DescentBB

WinXP SP2, GF4 MX440 p.o.s.

I thought I'd be able to find this problem discussed somewhere in usenet or the web, but no luck finding anything so far:

One day I booted my machine only to have the display turn off after the Windows loading screen. It was as though the monitor stopped receiving signal. I tried booting in VGA mode, and although 640x480 worked, switching to a higher resolution made the problem return. The card seems to go dead at greater than 640x480.

Installing Nvidia's latest drivers fixed the issue for awhile, but the problem returned yesterday. A re-install fixed it again.

So what am I fvcking with that causes this? Nothing. The only display-related change I've made to that machine at all in two years is swapping the output between a CRT and LCD monitor. Both occurrances of this problem happened after swapping back from the the LCD -> CRT. WTF!!!!

Any ideas?

Sounds like its trying to goto a refresh rate setting you have set in windows which is too high for your monitors capabilities.

monitor problem I think, not video card.

I had some goofy sh!t happening on a monitor that was similar using a particular VGA cable. I switched it out and some of the problems went away. Then after trying a 3rd cable they all went away. This was a viewsonic BTW

Then I went from the MX to a Ti4600 amd the thing wouldn't work no matter what cable I had on it.

Eventually I plugged in another monitor and everything worked every cable I tried on both cards.

Cards used were a MSI gf4 mx440 128 meg 8x and a PNY ti4600

Could also be that its trying to send the signal to the wrong output on the video card.

Thanks for the tips, guys. In order:

1) Refresh rate - yeah, that's a possibility I'll check, although I never futzed with the rate after setting it initially a couple years ago

2) Cable issue - seems like a possibility, but would a driver reinstall fix that? Interestingly, when I plug the LCD back in, the problem remains. Something about switching from the LCD to the CRT seems to bring this about (unless it's all coincident)

3) Wrong output - the card only has one, but perhaps the driver doesn't know that. I'll take a look

The monitor, BTW, is an NEC Multisync.

im betting on the refresh issue.

boot it in VGA mode again and force all the resolutions @ 75 or 85 Hz