Is my PC a monitor killer? New LCD going fast.

[lendaddy]

My last monitor was an old style 19" and it slowly started losing it's picture. Lots of horizontal bars, really dim, colors all wrong and out of focus. So I bought a new 19" LCD two weeks ago......but now it's doing the same thing!!!! WTF? Could my computer be doing this?

[stomachmonkey]

Anythings possible. Could be the video card. Have you tried calibrating it? Does that make a diff? Hook the new monitor up to another PC, do you get the same problem?

Is there anything in the environment that could be affecting it? IE: monitor is close to in wall electrical wiring, cord from other "dirty" signal stuff running near monitor cables? Believe it or not cell phones can affect them. I leave my cell in front of both computers in the office, no issues. The guy in the office next to mine, his Dell 19" LCD goes weird everytime my cell rings. He knows before I do that I'm getting a call.

As you know I don't keep up on viruses much but a bunch of years ago there used to be this stupid "practical joke" utility.

You'd stick it on someones computer and every time they rebooted it would shrink the display size by 1 pixel on all 4 sides.

[Tim Walsh]

what kind of cable are you using? The DVI's produce much better, more reliable pictures than the old VGA cables. I've had some wierd color, and focus problems with the VGA cables I'm using in conjunction with LCD monitors.

[lendaddy]

I do have it hooked up via VGA, in fact this monitor only has VGA in. I will try hooking it up to another box as well.

I've also tried calibration with no luck.

Hmmm

[TerryH]

I think it's most likely the video card too. Either it's not making good contact in the slot/motherboard or it may be on its way out.

Pull the card and use a new pencil eraser to polish the contact strips. Slide it into and out of the slot in the motherboard a half dozen times. Make sure it's fully seated before tightening the screw. If the video cable to your monitor is weighing on the card, find a way to support it.

[lendaddy]

Thanks guys, it was the video card. I cleaned the connections with no improvement, but a new card did the trick. Thanks!