My system kills monitors!

[hayek]

Hey all,
I have a home built system that has been stable with no problems for the last year or so. I tried to upgrade my (very) old 17” lcd monitor to a dell 22” E228WFP. Within a few days the display began to wobble/shimmer and the screen blacked out briefly, and returned and did this a few times, before finally dying and the monitor no longer recognised the vga data cable input.

I got the monitor replaced after troubleshooting with dell (trying different machines and cables). 4 months later the same thing happened with the replacement. So again I got it changed, thinking I may have been extremely unlucky. 3rd replacement failed the same day it was delivered. Dell were very good and offered a refund, despite the fact it was quite clear it wasn’t the monitor. So I have since bought a Samsung 22” (SM223BW) which I received today and it has begun doing the wobbly display thing, so I have disconnected it before it dies. Anybody have any ideas what is causing this?

My 17” lcd has been fine for 3-4 years, and still works fine with the machine with no hint of a problem. CPU/ graphics temps are low so they don’t seem to be a problem and like I have said, the system if completely stable with the other monitor. Many thanks for any insight, spec below:

Mobo: ASUS P5B-E Plus S775
CPU: C2D E6300 w/ Scythe Ninja heatsink
PSU: Antec Neo HE 500w
Graphics: Xfx 7600gt 256mb
HDD: Western Digital 250gb
RAM: Cossair DDR2 PC-5400 2X1GB

Everything running at stock, (though graphics card is factory-overclocked)

Sorry for long post, wanted to cover everything!

[peterb]

First thought is that you are driving the monitor at less (or more) than its native resolution.

[hayek]

Wow, that's some quick response! Thanks.
I'm running at native, 1680x1050, so I don't think that's the problem. Refresh rate of 60hz (the dropdown menu gives a choice of 59 & 60) don't know if that's relavent!

[Splash]

Where is your monitor sat in proximity to the PC? Do you have a Microwave or anything similar on the other side of a wall close to it? How about unshielded speakers?

[peterb]

Unshielded speakers won't affect a TFT panel....

Other possibilities might be mains power voltage, or perhaps overheating. Is the monitor near a radiator or other source of heat?

[Splash]

Unshielded speakers won't affect a TFT panel....

Other possibilities might be mains power voltage, or perhaps overheating. Is the monitor near a radiator or other source of heat?

I know that this is in theory the case, however personal experience tells me otherwise... As it's not looking like the monitor is being driven at resolutions beyond what it's capable of I'm definitely thinking it's environmental.

[peterb]

I suppose a strong magnetic field might affect the backlight... I agree with you that it is likely to be environmental though, temperature is the other possibility.

[hayek]

Thanks for the input,

No microwaves, but I do have speakers, (see pic) although I don't know if they are 'unshielded'.
However, I'm a Uni student, and when I am at uni the system has very small speakers (where the monitor failed twice). So I wouldn't expect that was the problem, but not certain! I can't see cooling being the problem, internal temps are low (high 30s for cpu and 40s for graphics) room is cold too and I haven't been putting the system under load or anything, simple admin work at the moment.

What about the mains power, how might that effect it? Again, having had the system in two different locations might mitigate this as the issue. It's a bit of a puzzle to me!

EDIT: can't post pics yet, will upload after a few more posts/if its still relavent. (its a 4.1 speaker setup with the subwoofer below the desk and 2 satellites next to the monitor)

EDIT: radiator isn't close, and is off nevertheless.

[Splash]

Is your PC sitting next to the monitor, or further apart? If next to it can you move them apart and see if this rectifies the issue?

re power - are you using a surge protector or similar to ensure a clean supply of electricity? Is everything running off a million 4-gangs? Is it possibly cold enough to cause condensation inside the body of the monitor? Please be aware I'm not trying to insinuate anything, just throwing possible reasons at you

[hayek]

Thanks for all this help!

PC is on the floor next to desk, so there is a bit of distance. At uni, it is on the desk, inches away from the monitor.

Monitor is straight into wall socket, everything else is on an extension, cardinal sin im sure

I'm struggling to see what you could be insinuating! but either way, im not a million miles from York; a fellow northener, so it isn't THAT cool. I would guess room is just under 20 degrees.

A new development, which may make things clearer:
After continuing to search for solutions, I decided to try the monitor on another system. Previously I had tried my Dell monitors on a different system, but only after they had failed. In heidsight, assuming something had blown, then they wouldn't have worked no matter what I tried. So I am currently using the new monitor (no problems as yet) on this system. But it is in a different location in my house (so I assume that still can't be ruled out) ... and if it is a graphics card problem or similar, then it still doesn't explain how my 17" works fine all day and night.

And lastly, if it is graphics card or something, then I have a bad feeling warranty has run out literally a week or so ago

[Splash]

I'd find it difficult to believe that it would be the graphics card causing it to be honest. As for the temperature thing I was thinking more along the lines of if you had the monitor close to a windows that mists up: if so I guess there's a chance that condensation could be forming inside the panel which may cause problems.

As for insinuation I was basically saying that I'm not trying to say that you *are* running a billion 4-gangs in series to run it, which might cause a problem, rather that it's just another thing to rule out.

I'll have a ponder and see if there's anything else I can think of that could be causing the issue.

[Jay]

could be a bad earth in the case sending voltage down the copper wire to your monitor maybe?

[hayek]

Splash: It won't be the window theory, not very close. Plus it started to exhibit the problems pretty quickly today and nevertheless, again it's a different situation whilst at uni.

Jay: Cheers for the idea, would that be concerning mobo stand-offs and the like? Would that not be the same situation for my old monitor as well as my new one?

As an update, the new monitor has been attached to (this) alternative system all afternoon/evening, and there hasn't been any signs of a problem. Equally, I left my old 17" attached to my proper system, and that has been fine too... this makes no sense! Could the 22" Samsung & Dell monitors be putting more strain, or drawing more power than the 17" some how? Doesn't seem likely to me.

[finnrogers]

Never seen a problem like this before but in theory, if you gfx card was somehow faulty, it could be struggling to output a correct signal at the higher res of the newer monitors but fine with 17 incher. The incorrect signal could maybe be causing the monitors to malfunction...

Just a theory as I say, I've never seen that before but you could easily rule this out by trying a different gfx card in your rig (assuming it's the gfx card and not a power supply or motherboard issue CAUSING your gfx card to send bad signals at higher resolutions in turn causing the monitors to malfunction...(phew!))

It's the only thing I can think of that would explain how it doesn't affect your 17" screen but has affected so many higher res screens (4 so far?!)

[hayek]

Thanks,
It does seem very strange; I was impressed Dell were willing to keep trying! After the refund they didn't even bother sending a courier to colect the final one. If only I could fix it

Annoyingly, the 3 other systems I have here are all agp!

[switchmode]

What a strange thing I would not think its the GFX card output is low power etc. It could be a power problem feeding the monitor a loose power lead or plug block with a loose connection slightly arcing and damaging the monitor did you use a new mains lead or the old one from your previous monitor ? It might be a bad batch of monitors supplied. Its a strange one.