Monitor problem... or is it the graphics card?

[JDeRouen]

I'm having a strange problem with my monitor, it starts blacking out intermittently at high resolution. It'll go black, then flicker back on, then off, then on... you get the idea. I lowered it to a nasty 1024x768 last night and it was fine. This morning I put it back at 1680x1050 and it seems fine, but I know it'll probably do it again. I'm trying to figure out if it's the monitor itself, the video card, or what. I'm hoping it's the monitor, as it's still under the 4 yr. Best Buy warranty. Any ideas?

[megoapesnut]

Most likely the monitor. I have had many monitor problems, but zero graphics card problems in 20 years of dealing with hundreds of computers. I know card problems are not unheard of, but they are quite a bit rarer than monitor problems.

[JDeRouen]

That is my thought as well. I just called the monitor company (Hannspree) and they were little help. The guy had a heavy Dutch accent, which was part of the problem. They wanted me to put the monitor on a different PC to see if the problem continued, but this monitor uses HDMI and the other PCs in the house are older and do not so I can't really do that.

The monitor is 3 yrs old and the graphics card is less than a year old. Plus, like you said, in my own experience monitors die all the time, but I've never had a graphics card problem. Still, I'm checking out all options, because I don't want to haul the monitor into Best Buy if is isn't actually the problem.