[vox-tech] Acer AL2216W (blank screen)

[Jeff Newmiller]

This sounds more like the video card, though it could be the video connector or cable.

"Richard Harke" <paleopenguin at gmail.com> wrote:

>In recent years I have noticed that video cards die distressingly soon.
>Often with
>strange symptoms that make it appear to be something more basic. I do have
>to admit
>that the most recen time (about two weeks ago) it was in fact the monitor.
>That was an
>HP 22" LCD monitor only 5 years old. My previous monitor was a Sony CRT that
>went back
>to the early 90's.
>
>I can only suugest that you try swapping out starting with whatever you can
>do cheaply.
>Especially if you can borrow a component for testing.
>
>I do have an extra video card but I'm not in Davis so you'd have to wait
>till
>the regular Lugod meeting.
>
>Richard
>
>
>On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Thomas Johnston <trjohnston at ucdavis.edu>wrote:
>
>> I am running Kubuntu 10.04 (64 bit) on my Dell Vostro 1500 and using
>> an Acer AL2216W as a second monitor. Everything was working great
>> until last Monday morning. I powered up the computer, activated the
>> external monitor and the max resolution was 1280x1024 (the native
>> resolution is 1680x1050 - same as my laptop display). I didn't do
>> anything to modify any video settings so I don't know exactly what
>> prompted the change; however, there were about 10 "bug fixes" the day
>> before. Looking at the history of fixes I don't see anything that
>> looks likely to cause a problem, but I am certainly not a Linux
>> expert.
>>
>> Anyway, I have spent the last 4 days doing everything I can to make it
>> work again: updated drivers, uninstalled/reinstalled drivers, deleting
>> the xorg.conf file and having one auto generated, manually editing the
>> xorg.conf .... nothing has worked. In fact, the situation is now
>> worse. I can't even get the monitor to display anything anymore - just
>> a black screen. I think the monitor itself is fine, if I turn it on I
>> see the "ACER" logo appear, then I briefly see a dialog box that says
>> "no signal", and then it goes blank. I don't have a great
>> understanding of the xorg.conf file, but I was very careful when
>> editing it. I read all of the NVIDIA documentation online and I found
>> examples of xorg.conf files online from people with this same monitor
>> who claimed to have it working, so I don't think I used a refresh/sync
>> rate beyond what the monitor is capable of (I didn't smell any
>> smoke!).  My Google searches have indicated that many people have had
>> problems reading EDID data from this monitor. I have even plugged it
>> into a Windows machine with an ATI graphics card and same
>> thing...blank screen.
>>
>> I checked the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file and I see this warning:
>> (WW) Sep 16 15:07:43 NVIDIA(GPU-0): Unable to read EDID for display device
>> CRT-0
>>
>> there are no errors (EE) generated.
>>
>> Other system details in case it is relevant:
>> The monitor is connected to my graphics card via the VGA port (my
>> laptop doesn't have any other display ports; however the monitor does
>> have a DVI-D connection)
>> NVIDIA Driver Version: 256.53
>> Server Version: 1.7.6
>> NV-CONTROL Version: 1.23
>> Graphics Card: GeForce 8600M GT
>>
>>
>> My question is: do you think the monitor is toast or would work again
>> if I could get a working EDID.bin and/or xorg.conf file (perhaps from
>> kind soul on the interwebs)?
>>
>>
>> thanks in advance,
>>
>> Thomas
>> _______________________________________________
>> vox-tech mailing list
>> vox-tech at lists.lugod.org
>> http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
>>
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