Very odd problem with Flatron 795FT

[Lorand]

Hi everybody!

I'm experiencing a weird problem with a Flatron 795FT monitor and a Hercules 3D Prophet All-In-Wonder 9000 Pro video card: at cold start there is no image on the monitor for the first approx 10 min, only on TV-out. Sometimes in this interval on the monitor appears the "frequency out of range" message. But after 10 minutes the image appears and it's perfect and stable. Even after a restart the image is ok. But after a few hours after a shut-down I have to wait another 10 minutes after boot for the image to appear.
The interesting fact is that both the monitor and the video card works perfectly in other configurations.
And there's more: the image appears instantly (before the 10 min. limit) if I start the ATI TV application.
Nobody could explain this behavior yet....
Can you?

 

[TiGa TacTics]

Hi everybody!

I'm experiencing a weird problem with a Flatron 795FT monitor and a Hercules 3D Prophet All-In-Wonder 9000 Pro video card: at cold start there is no image on the monitor for the first approx 10 min, only on TV-out. Sometimes in this interval on the monitor appears the "frequency out of range" message. But after 10 minutes the image appears and it's perfect and stable. Even after a restart the image is ok. But after a few hours after a shut-down I have to wait another 10 minutes after boot for the image to appear.
The interesting fact is that both the monitor and the video card works perfectly in other configurations.
And there's more: the image appears instantly (before the 10 min. limit) if I start the ATI TV application.
Nobody could explain this behavior yet....
Can you?

I have had the same problem with my monitor same model. I had them replace my monitor....works great.

 

[Lorand]

But I love my monitor. It works great: the focus is perfect, the image is very stable and even calibrated professional monitors can not display such true colors as my Flatron does (working in DTP this thing is crucial for me). So there is no way to change my monitor and I'm waiting for another solution to this problem.
Recently I noticed that the horizontal frequency of the videocard's signal is not constant during the boot. Initially the HF is very high (thus "out of frequency") and slowly decreases until the image appears. Then it remains constant until power-off.

 

[Rick G]

Sounds like you may have an intermitant break in your circuitry, after it heats up the connections make contact anf away you go. Probably on the graphics side (digital) of the board that would not affect the TV part (analog)

 

[Lorand]

Sounds like you may have an intermitant break in your circuitry, after it heats up the connections make contact anf away you go. Probably on the graphics side (digital) of the board that would not affect the TV part (analog)

It's not so simple. The card works fine with other monitors, so there is no circuitry break in the video card. And if I turn off the monitor after the first 10 minutes (after the image appears on it) and let it cool down for several hours, when turned back on the image appears instantly. So there is no circuitry break in the monitor either.
I noticed that the card signal's horizontal frequency at the startup is very high (above 100 kHz) and than decreases until it reaches approx. 92 kHz. This is the moment the image appears. Once I tested this card with an ancient no-name 14" monitor. That monitor definitely could not support that horizontal frequency. But the image appeared instantly at the startup.
It's almost unbelievable...

 

[Rick G]

you might try setting your refresh rates downwards to about 65hz and see if it makes a difference. If your refresh rates are 100 and 92, thats too high. I set mine at 75 to 85.

 

[Lorand]

I already tried to change the refresh rates and resolution but with absolutely no results.
I forgot to mention that at cold start even the BIOS POST messages doesn't appear on the monitor. But during the boot-up the resolution is standard VGA and the refresh rate is 50 Hz -- so there is no refresh rate issue in this case.
After waiting the bloody 10 minutes for image to appear on monitor and then restarting the computer the BIOS messages appear as well.
Is there some paranormal activity in my computer?!

 

[Rick G]

Please post your entire system so better suggestions can be made, you could have something as funky as a weak power supply. See my sig to see what you should post to get better answers. the more info the better.

 

[Lorand]

My system is:

Matsonic MS8137C+
Athlon XP 2000+
512 MB
Hercules 3D Prophet All-in-Wonder 9000 Pro
HDD Maxtor 6E030L0
LG CD-RW CED-8080B
Pioneer DVD-115F
FDD Sony
Miditower 350W

Another interesting fact is that before upgraded to Hercules video card the system was the same with an ATI All-in-Wonder Pro and there was no such problems: the image appeared instantly at boot-up.
I still have the old card and if I plug in that card instead of Hercules, there are no image-problems. If I use another monitor with my system everything is ok. So there must be an incompatibility between the Hercules card and the Flatron 795FT...

 

[Rick G]

It sound to me that you are at the ragged edge of power with your system and the new vid card pushes the limit a bit too far. 350 Watt psu,s especially the "included" or generic types are notorious for stating Peak watts instead on substained wattage. I would try a new highe power psu and see if it makes your problem go away, I think it will. Watch you temps too with that Athelon. If you do not have a monitor for temps, download SiSandra from their site or download.com and it will go through your entire system and give you an idea whats going on, incl temps and its free or try cpu-z at cpuid site.
Rick G

 

[Lorand]

I don't think that the power supply could be the source of the problem because the computer works great with other monitors. I tested it with a Samsung Syncmaster 753S which has a supported horizontal frequency of max. 70 kHz and everything is ok. Only with my Flatron the video card signal's horizontal frequency exceeds 100 kHz.
It's more credible that at boot-up the video card reads erroneously the monitor's EDID via DDC and applies frequencies that are not supported. But according to the Hercules technical support this isn't suppose to happen.
One more issue that I forgot to mention: if there is no OS installed (thus no drivers) the image never appears on my monitor (I repeat: this happens only with Flatron 795FT!). During install there is image only on TV-out, but after the ATI drivers are installed the image appears on the monitor too...

Pretty weird, don't you think?

 

[Lorand]

TOTALLY INCREDIBLE: PROBLEM SOLVED!

And I was right! And Hercules technical support sucks...
LG technical support sucks too (they didn't even reply to my e-mails).

Here's the solution: I tried another VGA cable (a very old one) with missing DDC pins. And the image appeared instantly at power on. The only difference is that the monitor is not recognized as plug and play hardware. But who cares?! After a few settings everything works great!

So after all it's the Hercules card's fault that erroneusly reads EDID data from Flatron monitors.

 

[bartezg]

Hi!! I'm from Poland (sorry my english)
I have this same problem.
This problem is with all new card ATI (Radeon 8500 (gigabyte, Hercules), Radeon 9000(gigabyte), Radeon 9800PRO(gigabyte)) with monitor LG Flatron 795FT.
I remuve "DDC pins" and problem stay, then i buy new cable with all pins and problem disappear.
Orginal cabel is odd. Works with all nvidia card (GF 2MX, 2Ti, 4Ti, FX) but not work with ATI card (Radeon Series) but work with all card in another monitor. This problem is only with "odd" cabel and monitor LG Flatron 795FT (test on 3 piece + Lorand piece).

Thanks Lorand.