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25 Nov 04 - 05:01 PM (#1339128) Subject: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: GUEST,Rapaire I'm at a friend's place and using her computer. It's less than 6 months old, a Compaq Presario SR1030NX with a Compaq 7550 monitor. The monitor takes on a (usually) reddish cast at random times for about a second, and then goes back to its regular colors. She called HP/Compaq about it a couple months ago; they send a new monitor, but the problem still continues. I've run all the tests I could think of, degaussed it, etc. etc. -- everyhing said "Hey, it's just fine!" My thought at this point is that the video card is bad and that she'll therefore have to deal with HP's Bangalore Office again. Any other suggestinons? |
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25 Nov 04 - 05:12 PM (#1339133) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: Clinton Hammond Check the cable before you worry about the card... Then check for video card driver updates... (Though if it's only 6 months old, it shouldn't be an issue) |
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25 Nov 04 - 05:17 PM (#1339140) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: Dave the Gnome Why deal with the Bangalore office? HP support (from personal experience) follows the sun. You could get the US or UK given the right time frame! Nothing wrong with Bangalore but USers and UKers can deal with their local offices. Unless it has changed drasticaly since the merge:-( Try usual debug routines. First thing - Is it OK on a different machine? Second - Latest drivers (Both card and monitor). Good luck! Cheers DtG |
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25 Nov 04 - 05:18 PM (#1339143) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: Dave the Gnome Oh yes and thanks for reminding me Clinton - Cables have caused me huge problems! :D |
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25 Nov 04 - 05:20 PM (#1339148) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: Clinton Hammond I don't even wanna go into some of the hoops I've jumped through needlessly because of a faulty cable! LOL |
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25 Nov 04 - 05:42 PM (#1339163) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: Blissfully Ignorant It might be less faulty if you used a proper skipping rope to jump through hoops, instead of inflicting it on your cables...:0) |
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25 Nov 04 - 05:45 PM (#1339165) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: Clinton Hammond Did someone hear a buzzing in here or something? |
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25 Nov 04 - 05:48 PM (#1339167) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: Blissfully Ignorant That was me. I ate to many beans. Sorry. |
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25 Nov 04 - 06:05 PM (#1339173) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: Joybell I've just gone through this with a new computer and monitor. Rather it was worse. Lost all reds first then lost reds and blues. Everything was bright yellow. It WAS the cable we think! But it happened with several cables we tried. The monitor came back from the repair place with a note to say they'd "re-soldered the pins". Still don't know why the monitor, on loan to us, with a different cable also did the same thing! AAAAH! OK for now. Joy |
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25 Nov 04 - 06:19 PM (#1339182) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: s&r Just a thought - have you tightened the screws on the D connector? Stu |
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25 Nov 04 - 06:24 PM (#1339186) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: Dave the Gnome Leave our D connectors to us and we will leave yours to you and Rusty OK? :D |
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25 Nov 04 - 06:42 PM (#1339203) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: s&r Had problems with loose screws all my life Stu |
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25 Nov 04 - 08:20 PM (#1339270) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: The Fooles Troupe "You want a Screw Driver? No thanks, just had one..." Now back to the technical stuff.... A 'dry joint' - incorrectly soldered joint of the cable to the pin in the monitor is a very likely cause - if the production line gets a glitch - all the cables in a particular run may have at least one faulty join. I had hassles with several monitors in the past - one of the pins being bent due to ham-fisted clods plugging the monitor in forcefully - on more than one occasion. |
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25 Nov 04 - 08:45 PM (#1339287) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: Mark Cohen That's one good thing about a laptop: none of those pesky cables to plug in. If anything goes wrong, all you do is hold it out at arm's length, about shoulder height...and let go. Aloha, Mark |
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26 Nov 04 - 07:03 AM (#1339558) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: Dave the Gnome Just another thought - If it is not the monitor, cable or drivers your are down to the card. The Presario SR1030NX hs an on-board 64Mb graphics card. I have never been happy with on board cards as they never seem to perform as well as the seperate ones. On checking I find this box does have an AGP expansion slot (Some HP ones didn't believe it or not!). I would recommend putting a 128Mb GeForce in anyway. In the UK you can get them from around 30 quid now - Probably less in the States. Cheers DtG |
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26 Nov 04 - 10:11 AM (#1339703) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: JohnInKansas Several years ago we purchased two identical systems, and when the first one was set up the monitor displayed severely "off" color possibly like what's described - except it was permanent. A call to the builder suggested checking for bent pins in the connector - which proved to be the problem. On checking the other system, which was still in the box and still had the shipping protectors on the cables and connectors, we found the same pin bent on the other system, apparently by whoever put the little shipping caps on. The "pins" in this case were little more than a stripped end on the cable wires, extended through a "terminal block." Since a "no-connect" like we had would produce a constant problem, rather than an intermittent one as described, it's more likely an intermittent loss of signal on one or more of the signal lines. As suggested before, cold solder joints are famous for such intermittent interruptions. The suggestion of swapping monitors or computers to isolate whether it's the monitor or the computer, if possible, would be good. Another remote possibility - probably very remote - is that external magnetic disturbance can cause color distortion, although more usually there's quite a lot of "bending" in the image as well. When we hooked up a jury rig next to the stereo rack to archive some old vinyl records, one of the stereo speakers "blew away" the colors on the PC monitor until we relocated things. It would be difficult to imagine a sufficiently powerful "magnetic field device" that wouldn't be immediately identifiable, and pretty much constant unless you move hardware around; but it's hard for me to imagine the conditions some people describe for their systems, so I suppose nothing's impossible. Our current monitors seem much less susceptible to external EM, but there's still some variation from one monitor to the next. On one older one, I found it almost impossible to "measure" images on the screen with my trusty 6" metal scale, since putting the (slightly magnetised) scale close to the screen would make the image move and distort. Our current monitors seem immune to this effect. (I change monitors much more often that I change my obsolete drafting tools.) John |
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26 Nov 04 - 04:29 PM (#1339984) Subject: RE: Tech: Monitor changing Colors From: The Fooles Troupe Modern 'Computer Loudspeakers' are supposed to have magnetic shielding to prevent interference with the screen. Many modern Momitors (and TV screens) often have 'degaussing coils' built in to obviate similar problems - they work during switch on. |