Black Screen Sometimes with Solid Green Light

[fiterfly]

Hello, everyone,

Since I am not sure whether this is a driver, software or hardware problem, I decided to start by posting in this general discussion forum. Please feel free to move it if you feel some other place is more appropriate.

I upgraded to Windows 7 shortly after purchasing a new PC late last year. I am using an ASUS P7P55D motherboard, ASUS NVIDIA GeForce 9600GSO graphics card, and a ViewSonic VA720 LCD monitor.

The issue that has stumped me since I got this new computer is that about 33% of the time when the computer initiates the monitor (when coming out of standby or hibernation or when starting the computer), I will see the desktop for about 1 second and then the screen will go black. If I turn the monitor off and on again, I will see the image for another second and then it may or may not go black again. The interesting thing is that the power light on the LCD is still a solid green (it goes orange if no signal is detected). Therefore, the LCD supposedly is still getting a signal, but it does not display anything. Other than not being able to see anything, the computer and Windows 7 operates normally.

If I turn the monitor off and then on, it will either stay on another second before going black or actually stay on, in which case I go about my day. Sometimes this takes 5-6 tries of turning the monitor on or off. Other times I give up and use these 1-second intervals to turn the computer off with my mouse (or restart blindly with the appropriate keyboard strokes) and try rebooting.

I have tried the following fixes from various suggestions I found through Google to no avail:

* Updated all drivers

* Applied all Windows Updates

* Update motherboard BIOS (no GPU BIOS revision out yet that I could find)

* Press "Auto-Adjust" when the monitor is black (it doesn't work). It is interesting to note that when the monitor goes black with the solid green light, I cannot even see the On-Screen Display of the LCD interface (like the interface for changing brightness and contrast etc). I press the buttons but nothing happens.

* Disable "Link State Power Management" under "PCI-Express" in the "Advanced Power Settings".

* I would like to try connecting to the DVI port of the GPU (it has one DVI and one VGA) but my old LCD only takes VGA and I don't have an adapter. I might look into this.

Another interesting item...sometimes this blank screen happens on startup. It does not happen, however, until after the Windows logo screen, which is displayed properly without fail. After that, if it decides to fail, the screen goes black and stays black (or boots normally). I then turn the monitor off and on until the image stays there.

I am positive that this issue did not start until I switched over to my new computer, so it is either a motherboard, GPU or Windows 7 issue. Since I have done everything I could in regards to the GPU and motherboard I am wondering if any of you might have any suggestions.

Also, I have not been able to find anybody with the same issue (it's kind of tricky to describe in search terms). If any of you remember seeing similar threads, I would appreciate it too.

Thanks in advance for all of your help!

 

[PooMan UK]

Hi Pal and welcome to the 7 forums ... is it possible for you to fill out your system spec in full ... just makes it easier to troubleshoot ... thanks

 

[Zomby88]

How old is the monitor?

 

[fiterfly]

@ PooManUK: Thanks for the welcome! I just put in my specs.

@ Zomby88: The monitor itself is fairly old. I think I got it in 2004. It only has one VGA input and no DVI. Are there incompatibility issues that may arise with older monitors for my graphics card or Windows 7? I am fairly sure it is not malfunctioning because the issue only started when I upgraded my computer. Also, the screen goes blank after a very specific time (after the logo when the desktop should appear).

 

[WindowsStar]

Have you tried disabling the nVidia Service? The nVidia video service is known to cause many problems.

 

[Zomby88]

@ PooManUK: Thanks for the welcome! I just put in my specs.

@ Zomby88: The monitor itself is fairly old. I think I got it in 2004. It only has one VGA input and no DVI. Are there incompatibility issues that may arise with older monitors for my graphics card or Windows 7? I am fairly sure it is not malfunctioning because the issue only started when I upgraded my computer. Also, the screen goes blank after a very specific time (after the logo when the desktop should appear).

Being a Tech I try to fix things systematically through a process of elimination.
The monitor works fine on another system, yes?

 

[Lordbob75]

I would agree that this sounds like a bad monitor, but at the same time does not.

It sounds more like the graphics card is glitching.
First thoughts:
1) Try reseating your graphics card; it may not be connecting properly.
2) Try a different port (if it has 2 like mine)
3) Try a different video card (if you have extras laying around like I do), or onboard video if you have it.

~Lordbob

 

[fiterfly]

@ WindowsStar:

Thanks for the tip about NVIDIA. That is something I have not thought of. I looked at the startup programs and the only thing graphics card related that I could see was "Gamer OSD" by ASUS. There is also ASUS SmartDoc which monitors the GPU but I did not see it in the startup programs. I could not find it in the list of Services either. I went to the Services again to look for NVIDIA items, and found two: "NVIDIA Display Driver Service" (nvvsc.exe) and "NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service" (nvSCAPISvr.exe). Are those what you would suggest that I disable?

@ Zomby88

Other than the fact that the monitor is older, I am fairly sure it is a software issue. When I first started, this only happened when the screen gets turned off by power saver or if I went into standby-hibernation. As I was updating drivers, it seems to happen on startup sometimes. After recently updating the motherboard BIOS (I saved that until last) it definitely is doing it at startup more now.

I am fairly sure that this is not an issue with the monitor because the problem does seem to evolve with software changes that I make. It also did not start until I moved to the new computer, so it is likely either hardware with the new machine or software.

@ Lordbob75:

Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried reseating the graphics card when I opened the case up to check the revision number (and found out there were no BIOS updates for the GPU).

My video card does have two ports, one DVI and one VGA. I will need to get an adapter to try it on the DVI port...I will report back regarding that in a few days.

As for a different video card...I'll have to look around a bit. Perhaps I can try the integrated video card on the motherboard.

@ everyone:

This leads me to a driver question. Originally, I updated the graphics card driver to the most recent one possible from the ASUS website. When that didn't fix the problem, I went to NVIDIA's website where they had a much more recent driver release. Who should you usually get the drivers from for graphics cards? The manufacturer or the chipset maker?

Thanks for all of your tips. I will try disabling the NVIDIA service first, and then try using the integrated graphics on the motherboard or the DVI port. Since I want to change one thing at a time and the issue does not happen immediately, it will take some time to try each of your suggestions out. Thanks and I'll keep this thread updated!

 

[mitchell65]

Have you tried a different lead?

 

[fiterfly]

@ Mitchell65: Pardon my ignorance...what do you mean by lead? A different cable? My monitor has the cable built in, so I am not able to troubleshoot it.

WindowsStar's suggestion of removing nVidia services had me remove ASUS GPU-related applications first. I started by disabling the ASUS GamerOSD (screen capture etc program I think) on startup. So far, I have restarted the computer about 5 times and went into standby 3 times and the blank screen hasn't happened yet. Seeing as how this seems very promising, I will leave it this way over the weekend and report back as to whether this fixed it or not.

 

[Lordbob75]

Try going to an older driver.

~Lordbob

 

[fiterfly]

@ Lordbob:

Thanks for that suggestion. I'll add that to the list of things to try.

At the moment, it seems like disabling the ASUS Gamer OSD program doesn't fix it. I have disabled the nVidia Stereoscopic 3D service in the "services" list and see how that goes.

 

[WindowsStar]

@ WindowsStar:

Thanks for the tip about NVIDIA. That is something I have not thought of. I looked at the startup programs and the only thing graphics card related that I could see was "Gamer OSD" by ASUS. There is also ASUS SmartDoc which monitors the GPU but I did not see it in the startup programs. I could not find it in the list of Services either. I went to the Services again to look for NVIDIA items, and found two: "NVIDIA Display Driver Service" (nvvsc.exe) and "NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service" (nvSCAPISvr.exe). Are those what you would suggest that I disable?

Yes those are the 2 I was thinking about.

 

[fiterfly]

Thought I'd send a quick update:

I disabled the two nVidia services as well as ASUS Gamer OSD on startup, and the problem still persists.

I should add a correction that the screen goes black after the "log-in + welcome" screen very consistently if it goes bad.

I have now uninstalled ASUS GamerOSD and ASUS Smart Doctor and we will see what happens. Since it happens at such a consistent part of the startup (if it happens...it does not happen all the time), I am feeling like it should be some sort of program/driver that happens at the windows startup. I'll keep this thread posted. Thanks for your help!

 

[WindowsStar]

Does it happend when you boot in safe mode?

 

[Frostmourne]

The easiest option would be:

1) Replace the monitor

2) Replace the GPU

3) Replace the PSU - I'd do this first.

 

[fiterfly]

@ WindowsStarr:

I tried booting it in safe mode a couple of times without issue. Since this occurs randomly though, I will begin doing it a couple times a day just to see. Thanks for the suggestions!

@ FrostMourne:

It is possible that replacing the monitor may fix it. I'll have to dig around to see if I have an older GPU to try out. I highly doubt it's the PSU...it's barely a few months old and that was one item I did not cheap out on.

Again, I'm fairly certain this is a software issue...unless the computer for some reason sends out two different signals at the welcome screen and the regular desktop screen where a damaged LCD monitor can only discern one of them. I would question the fact that that the computer is sending out two different signals.

@ everyone:

Since the last post, I've uninstalled ASUS SmartDoc, ASUS Gamer OSD, and nVidia Stereoscopic 3D (as opposed to disabling it) and also disabled all ASUS programs to start at startup except for the ASUS EPU-6 engine (a power monitoring program that is not straightforward to remove from startup). I think I would have to uninstall ASUS EPU-6 to remove it from startup and am reluctant because it does a nice job controlling the fans etc. If this still does not fix it, I will continue to remove the remaining nVidia non-driver software and then the remaining ASUS programs. I'll keep this thread posted.

 

[fiterfly]

Hello, everyone,

I have successfully reproduced the problem when hooking the monitor up to the laptop, though not reliably. Regardless, it seems certain now that it is a problem with the monitor. It was so late in my troubleshooting process because it did not happen until the day after I had hooked it up to a new computer with a new motherboard, new GPU, new PSU and new operating system. I naturally thought that one of those were the issue until the problem worsened enough that I could eliminate all software possibilities.

Thank you for all of your help. I guess now is as good a time as any to experience those spiffy wide screens!