Faulty Monitor or Malicious Virus?

I have no idea where I should post this as im not to sure what’s going on

My monitor keeps flashing black and then returning to what ever I was doing although it appears to be frozen apart from I can still continue working but it does not react on screen. Then after a few minuets of flashing my monitor goes onto a permanent standby with an amber power light and I have to restart my computer.
The odd bit (to me) of this is that it only does it about 70% of the time either as soon as I logon to my account or occasionally when I use certain programmes such as music editing software and others.
Ive scanned my hard drives with every thing I can get my hands on so im pretty sure my computers clean.

Any ideas

Thanks for any advise anybody can give and happy new year to you all

 

Most likely a hardware problem
As it is most likely your monitor, graphics card or cable.
Not sure if this is recommended, but, I would 'wiggle it... just a little bit'
your cable that is !! where it connects to your graphics card.
I've had my monitor go onto standby before, and it was just a slightly dodgy connection.

Otherwise reinstal drivers for monitor and graphics card

 

I all give it a go although being of little knowledge how do I find my monitor and graphics card drivers or can I just download a newer version of any and it all overwrite my old ones?
Thanks again

 

Well ive just tried to see what I can do my self and found the Display Adapter Drive in the Device Manager so i upgraded it which did nothing. Then i tried wiggling which also didnt seem to do anything so i cleaned my PC (might not of been a good idea) and it refused to work at all (the monitor that is) so i left it for a while and it started to work again although im having the same problem as before.

Any more ideas?

 

I'd agree that it's probably a flaky connection in the signal cable that feeds your monitor, or possibly a problem with your video card.

Try hooking the monitor up on a friend's system. If it doesn't misbehave there (under the same circumstances as make it misbehave on yours), the problem is not likely to be the monitor, and you can start to think about replacing your video card. Especially if you hook your friend's monitor to your system and the problem continues.

If this test points you towards your video card as the prime suspect, try swapping the card for another. If the problem goes away then, you can be fairly sure it's the card. (When swapping video cards, it's usually a good idea to kick the machine into Safe Mode and uninstall the video drivers before you shut down to remove the card unless the video card you're swapping in is the same make and model. The system can run without the manufacturer's drivers, but you may get limited resolution and colour depth.)

If it's the video card, it could be as simple as a fractured solder joint on one of the connections to the jack that accepts the signal cable to the monitor. That's easily fixed with a soldering iron, though most other solder joints on the card are best left alone.

 

Could be where your card goes into the slot too
If you repeatedly plug/unplug your monitor
or its in contact with a wall or something it can lead to a bad connection
Turn computer off
take side panel off
unplug monitor
undo the screw holding the video card in
and pull the card out and then just put it back in
put the screw back in
plug the monitor back in
and start up your computer

As far as drivers go
Find out the make and model of your monitor and graphics card
go to their respective websites and download the latest drivers that are compatible with your operating system

Go into device manager
select 'not this time ya bloody mongrel' to searching online
select 'instal from a list or specific location'
and point it towards where you saved the new drivers

any problems let us know
the details of your monitor,graphics card & OS

 

If you have a 2nd PC available or a friend's laptop, hook up the monitor to it and see what happens. If the monitor works OK on a different PC, then we know it's time for a new monitor. Otherwise it's the video card (which is more likely anyhow). It could be that the video card is overheating, not seated 100% perfect in the slot, or has faulty capacitors or memory chips. If it's an onboard video, again it may be bad capacitors. If you're not sure of what capacitors are and what to look for, take your PC to a dependable and trustworthy shop and tell 'em about it......

 

Cheers for all of this I will give it a try and report back

 

You'll probably get all the info you need from Windows Device Manager. If you're not sure where to find the manufacturer, just note the make and model reported by Device Manager, and google that.

 

Ive come to the conclusion that I have no idea how computers work I opened it up had a look around gave what I though to be the graphics card a wiggle and then closed it up again. After restarting my computer the problem was still apparent so I removed and reinstalled the display drivers in a half assed attempt, which has seemed to fix the problem (touch wood).

Thanks for all the time you folks put in to this website it really helps alot of people out including my self

Also any ideas on a new purchase I might be making in the next few months? Im thinking of getting a new computer altogether for around £1000 (preferably under)
I would use it mainly for graphics work so a decent speed contraption would do me grand.

Thanks again

 

I guess we should have been a bit more explicit for you.

If you have a look at the back of your monitor, you'll find two cords. One is the power cord; it goes to the AC mains socket in the wall. Ignore it for now.

The other is the signal cord. It carries the video signal from your computer to your monitor. It's the graphics card that supplies that signal, so follow the cord from the monitor to the back of your computer. The signal cable will be plugged into a graphics card in an expansion slot, or directly into the motherboard if you have on-board video.

Shanemail's instructions for reseating the graphics card will be useful if you have a graphics card in an expansion slot. Those instructions are not relevant if you have on-board video (i.e., your video subsystem is built right into the motherboard).

It sounds like you have a flaky connection between the graphics card and the motherboard. Just wiggling the card in the slot can sometimes be enough to fix it temporarily; so also can the signal pulses sent to the card when you re-installed the drivers. But the latter is likely to be even more temporary. So if it quits on you again, re-seat the card per Shanemail's instructions. That fix should last much longer.

 

Yep, sorry mate i should have gone into a bit more detail.
(didnt even consider onboard graphics)
If you're not sure just ask again for a bit more clarification.
Everyone here seems to be out to do the right thing, and wont have any problem with someone asking plenty of questions.

Also the members of this site have rankings, I havent looked around enough
to know exactly what they mean yet, but...
I'm only a 'private' - newbie basically
Rob M is a 'Master Sergeant - pretty advanced I would imagine
basically what I'm getting at is, if someone appears to have a low rank, use a bit more caution when following their advice.
I'll try to put a bit more thought into my posts as well.

As to the new pc, it depends on what you already have.
Take a look around the different areas of the site, read a few posts and see what you can find out

 

Cheers Rob M and Shanemail sorry i didnt mention that i am completely uneducated in the physical aspect of computing. Hopefully it will hold out untill i get a new computer if it does turn out to be temporary i will give it another look along your guild lines.

Thanks

 

if its working now, just leave it alone you may never have any more problems with it
good luck

 

Re: Rankings

Good point, Shanemail. I haven't paid a lot of attention to the ranks - but then, last week I was only a Staff Sergeant. Then my post count passed 600, and I got "promoted". AFAIK, the rank is tied only to post count -- this site doesn't use the "rep power" feature you sometimes see on other discussion fora.

However, even the most experienced experts have a low post count when they first turn up here. So post count is one thing to watch, but don't discount a post with a low rank entirely. Sometimes it's a good idea to have a look at other posts from the same contributor, and pay attention to whether they make sense in the context, whether later contributors find it necessary to offer comment or correction, and whether the original thread-starter confirms that the comment resolved the problem.

Same applies to high post counts. It could be someone who is very active, but doesn't in fact have a lot of experience or stay within the limits of his experience.

 

all true,
I was hoping that people with high post counts, have been assessed to a certain degree. I would assume if youve made a few hundred posts you hopefully make sense and know what youre talking about, or you get kicked off.
As always user beware
I may have to edit my signature stating
that Im an idiot, and as such cannot be held responsible for my stupidityrolleyes

 

Re: High Post Counts

Maybe that happens, and I'm not aware of it. Is there a moderator listening that would throw in a comment or two?

Yup. It's good to know that there's at least one person out there that gets my sig block....

But to be fair, I haven't seen much crap on this board. Most contributors that I've seen are pretty good at staying within their area of competence.