[redsniper]

okay so, I've had this nice 19" monitor (a Viewsonic a90f+ to be exact) for less than a year and now it doesn't work. It's normally just blank, but if I turn it off and then back on it will show a picture for a few seconds. However what happens is the picture is slowly shrinking and flickering when I turn it back on. After it shrinks it expands, goes out of focus and fades to black, where it stays until I turn it off and back on again. Now hopefully it's still under warranty and I'll be able to get a new one, but it should work fine because it's new! The crappy 6 year old monitor I'm using right now works just fine! so what the heck's wrong with my new one?

[MatthewPapa]

Did it get hit by a lightning storm by any chance? That will do it to a moniter...

[redsniper]

no, no nothing like that. It just out of the blue stopped working.

[mitac]

http://www.viewsonic.com/support/warranty.htm

Hmm. Looks like your monitor only has a one year warranty. You'd better hurry.

[redsniper]

Yeah, I know. I can't find the receipt though so I think I'm screwed. I'd just like to know what could possibly cause this. Could it be the power supply having issues?

[redsniper]

:arr: ph33r the midnight bump!

[Cobra]

hmm. tell me what system and all that you have. and what do you have it plugged into? (don't bludgeon me, just asking )

[Swamp_Thing]

You could check the refresh rate. Some monitors won´t handle a too high or low refresh rate. 85hz is the max for me. And you could reset to factory settings, maybe the visual settings got screwed.

[mitac]

Adding to what Swamp said - maybe you had the monitor running at a too high refresh rate over a long time? This *could* cause damage, though it should not happen any more these days.

[redsniper]

I did keep it on a high refresh rate, but it's a modern monitor and it showed absolutely no signs of anything being wrong until just totatlly FUBARing yesterday. I don't mind getting a new one I just wish I knew why it broke.

[Darkage]

It's proberly a CXA or TDA IC that is fubared because in modern monitors they don't cool the  All in one IC's to keep the costs down.

You could try to warm it up with a hair dryer for about 5/6 minutes and see if it functions properly then.  Most of those type of errors react to Thermal changes.

[Swamp_Thing]

Originally posted by redsniper
I did keep it on a high refresh rate, but it's a modern monitor and it showed absolutely no signs of anything being wrong until just totatlly FUBARing yesterday.

That´s usually how it works, isn´t it? Everything works fine until one day it just goes *crash*!.
Depending on how high you kept the refresh rate, i think we might have found the culprit. The thing is, lots of people think that running the monitors at a high rate gives them better visual performance. And to an extent that´s true, but there´s no point in running a monitor at 100+hz since the human eye can´t see the diference. 85hz is more than enough.

[mitac]

Uhm, honestly said, I notice the difference between 80 and 100. But that may be my graphics card.

[Swamp_Thing]

Originally posted by mitac
Uhm, honestly said, I notice the difference between 80 and 100. But that may be my graphics card.

80hz means 80 frames per second.  I seriously doubt you could see any diference in performace from 80fps to 100fps.
We are not talking of how fast a game runs or how fast a graphics card displays a frame, we are talking about how fast the monitor displays a complete frame.
Ever seen a PC monitor on video?  You can see the refresh lines on the screen, coming down. That´s because a video camera captures video at a faster speed than the monitor refreshes, wich allows you to actually see the scan lines. That´s what we are talking about here. Not a game´s fps.

[mitac]

Originally posted by Swamp_Thing

That´s what we are talking about here. Not a game´s fps.

So am I, thank you. I see that difference between 80 and 100 hz. Either I'm gifted or have a very strong imagination. Who knows.

On topic - is it common that hardware has so short warranty in the US? I recently returned my monitor for repairs under warranty, it was almost three years old.

[Grey Wolf]

I'm assuming there are no problems with 85 Hz, right? Just asking, as my monitor only runs happily at 60 Hz and 85 Hz, and it's much more comfortable keeping it at 85 Hz.

[mitac]

No, GW, that's no problem. The refresh rates offered depend on your graphics card, which can easily be uneven numbers. It just should not exceed the monitor's maximum frequency, which is based on its horizontal frequency and the resolution you're running at. Modern monitors shut down in case you're setting the vertical frequency at a too high value.

[Flaser]

Originally posted by Swamp_Thing


80hz means 80 frames per second.  I seriously doubt you could see any diference in performace from 80fps to 100fps.
We are not talking of how fast a game runs or how fast a graphics card displays a frame, we are talking about how fast the monitor displays a complete frame.
Ever seen a PC monitor on video?  You can see the refresh lines on the screen, coming down. That´s because a video camera captures video at a faster speed than the monitor refreshes, wich allows you to actually see the scan lines. That´s what we are talking about here. Not a game´s fps.

You are wrong on the video issue Swamp_Thing.
TV and VHS/DVD video is 50 hertz, while PC is 60 to 120 Hz.
The problem is that by doing 60 Hz, the camera's fps won't properly match the monitors.

As for too high hertz setting - that's bull****. Yes it takes a toll on the monitor, since it will operate at a higher performance. However nowadays monitors won't operate if you try to force them to.

The ones I saw all wrote - outside horizontal refresh rate OR refresh rate not supported in this resolution.
I have a Phillps Brillance 109P, and I've been running it at 100-120Hz non-stop for the last 5 years.

Another thing: The reason why you should use at least 75-85Hz refreash rate is that the higher the flicker rate, the less the monitor will directly aggravate your nervous system.
If I sit down to a system with 60Hz (default) refreash rate I get headaches witing 10 minutes. It won't "look" better, but try looking at the monitor with your peripheral vision (look "next to it") - the difference will be immediaterly apparent.

Beside a fried IC it is possible that some high-voltage equipment or a surge in the powersource knocked off the calibration of your monitor.
Howevere AFAIS Darkage may tell you the likelyness of that.

...and no I've never seen a case where monitor allowed itself to be harmfully overdriven.

[karajorma]

I've never quite understood why a 60Hz monitor causes eyestrain and headaches when a 50Hz TV set doesn't.

[redsniper]

well, I was just looking at the official specs, which say it can't handle 100Hz @ 1152*864, which is how I was running it. However, Flaser seems pretty sure that that couldn't be the cause. So, I guess I'll try Darkage's hairdryer trick (although I'll feel silly doing it).
EDIT: what part am I trying to warm up exactly?