Graphics card problem?

[Poaceae]

Does anyone know if a graphics card can go bad an send an intermittant signal? I upgraded my monitor this week and everything was fine for a couple of days. Then, as I was working, the monitor lost signal. This occurred, on an irregular basis, 2 or 3 times that day. Put that monitor on another system and reconnected by old monitor - no signal loss on either setup for over 24 hours. My graphics card is NVIDA GeForce 6150 LE. I have also changed the cable. I hate to send the monitor back if it's a bad graphics card but I also don't want to spend the money to replace the card if the problem is in the monitor. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[bohdank]

Well the only thing that has changed is the new monitor. Since it works fine on the other system, I would tend to think it is the card. Any way to swap cards between the 2 systems and see if the problem follows the card ?

[mson]

Some things to look at... Are all your drivers up to date? Does the system you are having problems with have enough horse power to drive the monitor? Is the card seated properly?

If you can, I second bohdank's suggestion. Swap out the video cards and see if the issue follows the video card. A bad power supply can give you some strange intermittent issues as well.

[Poaceae]

The monitor is back on the 1st system and so far has no problems. I did one other thing that the NEC tech support people suggested - reset the OSM control settings. They didn't put much hope that this would fix the problem but I tried it anyway. As I've never been inside a computer before, I'm a little afraid to go switching parts. Computer is Gateway w/ AMD 64X2 processor 250GB hard drive. How do I see if drivers are up to date?

[mson]

Looks like the NVIDIA 6150 LE is a integrated video. This means the video card is integrated into your mother board, so you wouldn't be able to swap out the video card anyway. :P How big is the monitor? Integrated video is not very powerful, that might be your problem...

You can go to Nvidia's web site and download drivers for your specific card:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

[poloman]

The symptoms suggest to me that the monitor may have come slightly unplugged from the AC power supply. Make sure the plug is tight. I bet you won't have any more trouble.

[gcogger]

Unless I've misunderstood, it sounds like the problem has gone away after you disconnected and reconnected the monitor. As poloman said, it was probably a dodgy connection (either the mains supply or the monitor cable) - maybe it just wasn't connected probably, or some dirt got into one of the connections.

[Poaceae]

Looks like the NVIDIA 6150 LE is a integrated video. This means the video card is integrated into your mother board, so you wouldn't be able to swap out the video card anyway. :P How big is the monitor? Integrated video is not very powerful, that might be your problem...

You can go to Nvidia's web site and download drivers for your specific card:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Monitor is 24" a replacement of motherboard sounds expensive. NEC is willing to replace this unit - I may try that first.

Connections were/are tight. I did have a case where the screen suddenly took on a bluish tint. The second time it did that I went from the VGA-VGA cable to the VGA-DVIA cable that also came with the monitor. Haven't had that problem since.

Thanks to all for suggestions. I'm afraid that I'm not computer hardware literate enough to try some of the ideas. If I exchange the monitor and problems still continue I guess I'll have to put it in shop.

Still operating ok since latest hook up - time will tell.

[number six]

FWIW, if you decide to change video cards you can probably just plug another into an empty slot and choose between it and the motherboard-integrated video circuit. Works that way on my computer.

-js

[John_T]

You are probably running at a higher resolution/color depth(?) with the new monitor than the old one. It may be that the new monitor is overstretching the capabilities of the onboard video chip and it is overheating and conking out after a while.

[Poaceae]

I may have found my problem - a conflict with the eye1 display 2. After changing back to the new unit all was fine till I ran the calibration. Within 5 minutes, the screen converted to a bluish tint. Hooked the old monitor up & everything looked good. Ran the calibration and screen went bluish. It will flip back for a brief period but then reverts to blue. I think I have some sort of conflict which is creating my problems. I'm beginning to believe that monitor calibration is highly overrated. I may have an eye 1 display 2 for sale soon.

[poloman]

FWIW, if you decide to change video cards you can probably just plug another into an empty slot and choose between it and the motherboard-integrated video circuit. Works that way on my computer.

-js

Sometimes you need to disable the on board video card by changing a jumper when you do this.