Screens go blank randomly

[Nick]

One of our users screens goes blank at random intervals since I reinstalled Windows 7 on it. It's like the screens are going into power saving mode but occasionally the mouse will be visible on the screen. Things I've tried so far:

Install latest drivers for the graphics card.
Swap the graphics card with another machine
Swap the screens over
Check power saving settings via control panel
Check power management settings of mouse and keyboard on device manager
Swap the monitor splitter (we use dual monitors but one display port)

The machine is a Dell Optiplex 390 running a Radeon 6450. This seems to be a problem with Optiplexs but it literally has only happened since a fresh install of windows (due to hard drive going bad).

Thanks.

 

[1etherer]

One of our users screens goes blank at random intervals since I reinstalled Windows 7 on it. It's like the screens are going into power saving mode but occasionally the mouse will be visible on the screen. Things I've tried so far:

Install latest drivers for the graphics card.
Swap the graphics card with another machine
Swap the screens over
Check power saving settings via control panel
Check power management settings of mouse and keyboard on device manager
Swap the monitor splitter (we use dual monitors but one display port)

The machine is a Dell Optiplex 390 running a Radeon 6450. This seems to be a problem with Optiplexs but it literally has only happened since a fresh install of windows (due to hard drive going bad).

Thanks.

Have you installed all the windows updates for the machine? If you have do a start-up repair

 

[carnageX]

Check to make sure the refresh rate is set correctly - could also try setting it to a different supported refresh rate. Had that fix a similar issue with an Optiplex I had to work on a couple years ago.

That, or make sure you swapped out the video cables as well as the splitter.

Have you tried driving just 1 monitor out from the card and seeing if it still causes issues?

 

[1etherer]

Check to make sure the refresh rate is set correctly - could also try setting it to a different supported refresh rate. Had that fix a similar issue with an Optiplex I had to work on a couple years ago.

That, or make sure you swapped out the video cables as well as the splitter.

Have you tried driving just 1 monitor out from the card and seeing if it still causes issues?

I would of thought he would change the video cables when changing the splitter so I didnt mention it, and he already mentioned he changed the video card completely from another machine so cant be the video card itself unless both were damaged.

 

[carnageX]

I would of thought he would change the video cables when changing the splitter so I didnt mention it, and he already mentioned he changed the video card completely from another machine so cant be the video card itself unless both were damaged.

Never assume what somebody has already done with troubleshooting .

I never mentioned swapping cards, because I saw he already tried that .

 

[1etherer]

Never assume what somebody has already done with troubleshooting .

I never mentioned swapping cards, because I saw he already tried that .

I agree, I did assume by mistake.

You said try 1 monitor in the card, but if he has swapped the card and still getting the issue then what good will trying 1 monitor do? im sure it will have the same issue

So unless both cards are damaged and 4 monitors are damaged and both splitters are damaged, I don't think they are the cause, maybe it is the video cable or when changing the HDD he hit the GPU and damaged the PCIE socket. I suggest he also install all updates as sometimes they can cause issues.

 

[carnageX]

I agree, I did assume by mistake.

You said try 1 monitor in the card, but if he has swapped the card and still getting the issue then what good will trying 1 monitor do?

It's possible that 2 monitors is capping the bandwidth on that 1 display port for that card, or just having issues driving multiple displays in general - could be a driver issue even though he's on the latest drivers.

Could be a bad install of Win7 as well. A re-image might be a good way to make sure.

 

[Nick]

Thanks for the responses! Haven't been able to look at it today as it's been one of those days. I'll try different VGA cables tomorrow but not really holding up much hope for that. A fresh install is looking like the likely option. Another idea I've had is to hook up another machine to the same monitors...will update.