Dell monitor problem

northerner77

For the last couple of days my 3 year old Dell PC's (24 inch) monitor has been faulty, keeps starting off having lots of vertical lines, then goes blurred & funny colours - hardly can make out anything on screen then it occasionally goes back to being perfectly normal for a few secs/mins. Frustrating!

I've tried the obvious re-connecting/plugging in everything tactic but getting nowhere. Anyone else suffered this before? What are the possible causes?

Thanks for any pointers.
Thick Northerner

johnmc

Does it work on another machine? If not then it's off to the tip, I'm afraid.

If it does, then it may be the drivers.

Go into Device Manager and delete the monitors. Reboot and the system will find the "new" hardware and load the drivers.

northerner77

johnmc wrote: »

Does it work on another machine? If not then it's off to the tip, I'm afraid.

If it does, then it may be the drivers.

Go into Device Manager and delete the monitors. Reboot and the system will find the "new" hardware and load the drivers.

Thanks, haven't tried yet to see if it works on another machine - how long do monitors 'usually' last?


How do I access 'device manager'?

johnmc

Longevity depends on usage and environment, like any electrical gadget. 3 years, IMO, is not bad.

Device Manager depends on your operating system. Try going to the Start button, select "Settings" and the "Control Panel". Then select Device Manager and look for monitors.

northerner77

johnmc wrote: »

Device Manager depends on your operating system. Try going to the Start button, select "Settings" and the "Control Panel". Then select Device Manager and look for monitors.

Found monitor but cannot 'delete' - bah! There are three options there that I can barely read, one is properties I think.

[Deleted User]

Boot Windows in Safe Mode by pressing F8 during startup, select the top option and see if the problem persists.

johnmc

If you right click do you get an "Uninstall" option?

Another route is to right click the desktop and see if there is "Graphics Properties" or similar.

Set the monitor to the lowest possible settings and slowly build it up to the point it cannot cope.

I've seen this symptom on both dodgy monitors and dodgy graphics cards so you could also try installing the latest drivers for the card.

Figment

Test your monitor and different cable on your PC
Test your monitor and your cable on different PC
Test your monitor and different cable on different PC
Test different monitor with your cable on your PC
Test different monitor with different cable on your PC


Should give an idea of wether monitor or graphics card is the cause.

northerner77

johnmc wrote: »

If you right click do you get an "Uninstall" option?

Seemingly not.


Another route is to right click the desktop and see if there is "Graphics Properties" or similar.

Click from where exactly?

Thanks everyone, I'm attempting to give all options a go til this gets sorted, can't believe 3 yrs is all I'll get from a damn monitor. A pain to get hold of extra cables/other pcs & monitors though. Typing this from the Dell laptop.

GunJack

you can use the lappy to drive the monitor using the lappy's vga port, may need to use Fn+a.n.other F-key to toggle display between the internal and external screens

northerner77

GunJack wrote: »

you can use the lappy to drive the monitor using the lappy's vga port, may need to use Fn+a.n.other F-key to toggle display between the internal and external screens

..............