# Monitor blacks out intermittently



## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

I have an older XP machine and the screen has an annoying habit of going blank/black occasionally. At startup in the morning it seems the worst and I was thinking I have a hardware issue but one behavior indicates otherwise. If I am at a very dark site, that is a site whos content is dark gray or some similar dark color my monitor goes crazy blinking on and off. 
I updated my video card driver some time ago and might need to do that again but I find the whole topic kinda off-putting as I dont understand the process well and I'm afraid of messing up and not having a screen at all. I dont know why updating the video card has to be more difficult than other automated updates. 
Any thoughts would be appreciated.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Please post your complete System Specs.
If a OEM major brand PC(Dell, HP, Gateway, Asus etc) the Brand and Model are all that's required.
If a Custom Build the Brands and Models of the
Motherboard
CPU
Video card
Power Supply(from the label on the supply)
Ram Brand and Part Number
Hard drive
Any other install add in cards(Audio, Network etc)
If all else fails run Speccy System Information after it runs go to the file menu and Publish the results to Piriform's web site, you will then be given a URL to copy and paste in your next post so we can access the data.


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

Thanks for the quick reply.
My machine is an HP a1132n
I have not modified anything as I would be in way over my head. The video card is original. I updated the driver via the cards website a while back. I dont know that I did it correctly as I actually have 2 ATI logos in the bottom tray so I guess more than 1 instance of a driver is running? Though right now there is no logo in the tray so I dont know what is up.

Here's the info on my video component:


Name	ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series
PNP Device ID	PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5B60&SUBSYS_04601092&REV_00\4&123D6358&0&0010
Adapter Type	ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x5B60), ATI Technologies Inc. compatible
Adapter Description	ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series
Adapter RAM	128.00 MB (134,217,728 bytes)
Installed Drivers	ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version	6.14.10.6925
INF File	oem31.inf (ati2mtag_RV370 section)
Color Planes	1
Color Table Entries	65536
Resolution	1600 x 900 x 60 hertz
Bits/Pixel	16
Memory Address	0xFA000000-0xFBFFFFFF
I/O Port	0x0000EF00-0x0000EFFF
Memory Address	0xFDDF0000-0xFDDFFFFF
IRQ Channel	IRQ 18
I/O Port	0x000003B0-0x000003BB
I/O Port	0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address	0xA0000-0xBFFFF
Driver	c:\windows\system32\drivers\ati2mtag.sys (6.14.10.6925, 3.40 MB (3,565,568 bytes), 8/9/2007 9:38 AM)

Name	ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series Secondary
PNP Device ID	PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5B70&SUBSYS_04611092&REV_00\4&123D6358&0&0110
Adapter Type	ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x5B70), ATI Technologies Inc. compatible
Adapter Description	ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series Secondary
Adapter RAM	128.00 MB (134,217,728 bytes)
Installed Drivers	ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version	6.14.10.6925
INF File	oem31.inf (ati2mtag_RV370 section)
Color Planes	Not Available
Color Table Entries	Not Available
Resolution	Not Available
Bits/Pixel	Not Available
Memory Address	0xFDDE0000-0xFDDEFFFF
Driver	c:\windows\system32\drivers\ati2mtag.sys (6.14.10.6925, 3.40 MB (3,565,568 bytes), 8/9/2007 9:38 AM)

I never understood very well how to update the driver and got conflicting info about how to do it so there may be a conflict in drivers. Is there a tutorial that I could follow, maybe an idiots guide to updating a video driver? I am self-taught in computers and the teacher was kinda old and dumb so it seems I cant get far at this.

Thanks again for taking the time to help


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Lets try the driver first.
To start you'll want to D/L the driver from ATI, it's now considered a`Legacy driver> ATI Catalyst

The Full Catalyst suite contains extra settings and performance tools I'm guessing you don't need nor have used? If not scroll down to option 2 the WDM driver package and Download.
Save the file to your desktop.

From the Device Manager uninstall both current instances of the video driver.
To open "Device Manager", right click on "My Computer" select Properties, On the Hardware tab Select Device Manager, expand Display adapters, right click select properties, on the driver tab click on uninstall, if there is a second instance of display adapter do the same, reboot.

Double click on the driver file grant any permissions needed and let it install.


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

That seems to have done it.
Thank you so much for walking me through it. A thousand blessings on you.

Thanks


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Glad to hear it's working


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

Rats!

The behavior is back. It seems to be getting worse. Although it has gone back to blinking on and off occasionally a couple of times this morning the screen has gone black and not come back, forcing a restart.

Is there a program that can test the video card? 

My machine is clean, as I keep AVG, Superantispyware, and Malwarebytes running always so there is very little chance its a virus/trojan. It acts a lot more like a hardware issue but I dont know how to confirm this.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Not really, there are some load test programs, but it'll be inconclusive since it happens randomly now, Furmark being the most popular free program > |MG| FurMark 1.9.1 Download

It's probably a failing video card the best way to test is to out it in another PC, or to install another card in this PC.


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

I went and purchased a new video card. A Nvidia GeForce 210 was recommended by the guy at Fry's. I installed it after pulling half my hair out. Now it takes my computer forever to start up, which is to say after installing the driver and all the other bells and whistles that came with the card that I dont need I restarted the system it has taken probably 10 minutes to load start up programs that used to load in no time. What is that all about?
I would think that if anything a newer card would speed things up beyond what my 6 year old card had me used to, but it has slowed things down. 
Is there something in BIOS I need to adjust?


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

My CPU is running at 100%, even after closing most everything. Rundll32 is eating up everything, and it seems after Googling rundll32 that I dont know exactly what that is all about.
Now I see why people just go buy new computers.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

First issue ATI/AMD chipset motherboard and a Nvidia video card there are going to be driver clashes, did you uninstall the ATI video drivers before the swap?

Personally I would return the 210 and opt for a 4350 or 4450 ATI card

Rundll32 is a system process that runs a .DLL file it could be any DLL file driver related or not.


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

Yes I did uninstall the ATI driver before. Some amount of this problem might be caused by the fact that my old machine's memory is being stretched pretty thin so I'm uninstalling everything that is not essential to see if that helps because the software that installed with the video card runs all the time and eats up resources. I couldnt find just a driver without all the bells and whistles at Nvidia's web site so I'm cleaning out and freeing up resources. 

If this doesnt work I'll take it back. I suppose this kid at Frys didnt know about the potential conflict. It seems it just doesnt pay to rely on someone else knowing, well you obviously do, but walking into a retail store I suppose walking blindfolded to the boxes and picking one out would work about as well.


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

Cautiously I say....it's looking better. I dont think I can bear doing this again, so it looks as though I'm fixed, fingers crossed. Thanks for being there and answering panicked questions from this newb, I really appreciate it.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

I've seen them work together just fine then one or the other manufacturer updates a driver and all heck breaks loose.

Yea the only thing nvidia offers is the driver package, but the disk that comes with the card generally has a few other programs on it.


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

Well things seemed to be going just fine, with resources freed up my system was humming along with zero display problems. Then my final restart, and things went wayyyyy haywire. I'll be taking your recommendation and returning the card and going with the ATI


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

Well its day 2 of the epic battle and I think things are actually worse than day 1. I took your advice and purchased a Diamond Radeon HD 5450. They didnt have what you recommended, and this was the lowest tech, if you will, Radeon card they had.

I fully uninstalled the other card including the driver. The computer restarted. I then shut it down. I went to Frys and got the replacement card. I installed the card and turned the computer on. Both my DVD/CD drives started up spinning at max speed and would not stop. I could not get the drives to eject, I could not get them to do anything. I pushed the power button to force a hard restart but as soon as it shut off it turned back on within a nano second. There is nothing on my monitor and there has not been anything displayed since installing the new card.

I suppose this is too much card? It seems impossible to find a low tech card for this thing. I think that the march of progress has left this machine behind and there is not a compatible video card.

Any thoughts?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

If you remove the card and hook up the integrated will it boot?


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

Ya know the pin arrangement is different. The original video card had a DVI-D pin arrangement and this card has a DVI-I Dual link. Does that make a difference?

While it is aggravating I suppose the upside is that I'm learning a little something about video cards.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

DVI I can put out both Analog(VGA) and Digital DVI D, DVI D is digital only, so I suspect you have a Digital monitor using DVI?


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

The monitor is a Samsung SynchMaster 2033SW. I downloaded the manual for the monitor and it indicates that it is a VGA monitor. It has a VGA connector on the back as well as a DVI-D connector.
So I dont understand why it calls itself a VGA monitor when it has a digital connector.

I dont know what you mean about hooking it up to the integrated. I'll have to investigate


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The board has integrated, it may be covered by a plastic cap.


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

It will boot with the integrated. I had no idea there was an integrated graphics option. I'm sure at your end you are thinking "what a putz", but for me, I gotta say I'm learning a lot.

So maybe download and install the driver then the card?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

No the driver won't install without the card being recognized.

While it's booting, enter the bios and look for a PC health page, your looking fro the voltage readings for the 12v, 5v, and 3.3v power rails.
The common theme has been increasing wattage on the video cards, the original OEM favorite x300se only drew about 15 watts from the power supply, the 8400gs about 24 the HD5450 about 28 watts, as the card wattage increased the problems got worse.

So of course I wondering if a failing power supply is the underlying problem.

If the bios does not have them or you can't find them try using HW Monitor in Windows.

Lastly the cheapest solution depending on your uses for the PC may just be to use the integrated and install the driver for it.


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## rocks911 (Aug 13, 2011)

In BIOS there was no PC Health that I could find. I think I'll go with your last idea and just use the integrated video. My wife has agreed to let me purchase a new PC in a few months after my daughter stops spending my money getting married.Thanks for the help. I'm not even going to say I'm done, thats bitten me already, I'll just say see ya later, and thanks again, and still a thousand blessings


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

I'm thinking it doesn't stop after they get married..........I thought it would stop after college....Nope .....Mine just got a job and moved out now it seems I'm paying to decorate her apartment.............


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