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My DP 9 - review by Captain Jack| Author | Post |
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Bill  All-Star Member  5334 Posts 6/00 |  Posted - Mar 10 2009 : 9:21PMTonight when I started my PC (Vista 64 bit) from Sleep mode, my monitor came on at a pretty low resolution. Not knowing what to try, I just restarted my PC. After doing that, I had no display at all. However, based on audio cues, it was obvious that Windows had started up completely. After playing around with different things for a while, I found that if I unplug the DVI cable from my monitor and then plug it back in, the display would appear, but at the same lower resolution (1024 x 768). I have an nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512 video card. When I go to the nVidia Control Panel to adjust the resolution, 1024 x 768 is the highest resolution that it allowing. When I go the device manager, it says that "this device is working properly." The monitor is a Acer AL2216W, with a maximum resolution of 1680 x 1050. The device manager says that this is also working properly. I'm not sure what to do now. I don't want to have to pull and replace the DVI cable every time that I reboot my machine, only to not use it with a reasonable resolution. Does anyone have any suggestions? [Link] |
| picman Senior Member Nothing says I love you so much as a tongue in the ass. 2884 Posts 1/03 | Posted - Mar 10 2009 : 10:27PM [Link] |
| Jordan1 Member Fishing, a fun hobby! 490 Posts 7/08 | Posted - Mar 11 2009 : 1:20AM It can cause all sorts of problems, including the one you're experiencing. I don't know if it will fix the problem once something is screwed-up, but make the changes I spoke about above and see if helps. If you do manage to find a solution, I STRONGLY suggest you and others follow my advice about the Sleep Mode/Hibernation and Energy Saving Mode. P.S. I just remembered that one of the things the Energy Saving Mode did was to screw-up my editing software and the TV recording function. It would shutdown the functions after about 22 mins. It took months for me to finally get the answer after getting escalated to speaking with a level 3 tech. [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Mar 11 2009 : 1:59AM [Link] |
| Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99 | Posted - Mar 11 2009 : 7:44AM [Link] |
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| K Smitten Kitten Cloud 9 530 Posts 2/06 | Posted - Mar 11 2009 : 5:53PM Is the screen blank the whole time, or does it show the usual BIOS and early Windows boot sequence, blanking only when Windows 'proper' starts up? If the latter, does Safe Mode work? How about some live-CD version of Linux? [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Mar 11 2009 : 8:47PM I don't have a spare monitor that has a DVI input. I don't have a spare DVI cable. I ordered one today. Everything in the display settings indicates that I'm using the nVidia GeForce 8800GTS 512 card and the nVidia driver (the driver is from Sept '08, so it makes sense to update it anyway). One thing that I just noticed is that the display settings is saying that I have a Generic non-PnP monitor. I don't remember if it was always described as "generic" or not. But I'm pretty sure that it is a PnP monitor. The video card didn't come with the machine. I installed it myself sometime last year. I'm seeing the usual BIOS and early Windows boot sequence. The screen only blanks when Windows 'proper' starts up (the light on the power button turns orange, which is what happens when the monitor is on, but isn't receiving a signal). It works fine in Safe Mode and like I said earlier, if I unplug the DVI cable from the monitor and then plug it back into the monitor. I'm using the PC right now. Just with low resolution. Based on the non-PnP thing, I'm starting to lean toward a bad DVI cable, which isn't properly passing information from the monitor back to the video card. But maybe that's just me hoping that the solution to the problem not an expensive one. I'm going to try updating the video driver now. [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Mar 11 2009 : 9:04PM The nVidia control panel still shows the maximum resolution available as 1024 x 768. What I did notice (and seem to remember from yesterday) is that, in the nVidia Control Panel, my monitor is identified as an "Acer A 2216 W". I hope that's something that it remembers and isn't getting from the monitor. If not, that may screw up my hopes that the problem is with the cable. Update: after making a change in the nVidia control panel (which I changed back), the monitor now says "Digital Display". So, it appears that the Acer ID was in memory. Also my monitor isn't being recognized as a widescreen monitor. Things that should be round are shorter and wider than they should be and when I played a 1:1.85 aspect ratio anamorphic DVD, it ended up being letterboxed. I'm really hoping that it's the DVI cable. Edited by - Bill on 3/11/2009 9:31:45 PM [Link] |
| morbidthoughts All-Star Member Big cats scare me but... 3627 Posts 1/03 | Posted - Mar 11 2009 : 11:31PM [Link] |
| Jordan1 Member Fishing, a fun hobby! 490 Posts 7/08 | Posted - Mar 12 2009 : 1:16PM morbidthoughts beat me to it, but I was also going to mention what he stated in the post above this one. Screensavers are often the culprit also. As a matter of fact, they should be totally disabled-something I also did when I turned off the Energy Saving Mode, and Sleep and Hibernation modes. Now that my recollection is starting to be refreshed, my own manufacturer recommended I shut them all off!! They started to realize that they were getting a lot of tech calls that were caused by these features. The Perils of Hibernation in XP - Use at your Own Risk [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Mar 12 2009 : 8:55PM Thanks to everyone who made suggestions. Edited by - Bill on 3/12/2009 8:56:10 PM [Link] |
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