Hakkapellito
New member
OT: Hakka's computer woes
Ok, so, recently I've encountered a big problem with my computer. I'll describe the lead-up to the situation and my current problem, perhaps someone can lend me a hand?
For the past few months, my monitor has peroidically been doing something quite odd. I'll be sitting, doing whatever, minding my own business, when all of the sudden it'll make this loud "buzz", flicker off, and then turn back on. On occasion it would come back with a "wider" screen, that is, if the desktop was normally, say, 17" wide, it'd now be 18" wide and off of the screen. To solve this, however, all I had to do is turn my monitor off and then back on.
So this went on for a few months, and I just dismissed it as usual wear and tear on the monitor, as it is a very old sucker. Then, more recently, it started doing something freakish in addition to its occasional (once every few days) clicks. It'd do the normal click, but come back oddly. I don't know how to explain it, except that it's almost as if the screen is on a conveyor belt that's set on overdrive. It's not QUITE like this, however, because it's very blurred, pixelized, and the picture even exhibits repetition of vertical segments, such as follows.
AAA|AAA|AAA|AAA|AAA
Where AAA is, say, the start button and the portion vertical to it all the way to the top of the screen.
Anyway, all I had to do to fix this was either turn the monitor off and on OR jiggle its connection to my computer and it was "all better."
Then, three or four days ago, disaster struck. I was playing D2 and went idle in the channel..I was tired, so I went to take a nap. I woke up about an hour later and came back to the computer doing the crazy, conveyor-beltish action. I asked my sister how long it'd been happening, and she said about an hour, and that one of the clicks preceded it occurring. Odd, I thought, so I turned off the monitor. Upon turning it back on, it was STILL screwed up. I shook the connection a little to make sure it wasn't loose - still nothing.
In short, I brought an old monitor from our old computer upstairs and tried to use it. Interestingly, it worked. I then figured it was a monitor problem. However, a little later, it started doing the same crap. Upon changing the screen resolution (it's a 14" monitor, so a smaller area) to 640x480 (or whatever it is) it went away. That struck me as odd. Anyway, that brings us to current time. I'll explain what I know.
-On 800x600, both monitors have the weird interference or whatever you want to call it.
-On 640x480, the small monitor has no problem, but the newer one does.
-If I run D2, the movies show up just fine, but the second I get to the main menu (change of screen resolution) it screws up on both monitors.
-If I run ET (Enemy Territory), it starts up as 800x600 and the old monitor has no problem, but just can't see the whole screen. When I change ET's settings to 640x480, I can play it just fine.
-If I go to Display settings and change it to 800x600 from 640x480, the old monitor screws up, and if I switch the cords to the new monitor, the new one is messed up as well.
-There are no problems with either connection, and there are no missing or loose pins.
I've essentially ruled out a monitor problem, and the only thing in the manual pertinent to such an issue that I HAVEN'T done is "reseating" the video card. I'm hesitant to open up my box, but if I have to I will. Has anyone encountered any problem similar to this? I'm running an nVIDEA TNT 2 card on a 700 MHz Gateway POS.
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated, as my mules are going to expire soon
-Hakka
Ok, so, recently I've encountered a big problem with my computer. I'll describe the lead-up to the situation and my current problem, perhaps someone can lend me a hand?
For the past few months, my monitor has peroidically been doing something quite odd. I'll be sitting, doing whatever, minding my own business, when all of the sudden it'll make this loud "buzz", flicker off, and then turn back on. On occasion it would come back with a "wider" screen, that is, if the desktop was normally, say, 17" wide, it'd now be 18" wide and off of the screen. To solve this, however, all I had to do is turn my monitor off and then back on.
So this went on for a few months, and I just dismissed it as usual wear and tear on the monitor, as it is a very old sucker. Then, more recently, it started doing something freakish in addition to its occasional (once every few days) clicks. It'd do the normal click, but come back oddly. I don't know how to explain it, except that it's almost as if the screen is on a conveyor belt that's set on overdrive. It's not QUITE like this, however, because it's very blurred, pixelized, and the picture even exhibits repetition of vertical segments, such as follows.
AAA|AAA|AAA|AAA|AAA
Where AAA is, say, the start button and the portion vertical to it all the way to the top of the screen.
Anyway, all I had to do to fix this was either turn the monitor off and on OR jiggle its connection to my computer and it was "all better."
Then, three or four days ago, disaster struck. I was playing D2 and went idle in the channel..I was tired, so I went to take a nap. I woke up about an hour later and came back to the computer doing the crazy, conveyor-beltish action. I asked my sister how long it'd been happening, and she said about an hour, and that one of the clicks preceded it occurring. Odd, I thought, so I turned off the monitor. Upon turning it back on, it was STILL screwed up. I shook the connection a little to make sure it wasn't loose - still nothing.
In short, I brought an old monitor from our old computer upstairs and tried to use it. Interestingly, it worked. I then figured it was a monitor problem. However, a little later, it started doing the same crap. Upon changing the screen resolution (it's a 14" monitor, so a smaller area) to 640x480 (or whatever it is) it went away. That struck me as odd. Anyway, that brings us to current time. I'll explain what I know.
-On 800x600, both monitors have the weird interference or whatever you want to call it.
-On 640x480, the small monitor has no problem, but the newer one does.
-If I run D2, the movies show up just fine, but the second I get to the main menu (change of screen resolution) it screws up on both monitors.
-If I run ET (Enemy Territory), it starts up as 800x600 and the old monitor has no problem, but just can't see the whole screen. When I change ET's settings to 640x480, I can play it just fine.
-If I go to Display settings and change it to 800x600 from 640x480, the old monitor screws up, and if I switch the cords to the new monitor, the new one is messed up as well.
-There are no problems with either connection, and there are no missing or loose pins.
I've essentially ruled out a monitor problem, and the only thing in the manual pertinent to such an issue that I HAVEN'T done is "reseating" the video card. I'm hesitant to open up my box, but if I have to I will. Has anyone encountered any problem similar to this? I'm running an nVIDEA TNT 2 card on a 700 MHz Gateway POS.
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated, as my mules are going to expire soon
-Hakka
.. if all else fails, a new computer would never hurt! Mine was about $600 about 2 years ago, its an E-Machines w/ 1600 GHZ clock speed, 256 RAM, and 40 gig hard drive, and i havent had any major problems with it so far.