VideoDisplay Failures

Video/Display Failures

Most people assume that when they first power on their PCs and fail to see a display, something is terribly wrong with the video itself. But as you’ve read in previous chapters, it’s not uncommon for an improperly installed or incompatible device to prevent the PC from booting to the point where a display appears or to interfere with the display that should appear. Thus, if you’ve just installed a new or replacement component to your PC, check this installation first.

Well, almost first, since the leading cause of reported video failure is actually a tie between

  • The monitor not being turned on or not being plugged in to a good power source

  • A loose or disconnected cable running between the monitor and the video adapter

Check both of these situations first. Other possibilities include

  • A serious driver problem

  • An improperly installed video adapter

  • A damaged or dead video adapter

  • A malfunctioning monitor (A dead monitor usually won’t have any power, while a malfunctioning one may show a lit power button, but no actual video.)

  • A bent pin on the cable connector running from the monitor to the video adapter (These bent pins can sometimes be carefully bent back into place. Often, the bent pin just snaps off and you need to replace either the cable or the monitor if the cable is permanently attached to the monitor (some repair shops can re-pin the connector for you).

  • A damaged or dead motherboard, especially if the video chipset is integrated into the motherboard rather than available as a separate add-in expansion board

Tip 

If the monitor works well enough to do its self-test (see your monitor documentation) and reports that it is working well, you should assume the problem is with the video adapter or with the system itself.

Video and Overheating-Induced Failures

Today’s best video adapters—and even some average ones—are powerful beasts that can provide you with luscious game play and DVD playback quality. The electronics required to empower these adapters are often a miracle of modern engineering in terms of all that they fit onto those small printed circuit boards. As you’ll recall from Chapter 2, these video adapters often have their own graphics processor, acting as a video-specific brain, and many other strategic components, including anywhere from 8MB to 128MB of memory.

Unfortunately, serious heat can build up around the video adapter as a direct result of its functions and features. While several top-of-the-line video adapters feature an on-board fan to move hot air away from the graphics processor and some also offer a heat sink used to reduce the heat generated by sensitive components, either your video adapter may not have this heat-reduction hardware or it may be insufficient to do the job. For example, if your video adapter is just one of a number of different boards installed in your motherboard’s expansion slots, it may have a tough time pushing that hot air away from such a crowded space, even with a fan present.

While overheating is one of the major topics of Chapter 11, you need to factor in this possibility when troubleshooting video failures. An overheated video adapter that has not yet been permanently damaged by excessive heat may work fine whenever the unit has been turned off for a period of time (to cool things off) and then started back up again. But the situation may degrade again once the ambient temperature around that video adapter climbs past acceptable levels. If that’s the pattern you see in a suspected video adapter failure, you need to improve the circulation inside your system.

Tip 

Your video manufacturer’s web site may contain helpful suggestions for reducing heat-related problems.

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A Cautionary Tale: In the If-it-Ain’t-Broken, Fix-it-Until-it-is Department

Remember that earlier in this chapter I discussed the issue of the Unknown Device listings in Device Manager and how to troubleshoot them. That discussion reminds me of an older system in my office that has listed its installed video adapter as an Unknown Device since the PC was upgraded to Windows XP last year. I know exactly what the problem is: The video adapter in that PC was made by a company that went out of business in 1999, so it hasn’t had a driver update since Windows 98 was new.

If I replace the video adapter with one that can be updated, that Unknown Device entry would disappear like yesterday’s weather. But the video works decently, and I’ve had no problems beyond that entry in Device Manager, so I’m happy to nurse this situation along until I retire the system before it’s time to upgrade my operating system again.

What makes this a cautionary tale is that the only times I have had problems with my Unknown Device display is when I’ve tried to cure it: by going back to default video drivers, by trying to use a very similar device driver, and by trying to install the last available driver for that video adapter. In fact, these so-called cures caused me several headaches until I set things back to the way they had been.

The message here is two-fold. One, not all errors and problems that appear in Device Manager will affect your ability to work with your system. Two, you must sometimes pick your fights with recalcitrant devices and drivers. If you’ve got a situation that isn’t ideal but yet is still stable and workable, think twice before fixing it.

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PC Disaster and Recovery
PC Disaster and Recovery
ISBN: 078214182X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 140
Authors: Kate J. Chase

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