Mysterious monitor problem...

[AndyR]

My sister called me the other day because her monitor 'had gone funny' (her words!)

I went around and had a look. Problem was obviously the monitor only displaying green and blue - no red - so I said I'd take it home and have a look suspecting something like a break in the cable or bent pins (the OSD was displaying red so there was obviously nothing wrong with internals)

I attached the monitor to one of my computers - and it worked perfectly with no problems what-so-ever. Full colour picture.

So I re-connected the monitor to my sisters computer - no red being displayed again.

I attached one of my monitors to my sisters computer to check it wasn't the gfxcard - and had no problems. The gfx card was outputting all signals.

So I'm stumped! My sisters monitor has nothing wrong with it, my sisters computer has nothing wrong with it. My sisters monitor has been used on her computer without problems for over 1.5 years.

Any idea's or is it just one of those un-explainable things we come across every now then in the computing world?

Perhaps the monitor had a falling out with the gfx card?

Perhaps it's posessed?

[Nuttapper]

try reinstalling the display adapter, and the monitor driver if it has one in place

[MasterMind]

Is that problem is related only with Windows? Or you get the same pattern right from the startup screen?

If it is Win related then may be the Gamma correction(?) is set too low for Red? You can see that under the display properties => Settings => Advanced.

[AndyR]

Thanks for the reply.

There isn't a specific monitor driver - it uses the generic monitor.inf and it can't be the physical or driver installation of the display adaptor either because when I connect any of my monitors to my sisters computer, the picture is fine. That's why it's so weird.

And the 'problem' monitor works fine on two other computers using generic monitor.inf files.

My sister only uses the computer for internet surfing so the GFX card is only a Geforce 2 MX400. The card has 2 monitor connections and connecting her monitor to either output has the same effect - no red in the picture. The TV output is fine as is the monitor output when using different monitors.

It's the fact that the picture is fine on her monitor when it's connected to other computers that winds me up!

It's not a problem as such - I'll just swap her monitor for a similar one I have - but it's just one of those irritating niggly things that I have to get to the bottom of!

EDIT: Thanks for the reply Mastermind as well. This was my very first thought while I was still at her house. Driver settings are fine though. And it's not just a windows thing as it happens from initial turn on (IE. White text is actually cyan and yello logo is green etc...)

GRRRRRRR....it's bloody irritating!!!!!

[Van Nugent]

This often happens with analog video connections (VGA/SVGA) when at least 1 of the pins on either the male or female connectors got loose. Since you've tested the monitor on other systems and it worked fine, I believe the connector on your sister's video card doesn't match perfectly with the connector from the monitor. Try pushing the connector in harder or if it still doesn't work properly, try another video card.

[AndyR]

Thanks to you for the reply Van Nugent!

I think I mentioned in an ealier post that one of my initial suspicions was pin related.

But it happens on both monitor outputs (as described above) - and the 2nd output has never had anything connected to it until now.

Will try another video card though - I've got an old Voodoo 3 gathering dust somewhere around here (damned if I can remember where though!!!)

[AndyR]

Damn piece of junk!

Stuck the voodoo card in place and the same f'in thing happens!!!

This computer is haunted - that's my only explanation. Is unsolved mysteries still going?

As a point of interest though, the Voodoo card gives a much better quality display than the Geforce card. Clearer and steadier.

So I've eliminated the monitor, and the gfx card as being the problem. AGP slot perhaps? No wait, can't be because other monitors work fine.

Sheesh! Think it's time to throw the towel in?