What's the problem here?

[yabanci]

I have a gGeForce GF Fx5600 I bought back in Aug. 2003. A few weeks ago I started seeing some -- not sure how to describe it -- light, shadowy, concentric circles on the four corners of the monitor extending toward the middle. Almost looks like the rings of saturn.

It's not the monitor because I hooked the monitor up to a laptop and no problem. Anyone ever hear of something like this? Anything I can do? I'd hate to buy another video card already.

 

[iversonyin]

RMA the card if possible. if not, its time for a new one

 

[Lord Athlon]

When you die , you see the ring :shock:

 

[oynaz]

Have you tried the card with another monitor?

 

[yabanci]

no, I figured if the monitor worked with a different computer then the problem was with the video card.

 

[Gentle]

When you tested the monitor on the laptop, had you moved the monitor?

You might be getting some EMI from something...

Things with magnets and things with CRT's don't play well most times.

Speakers maybe?

Gentle

 

[yabanci]

No, didn't move the monitor. Just set the laptop on the desktop case and switched the plug from the desktop to the notebook. It's a good thought though; I got some new speakers for christmas (Altec Lansing VS2120) around the time this problem arose. But I keep thinking that if it's a problem with the monitor rather than the video card the problem would have shown up with the laptop hooked up.

 

[Gentle]

Just a thought...

Check with the speaker manufacturer and ask them if the speakers you have are magnetically shielded or not.

Gentle

 

[yabanci]

Here's an update. Any more thoughts are appreciated.

The speakers are brand new and in fact advertised as "shielded for use near video monitors." I previously had moved them away from the monitor and there was no change.

I bought a new video card, an ATI 9600xt, and installed it, booted up, and I had the same problem described in my initial post - shadowy, circular lines on the monitor.

That made me rule out the video card as the cause of the problem.

In order to isolate the problem, I completely unhooked the speakers and moved them to the other side of the room. Hmm, the lines grew a bit thinner. Maybe the problem is with the monitor, after all.

Just to make sure, I hooked the monitor back up to the laptop -- the lines were gone. I had my brother look at it to make sure I wasn't imagining things. Sure enough, even with the speakers on the other side of the room, you can see the lines when the monitor is hooked up to the desktop computer with the new video card but you can't see the lines when it's hooked up to the laptop (monitor isn't being moved).

So, the options seem to be:

1. video card - doesn't seem to be the problem since there's no change between the old and new video card;
2. monitor - possibly, especially since there was a change after moving the speakers, but how can the monitor be the problem if it works fine when hooked up to the laptop?;
3. motherboard? - if it's not the video card or the monitor, what else could it be other than the motherboard? It's an Epox nforce2 motherboard about 1.5 years old. What could be wrong with the motherboard that would result in this problem?
4. something else? If so, what?

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[Wolfshanze]

Any chance you can borrow a differant monitor or perhaps take your case to a friend's house to check your computer on a differant monitor? You could easily rule out EVERY COMPONENT in your system if your case runs good on a differant monitor!

Sounds to me like it's the monitor, but before making that final decision, I'd either borrow a differant monitor, or take your computer case on a field trip to the nearest available monitor to find out for sure by process of elimination.

Next question will be LCD or CRT when replacement time comes around!