[vox-tech] Acer AL2216W (blank screen)

[Thomas Johnston]

Thanks Richard and Jeff. Just to make sure I understand, you think the
video card inside the external monitor has failed?





On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 7:27 AM, Jeff Newmiller
<jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote:
> 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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>
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