Hi,

A few weeks ago i ran into a weird issue with my monitor (22" LCD), which was connected with DVI. I am running 64 bit Vista Home Premium.

Basically my computer had been running fine, then one day when i booted it up, I had no picture once windows loaded. It displayed picture on the boot sequence fine. Just once the windows loading screen finished (with the green s*** going across the bar), it lost signal. I could only get it to display picture in safe mode.

Strangely, if i used a VGA cable and VGA -> DVI converter, it worked fine.

Now that i have some time, i'm trying to fix this so i can give the VGA cable back to monitor i stole it from. I have updated my graphics card (ATI 4850HD) drivers, and also installed my monitors drivers (BenQ FP222W).

I googled this a bit and it seems like this isn't an isolated case, but i haven't yet been able to find a solution.

So, has anyone here ran into this issue, or can they think of any possible solutions?

---Edit: I should add that i am obviously running the monitor with the native settings of 1680x1050 and 60hz

This happened to me in my old PC when I forgot to disable the onboard video card. Do you have an onboard card and have it enabled? What's your main monitor set to in windows or ati control panel? Been a while since I had an ATI card but can you pick whether it's dvi/vga/tv out? Other than that I got nothing.

The monitor is set to 1, and it has "BenQ FP222W on ATI Radeon 4800 HD Series".

I don't think my motherboard even has onboard video so yeah.

Don't even know what caused it. Just turned my PC on one day and it was like this. Hadn't installed any major software/drivers last time i used it.

hmmm this happened to me 2 days ago as well but i have a 9600gt. booted into safe mode and uninstalled all the video drivers and video card software, booted normally reinstalled the drivers it came with and that fixed it.

ps. im using xp on a 32bit system

oh i forgot to mention it was because force monitor detection was on.

Yeah i tried removing the drivers then installing them... but once i install them, problem is back (tried many different versions).

And is Force Monitor Detection something that was a Windows setting, a nvidia/ati drivers setting, or a setting on your monitor?

last edited by Alt_F4 at 21:19:50 22/Nov/08

Have you set the refresh rate too high? I don't know what happens if you do that on an LCD because I only have 60hz even if I tick the show all modes box but would the monitor just shut down if it detects an input refresh rate that's too high? Weird that it wouldn't do it with VGA though.

Use the Nasty File Remover in safe mode to completely remove your drivers after hitting the uninstall button in the ati start menu list or control panel add/remove programs.

Silly question but could it be a virus?

hmmm, i got a mates machine which has just done this as well;

its his media box, and hes gone HD foxtel, switched hdmi cables and then his pc wont display on the tele, boots up fine, then when windows loads, wont display anything

i told him it sounds like a refresh rate issue .. . .

Was your friend using vista?

I'm fairly sure it isnt refresh rate related, as i have mine set to standard 60hz which is what i've always used with no issues.

The threads i've found on this issue so far generally have people with a variety of different monitors and both ATi and nvidia cards. Most have said that one day DVI just stopped working for no apparent reason, and they haven't been able to find a fix. *Some* people have had luck reformatting, but not all.

yer, vista

the most common reason I've experienced with dvi failure is a dying videocard.

you said you own an 'Ati 4850' (whenever I say that I use my dodgy chinese computershop guy accent / Russel Peters).

would you describe your computer case as a 'wind tunnel'?? high end ATi cards require this atm. iirc, the latest driver comes with an addon to up the speed of the fan to ensure that thing gets blasted by it's onboard fan appropriately.

previous drivers led these cards to fail (just as your seems to have) if they weren't installed into a "suitable" working environment.

they could put a big fat 'YOU MUST HAVE THIS MOFO INSTALLED INTO A WIND TUNNEL' sticker on the box, but everyone who takes the gamble with one knows that you've got to have decent air movement thru your pc case, or a cool operating environment where your workstation sits.. if s/he bothered to read up on the hardware before parting with the money

last edited by koopz at 15:49:08 23/Nov/08

Koopz i see what you are trying to say...

My computer isn't exactly a wind tunnel, but it has somewhat decent airflow. It is a Powercolor 4850HD to be exact. And i would like to mention that this DVI failure occurred quite a few weeks back before this heat kicked in.

I just don't understand how the card has "failed" when i can game on high settings in this heat without an issues at all (albeit using VGA), and it displays picture on DVI fine until it boots into windows.

As i said, i can see what you are trying to get at, but based on what i've googled, i think this is a Windows driver/software problem and nothing to do with my graphics card failing.