Windows 7 freezes, monitor goes black

[Jerry]

Hi,

I am having a problem with a new PC and monitor. Soon after installing
the monitor (Dell U2412m) the screen went black even though the power
light was still on. I had to restart using the power button on the PC.
I then updated the driver for the video card and made sure that I had
installed the driver for the monitor. Although it flickered from time
to time, the monitor stayed on for a day or so functioning well.

Then this morning it went black again. The monitor does not power down
as it would if it weren't receiving a signal. I tried to reboot using
the keyboard but the PC would not respond and I had to use the PC power
button again.

Could this be a Windows problem? Bad video card? Or does it sound like
a faulty monitor? I am stumped as how to proceed. My instinct is to
have Newegg replace the monitor, but I can't be sure that is where the
problem is.

Jerry

 

[Paul]

Hi,

I am having a problem with a new PC and monitor. Soon after installing
the monitor (Dell U2412m) the screen went black even though the power
light was still on. I had to restart using the power button on the PC.
I then updated the driver for the video card and made sure that I had
installed the driver for the monitor. Although it flickered from time
to time, the monitor stayed on for a day or so functioning well.

Then this morning it went black again. The monitor does not power down
as it would if it weren't receiving a signal. I tried to reboot using
the keyboard but the PC would not respond and I had to use the PC power
button again.

Could this be a Windows problem? Bad video card? Or does it sound like
a faulty monitor? I am stumped as how to proceed. My instinct is to
have Newegg replace the monitor, but I can't be sure that is where the
problem is.

Jerry

"Although it flickered from time to time"

Yeah, that sounds good Loose power cord ? I had a monitor,
where the power cord wouldn't stay seated. (Power cord wasn't
a captive one, on that monitor.)

Do you have a second monitor you can use ? If the video card
has two connectors on the faceplate, run a second monitor. Enter
the Display control panel, and set up spanned mode if you want.
The idea is, to have a working display subsystem with the two monitors.
If the new Dell goes black, while the other monitor remains on, then
the monitor appears to be the issue. If both monitors go black,
the video card could have crashed. What I'd do, is arrange
the left-hand-side of the spanned desktop, to be on the "good" monitor,
so you can shut down properly if the right-hand monitor disappears.

But the flickering to me, sounds like a sign. That the
monitor is heading back to Newegg.

Some monitors, only have DVI on them. Then, the only type of
test you can do, is with DVI. If the monitor also had a VGA
connector, you could switch to VGA and see if it stays up.
(VGA is the "old fashioned 15 pin video connector".)
That might demonstrate, that the monitor functions correctly,
but has a problem with DVI. But it might also mean, that
even a replacement monitor would have a problem on the DVI
side. You need to check reviews for the monitor, and see if
there are any reports of hardware combinations that don't work.
It happens occasionally.

If your computer had motherboard video, as well as a separate
video card, you could also test with a different video source.
You didn't mention the computer, or the video card being used.
So there may be more testing possibilities.

But based on the flickering, I'd say there's a good chance
it's going back.

You might want to check Event Viewer, and see if anything
video related has been logged. If it was the video card driver
doing it, you could "roll back" the video driver, using Device
Manager, then retest. I presume you got this video driver,
straight from Nvidia or ATI, and not from some downloader site...

Paul

 

[Don Phillipson]

I am having a problem with a new PC and monitor. Soon after installing
the monitor (Dell U2412m) the screen went black even though the power
light was still on. I had to restart using the power button on the PC. I
then updated the driver for the video card and made sure that I had
installed the driver for the monitor. Although it flickered from time to
time, the monitor stayed on for a day or so functioning well.

Then this morning it went black again.

You need first to locate whether the fault is in the monitor or the
PC. If (with the PC switched off) the monitor displays its full
repertoire of menus and functions, you can be sure the fault is
in the PC. You then have to plan a series of tests in logical
order, as in "PC Help Desk in a Book" (Osborne Press.)

 

[charlie]

Hi,

I am having a problem with a new PC and monitor. Soon after installing
the monitor (Dell U2412m) the screen went black even though the power
light was still on. I had to restart using the power button on the PC.
I then updated the driver for the video card and made sure that I had
installed the driver for the monitor. Although it flickered from time
to time, the monitor stayed on for a day or so functioning well.

Then this morning it went black again. The monitor does not power down
as it would if it weren't receiving a signal. I tried to reboot using
the keyboard but the PC would not respond and I had to use the PC power
button again.

Could this be a Windows problem? Bad video card? Or does it sound like
a faulty monitor? I am stumped as how to proceed. My instinct is to
have Newegg replace the monitor, but I can't be sure that is where the
problem is.

Jerry

Some ATI/AMD video cards capable of driving multiple displays can be the
cause of similar problems. The most likely cause is display related.

The monitor should, if it's working, be capable of displaying it's setup
menus, even if disconnected from the P/C.

 

[GreyCloud]

Hi,

I am having a problem with a new PC and monitor. Soon after installing
the monitor (Dell U2412m) the screen went black even though the power
light was still on. I had to restart using the power button on the PC.
I then updated the driver for the video card and made sure that I had
installed the driver for the monitor. Although it flickered from time
to time, the monitor stayed on for a day or so functioning well.

Then this morning it went black again. The monitor does not power down
as it would if it weren't receiving a signal. I tried to reboot using
the keyboard but the PC would not respond and I had to use the PC power
button again.

Could this be a Windows problem? Bad video card? Or does it sound like
a faulty monitor? I am stumped as how to proceed. My instinct is to
have Newegg replace the monitor, but I can't be sure that is where the
problem is.

Jerry

Best to talk to Dell about this problem. If it is a new PC as you say,
you should use your warranty with Dell. I know it isn't a windows problem.

 

[Jerry]

Some ATI/AMD video cards capable of driving multiple displays can be the
cause of similar problems. The most likely cause is display related.

The monitor should, if it's working, be capable of displaying it's setup
menus, even if disconnected from the P/C.

The monitor does indeed show its setup menus so perhaps it is the PC.
And the video card is a AMD Sapphire Radeon HD6670 in a PC put together
by Micro Express.

The problem computer belongs to a friend, but I have exactly the same
monitor and video card in a Micro Express PC and everything is running
smoothly. I am going there tomorrow. I can try a previous suggestion
of disabling the video card and using the onboard graphics although it
sometimes takes a couple of days for the problem to kick in.

And I suppose I should open her up and make sure that the video card is
seated firmly. Maybe something shook loose while it made the journey
from California to New York City.

At least it doesn't seem to be Windows related so I can rule that out.
That leaves either the monitor or the video card and that is off topic
for this group.

Thanks for the help.

Jerry

 

[John Williamson]

The monitor does indeed show its setup menus so perhaps it is the PC.
And the video card is a AMD Sapphire Radeon HD6670 in a PC put together
by Micro Express.

That sounds as if the monitor is losing its input signal.

The problem computer belongs to a friend, but I have exactly the same
monitor and video card in a Micro Express PC and everything is running
smoothly. I am going there tomorrow. I can try a previous suggestion
of disabling the video card and using the onboard graphics although it
sometimes takes a couple of days for the problem to kick in.

And I suppose I should open her up and make sure that the video card is
seated firmly. Maybe something shook loose while it made the journey
from California to New York City.

That sounds like the second thing I would have tried, to be honest. The
first would have been checking the monitor cable. Marginal positioning
of the video card in its slot can easily cause annoyingly intermittent
video problems.

 

[charlie]

The monitor does indeed show its setup menus so perhaps it is the PC.
And the video card is a AMD Sapphire Radeon HD6670 in a PC put together
by Micro Express.

The problem computer belongs to a friend, but I have exactly the same
monitor and video card in a Micro Express PC and everything is running
smoothly. I am going there tomorrow. I can try a previous suggestion
of disabling the video card and using the onboard graphics although it
sometimes takes a couple of days for the problem to kick in.

And I suppose I should open her up and make sure that the video card is
seated firmly. Maybe something shook loose while it made the journey
from California to New York City.

At least it doesn't seem to be Windows related so I can rule that out.
That leaves either the monitor or the video card and that is off topic
for this group.

Thanks for the help.

Jerry

It's possible that the monitor is not plugged into the default port on
the video card. If this is the case, you will likely not see the BIOS
boot up info. Since it's a Dell, this info may be sparse or even not
shown by default.

Anyway, my experience was that the AMD drivers may not properly
determine the active monitor port if that port is not the default port.

I might think that this might be due to the initial power state of a
particular monitor when the system is in the boot process, but have
nothing other than supposition to go on. If it were possible to somehow
determine that the problem is associated with either an individual
monitor, or a particular model, I'd be much happier.

Another gotcha on some monitors is in the monitor setup settings.
Seems that these may cause the video card to not detect the monitor
properly, and go to a default mode which may not match the monitor
properly. (monitor input mode, and resolution settings are among the
things that can be involved in the "mismatch".
Some of the older model LCD monitors, or low end LCD monitors were among
the worst offenders.

The last time I ran into this was with the P/C I'm currently using with
an ASUS monitor and a HD5770 video card. The problems started when I
added a second card (crossfire) and updated the video drivers. The final
cure was to determine which card was the primary card, and which port
was the default port. The original card due to the slot it is in,
became the secondary card when two cards were present. The driver update
changed the default port on the new card from what I had been using with
the original card. ?????

 

[Jerry]

That sounds as if the monitor is losing its input signal.

That sounds like the second thing I would have tried, to be honest. The
first would have been checking the monitor cable. Marginal positioning
of the video card in its slot can easily cause annoyingly intermittent
video problems.

I did check the monitor DVI cable first to make sure that it was firmly
attached using a screwdriver instead of just my fingers to tighten the
screws. My problem is that I recommended this PC to a friend who knows
very little about computer hardware. So now I feel responsible for
fixing any problems that arise. And when that happens I have to make a
trip over there, try a fix and then wait a few days to see it if takes.

Never again. If I had it to do over again, I would advise him to get a
good laptop from a major company which is what he had before. Or
perhaps one of those all-in-ones. Much simpler for someone who doesn't
enjoy tinkering with hardware and software.

In any event, I will check out the seating of the video card today and
then try switching to the integrated graphics card. And since Micro
Express put this together I will give them a call as well. I had a
minor problem recently when I installed a SSD and they returned my call
within 30 minutes and solved the problem. And they were very pleasant
about it.

Jerry