts for less than 2 seconds. This is less annoying but still noticable; it only happens every 10 minutes or so; though sometimes it will happen much more often that that, perhaps once a minute. It will do it right away from power-on so I don't think it's heat; it does it in the BIOS screens so I don't think its drivers; it does it on 2 different motherboards (both asus, one a VIA 890 chipset, the other an Intel 965), both are 16xPCIe slots.

So now I'm stumped; I'm also going to email this to Zotac euro support to see if they have any ideas; I've searched the web for anything similar and found stuff about flashing to black with nvidia drivers but not really a good fit to my problem.

Anybody help!?

If you need any more details just let me know.

cheers,
Bob.

[s_kinton]

My first thought was the cable, but you've tried both vga and DVI connected. If it does it in the BIOS screen, then it cant be drivers. So, either your card is faulty, or the monitor connector or the monitor itself is faulty.

Have you tried the same card and cables, but connected to a different monitor?

What monitor are you using?

[kbobiller]

The monitor is a Benq 19" FP91G+ which has served me faithfully for over a year with a number of different video cards and PCs, none of which have ever done this. I'll try it on a different display when I get home, and I'll bring it into work tomorrow and try it on some Dell 1905FP, VGA and DVI. I've got the .inf update on for the Benq for the timing as recommended by Windows Update.

Currently I'm putting my hopes onto an RMA to Zotac...

hey ho.

*Update* got a reply to my email from Zotac; they say
"Hi Steve,
It sounds like your card is faulty. You can contact the shop you bought your card from and ask for a replacement, as the card comes with two years warranty. "
...so I'm going to badger them for a replacement. Will let you know how I get on.
Bob