LCD screen blacking out watching videos

Skelleos · Feb 23, 2006, 01:47 PM

I finally put an end to my old crt trinitron monitor and picked up an acer 17" lcd. It's got .26pixel pitch and 8ms refresh rate, it's pretty sweet.

I hooked it up today and I'm not really knowledgeable about the cables. It came with DVI and VGA. I have an old nvidia geforce 5200fx card. It has both the dvi and vga connections, so I plugged both cables up to it from the monitor. Are you supposed to do that? Should I only hook up the dvi?

Everything seems to run fine on it, the picture quality is beautiful. The only problem I've noticed is when I go to a myspace page and there's a music video, my screen will randomly black out for a few seconds off and on. The sound isn't affected, the music keeps playing fine. Any ideas why this is happening? I tried it with only the vga cable hooked up but it still does it.

I have all current drivers for my vid card, directx, shockwave and flash. Maybe my vid card is too weak for it? I'm upgrading that to a radeon x850 soon hopefully.

I haven't played any games on it yet aside from video poker but that worked fine.

I can watch a video from http://www.music-codes.com on their site and nothing happens...maybe it's just a myspace bug.

I'm curious tho if I should have both vga and dvi cables hooked up at the same time. The monitor didn't really come with instructions that explained it, just a diagram showing where they plugged in.

I read that dvi is supposed to look better. I didn't really notice a difference just browsing the web with the different cables attached. Maybe I need a better vid card to see the difference.

Grace · Feb 23, 2006, 02:49 PM

Hello Skelleos,

First of all, you have to use only one cable, preferably the DVI one. The other one you are using is currently not working at all. DVI will look better, but it takes a very well trained eye to notice the differences.

Concerning the video that you cannot watch, it certainly is not because of the monitor, and I doubt it is because of the VGA card. You most probably have a software problem, or to be more exact I believe that you are merely missing a video codec. I cannot help you further since I do not know which codec you are missing, if any. Try finding and installing the Gordian Knot codec pack.

Skelleos · Mar 3, 2006, 09:54 AM

I'm still having the problem. I have Windows Media Player 10 installed along with Windvd.

Anyone have a link that might install a codec to view videos that I might be missing? Everytime I hit a myspace page with a video in it my screen starts flashing off and on.

PangingJr · Mar 3, 2006, 11:41 AM

could you post URL address of the web page in question?

Skelleos · Mar 3, 2006, 12:11 PM

Myspace is down atm but this is the site I was getting my videos from:

http://www.music-codes.com/index.php

It happens with any kind of video. The only site that it doesn't happen with, that I've found so far, is espn.

This site for example:
http://www.skateboardingbulldog.com/picsandmovies.htm

I get white horizontal lines shooting thru the screen and then the screen blinks completely black off and on.

PangingJr · Mar 3, 2006, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skelleos

This site for example:
http://www.skateboardingbulldog.com/picsandmovies.htm

I get white horizontal lines shooting thru the screen and then the screen blinks completely black off and on.

that happens when the web page finish loading, or when you try to see one of the movies??

Skelleos · Mar 3, 2006, 11:14 PM

It happens when I click on the movie link, it loads up/buffers, and then my screen blacks out off and on thru out the video as it plays. Oddly the sound is fine.

PangingJr · Mar 4, 2006, 06:32 AM

just tried it out again on other web browsers under a Windows that has all default settings,
the default movie player seems to be working fine without needing to install anything else.
so atm i don't know what else that i can suggest or you could try, but to perform a clean install of Windows and see?
this might has something to do with your video settings or the device drivers that installed on the system, anyway, clean install of Windows and all other things will fix it.

that dog seemed very happy and joyful. i like it. another thought, hope that didn't scare it too much.

Skelleos · Mar 4, 2006, 10:29 AM

Ya I ordered a new video card a couple days ago. I'm going to reformat and do a clean install of everything when that gets here. I'm almost thinking it's a virus or worm. I made the mistake of downloading some stuff off morpheus before installing my virus protecting software. When I ran the check it found like 650 infected files! They were all cleaned, maybe something I needed was deleted. I reran windows update, directx, media player, flash etc. but who knows what it could be. I've noticed if I leave my comp on for a long time just sitting doing nothing, my virus software finds infected files, like 1 or 2 will pop up, so it seems like somethings going on.

Skelleos · Mar 5, 2006, 08:59 AM

I reinstalled XP, windows updates and media player 10....it's still doing it...

The only thing left I can think is the drivers. I just got a new Acer lcd. This never happened with my old crt. I went to the Acer site and downloaded the drivers but they don't install automatically. Anyone know how to install these?

PangingJr · Mar 5, 2006, 09:38 AM

make sure the monitor driver is made for your monitor and Windows XP.

to install the driver open Device Manager, click the + sign font of Monitors, R-click the monitor and select Update Driver...,
choose the option No, not this time and click Next, then choose Install from a list... and Next, then choose option "Don't search...." and Next, and then click Have Disk... and Browse to locate your monitor driver (* .inf file)...

Skelleos · Mar 5, 2006, 09:56 AM

It won't take the drivers, a message comes up saying: "the wizard could not find a better match for your hardware than the software you currently have installed."

PangingJr · Mar 5, 2006, 10:04 AM

check your monitor's manaul, you probably don't need to install specific device driver.

PangingJr · Mar 5, 2006, 10:15 AM

if you think the problem that you had is caused by the monitor...
then test this monitor on another Windows XP system.

if the same problem has been occurred --- you need to talk to the monitor supports and/or request for a replacement from your retailer.

if it seems to be working fine on the other system --- post back here.

dipstick · Mar 5, 2006, 05:50 PM

Ive heard that DVI on the 5200's is pretty bad. Try using only the VGA connection

Skelleos · Mar 5, 2006, 08:17 PM

I'm getting a 6600gt agp, should be here tomorrow. I'm hoping that will be the fix.

Skelleos · Mar 11, 2006, 03:11 AM

It was the video card. I got the 6600gt today, just installed it, and tested everything, all is good.

Feb 23, 2006, 01:47 PM	#1
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	LCD screen blacking out watching videos I finally put an end to my old crt trinitron monitor and picked up an acer 17" lcd. It's got .26pixel pitch and 8ms refresh rate, it's pretty sweet. I hooked it up today and I'm not really knowledgeable about the cables. It came with DVI and VGA. I have an old nvidia geforce 5200fx card. It has both the dvi and vga connections, so I plugged both cables up to it from the monitor. Are you supposed to do that? Should I only hook up the dvi? Everything seems to run fine on it, the picture quality is beautiful. The only problem I've noticed is when I go to a myspace page and there's a music video, my screen will randomly black out for a few seconds off and on. The sound isn't affected, the music keeps playing fine. Any ideas why this is happening? I tried it with only the vga cable hooked up but it still does it. I have all current drivers for my vid card, directx, shockwave and flash. Maybe my vid card is too weak for it? I'm upgrading that to a radeon x850 soon hopefully. I haven't played any games on it yet aside from video poker but that worked fine. I can watch a video from http://www.music-codes.com on their site and nothing happens...maybe it's just a myspace bug. I'm curious tho if I should have both vga and dvi cables hooked up at the same time. The monitor didn't really come with instructions that explained it, just a diagram showing where they plugged in. I read that dvi is supposed to look better. I didn't really notice a difference just browsing the web with the different cables attached. Maybe I need a better vid card to see the difference.

Mar 4, 2006, 06:32 AM	#8
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	just tried it out again on other web browsers under a Windows that has all default settings, the default movie player seems to be working fine without needing to install anything else. so atm i don't know what else that i can suggest or you could try, but to perform a clean install of Windows and see? this might has something to do with your video settings or the device drivers that installed on the system, anyway, clean install of Windows and all other things will fix it. that dog seemed very happy and joyful. i like it. another thought, hope that didn't scare it too much. Last edited by PangingJr; Mar 4, 2006 at 07:40 AM.

Feb 23, 2006, 02:49 PM	#2
Grace HH's Tomboy Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Anywhere but in my house! Posts: 776 Rep Power: 56	Hello Skelleos, First of all, you have to use only one cable, preferably the DVI one. The other one you are using is currently not working at all. DVI will look better, but it takes a very well trained eye to notice the differences. Concerning the video that you cannot watch, it certainly is not because of the monitor, and I doubt it is because of the VGA card. You most probably have a software problem, or to be more exact I believe that you are merely missing a video codec. I cannot help you further since I do not know which codec you are missing, if any. Try finding and installing the Gordian Knot codec pack.

Mar 3, 2006, 09:54 AM	Thread Starter #3
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	I'm still having the problem. I have Windows Media Player 10 installed along with Windvd. Anyone have a link that might install a codec to view videos that I might be missing? Everytime I hit a myspace page with a video in it my screen starts flashing off and on.

Mar 3, 2006, 11:41 AM	#4
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	could you post URL address of the web page in question?

Mar 3, 2006, 12:11 PM	Thread Starter #5
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	Myspace is down atm but this is the site I was getting my videos from: http://www.music-codes.com/index.php It happens with any kind of video. The only site that it doesn't happen with, that I've found so far, is espn. This site for example: http://www.skateboardingbulldog.com/picsandmovies.htm I get white horizontal lines shooting thru the screen and then the screen blinks completely black off and on.

Mar 3, 2006, 11:14 PM	Thread Starter #7
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	It happens when I click on the movie link, it loads up/buffers, and then my screen blacks out off and on thru out the video as it plays. Oddly the sound is fine.

Mar 4, 2006, 10:29 AM	Thread Starter #9
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	Ya I ordered a new video card a couple days ago. I'm going to reformat and do a clean install of everything when that gets here. I'm almost thinking it's a virus or worm. I made the mistake of downloading some stuff off morpheus before installing my virus protecting software. When I ran the check it found like 650 infected files! They were all cleaned, maybe something I needed was deleted. I reran windows update, directx, media player, flash etc. but who knows what it could be. I've noticed if I leave my comp on for a long time just sitting doing nothing, my virus software finds infected files, like 1 or 2 will pop up, so it seems like somethings going on.

Mar 5, 2006, 08:59 AM	Thread Starter #10
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	I reinstalled XP, windows updates and media player 10....it's still doing it... The only thing left I can think is the drivers. I just got a new Acer lcd. This never happened with my old crt. I went to the Acer site and downloaded the drivers but they don't install automatically. Anyone know how to install these?

Mar 5, 2006, 09:38 AM	#11
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	make sure the monitor driver is made for your monitor and Windows XP. to install the driver open Device Manager, click the + sign font of Monitors, R-click the monitor and select Update Driver..., choose the option No, not this time and click Next, then choose Install from a list... and Next, then choose option "Don't search...." and Next, and then click Have Disk... and Browse to locate your monitor driver (* .inf file)...

Mar 5, 2006, 09:56 AM	Thread Starter #12
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	It won't take the drivers, a message comes up saying: "the wizard could not find a better match for your hardware than the software you currently have installed."

Mar 5, 2006, 10:04 AM	#13
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	check your monitor's manaul, you probably don't need to install specific device driver.

Mar 5, 2006, 10:15 AM	#14
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	if you think the problem that you had is caused by the monitor... then test this monitor on another Windows XP system. if the same problem has been occurred --- you need to talk to the monitor supports and/or request for a replacement from your retailer. if it seems to be working fine on the other system --- post back here.

Mar 5, 2006, 05:50 PM	#15
dipstick HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: USA Posts: 3,609 Rep Power: 71 System Specs	Ive heard that DVI on the 5200's is pretty bad. Try using only the VGA connection

Mar 5, 2006, 08:17 PM	Thread Starter #16
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	I'm getting a 6600gt agp, should be here tomorrow. I'm hoping that will be the fix.

Mar 11, 2006, 03:11 AM	Thread Starter #17
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	It was the video card. I got the 6600gt today, just installed it, and tested everything, all is good.