Twitching display = sign of monitor or graphics card problems?

Kibo informs me that Franklin stated that:

My monitor's display seems to twitch slightly every ten minutes or
thereabouts.

It's just a very small movement but I notice it easily when I am
reading the screen. The movement seems to be mostly in the
horizontal plane. It never used to do this.

As best as one can guess, is this likely to be a fault with the
monitor or with the graphics card?

In order of probability:
(1) Cable isn't 100% seated & screwed in,
(2) Bad cable/connector, at either end.
(3) Bad solder joint in monitor.
Then all the possible electronic faults in the monitor.
Your card is very unlikely to be the cause. If you can, try borrowing
another monitor to rule out the PC/cable.

--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------

Can you try another computer (or graphics card) with your monitor? This will
determine whether it's your monitor or card. If your monitor still causes
the same problem and if its not an electronic fault then it could be that
some device probably nearby is 'switching' causing a magnetic field to
interupt the display. I had a similar problem when I'd placed the power
supply adapter for my MSFF wheel behind the monitor when I was tidying up
and forgot I'd put it there.

Alan

"Franklin" wrote in message
...
My monitor's display seems to twitch slightly every ten minutes or
thereabouts.

It's just a very small movement but I notice it easily when I am
reading the screen. The movement seems to be mostly in the
horizontal plane. It never used to do this.

As best as one can guess, is this likely to be a fault with the
monitor or with the graphics card?

The monitor is a 17 inch CRT and the graphics card is an NVidia
GeForce2. Both are about 3 years old and have worked faultlessly up
to now.

My mains power supply seems fine. I recently removed several devices
from my PC (three hard drives) so PSU is more lightly loaded than it
has been.

nearly went and bought a new monitor this summer, as the same was
happening to me only on the vertical plain on one side. Looked for a
solution on various tech sites. One fellow had said that the routing
of my monitor cable was passing to close to power cables/outlets and
sure enough I moved it away and the monitor is perfect for the last 4
months.


"Franklin" wrote in message
...
My monitor's display seems to twitch slightly every ten minutes or
thereabouts.

It's just a very small movement but I notice it easily when I am
reading the screen. The movement seems to be mostly in the
horizontal plane. It never used to do this.

As best as one can guess, is this likely to be a fault with the
monitor or with the graphics card?

The monitor is a 17 inch CRT and the graphics card is an NVidia
GeForce2. Both are about 3 years old and have worked faultlessly up
to now.

My mains power supply seems fine. I recently removed several devices
from my PC (three hard drives) so PSU is more lightly loaded than it
has been.

JAD wrote:
nearly went and bought a new monitor this summer, as the same was
happening to me only on the vertical plain on one side. Looked for a
solution on various tech sites. One fellow had said that the routing
of my monitor cable was passing to close to power cables/outlets and
sure enough I moved it away and the monitor is perfect for the last 4
months.

Or speaker...

--
Paul

"Franklin" wrote in message
...
My monitor's display seems to twitch slightly every ten minutes or
thereabouts.

It's just a very small movement but I notice it easily when I am
reading the screen. The movement seems to be mostly in the
horizontal plane. It never used to do this.

As best as one can guess, is this likely to be a fault with the
monitor or with the graphics card?

The monitor is a 17 inch CRT and the graphics card is an NVidia
GeForce2. Both are about 3 years old and have worked faultlessly up
to now.

My mains power supply seems fine. I recently removed several devices
from my PC (three hard drives) so PSU is more lightly loaded than it
has been.

Strange you say this. My monitor has been doing this same thing for a few
weeks now.
Sizzling noise at the same time so probably voltages of 50 volt or less.
Cracking noise would be higher voltage area.
Sometime I'll take the cover off and trace the dry joint/loose wire.

*********

electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~diverse

Franklin wrote:

My monitor's display seems to twitch slightly every ten minutes or
thereabouts.

It's just a very small movement but I notice it easily when I am
reading the screen. The movement seems to be mostly in the
horizontal plane. It never used to do this.

As best as one can guess, is this likely to be a fault with the
monitor or with the graphics card?


Probably more likely to be a monitor fault. If the twitching is in the
horizontal plane then we are talking about a partial intermittent frame
collapse. Check for loose connectors or cracked solder joints around where
the scan coils connect to the PCB.

If it's happening at a particular time (i.e. only when the monitor is cold
or only when it has warmed up a bit) then it may either a dry joint or
thermal breakdown of a component in the frame oscillator circuit.

As with all high voltage electronics, more so in the case of CRT devices.
Unless you are qualified to do so/ or at least very experienced with high
voltage circuitry, I would seek the assistance of a qualified engineer.
Even when it has been powered off for several hours there are several
components in a CRT monitor (including the tube itself) that can give you a
nasty shock.

Oh and an obvious thing, but check that your cell phone is not near or on
top of the monitor, when they poll the cell network they can cause all
sorts of interference.

N Cook wrote:

"Franklin" wrote in message
...

My monitor's display seems to twitch slightly every ten minutes or
thereabouts.

It's just a very small movement but I notice it easily when I am
reading the screen. The movement seems to be mostly in the
horizontal plane. It never used to do this.

As best as one can guess, is this likely to be a fault with the
monitor or with the graphics card?

The monitor is a 17 inch CRT and the graphics card is an NVidia
GeForce2. Both are about 3 years old and have worked faultlessly up
to now.

My mains power supply seems fine. I recently removed several devices
from my PC (three hard drives) so PSU is more lightly loaded than it
has been.


Strange you say this. My monitor has been doing this same thing for a few
weeks now.
Sizzling noise at the same time so probably voltages of 50 volt or less.
Cracking noise would be higher voltage area.
Sometime I'll take the cover off and trace the dry joint/loose wire.

Probably dirt and grime in the monitor.

*********

electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~diverse

"N Cook" wrote in message
...
"Franklin" wrote in message
...
My monitor's display seems to twitch slightly every ten minutes or
thereabouts.

It's just a very small movement but I notice it easily when I am
reading the screen. The movement seems to be mostly in the
horizontal plane. It never used to do this.

As best as one can guess, is this likely to be a fault with the
monitor or with the graphics card?

The monitor is a 17 inch CRT and the graphics card is an NVidia
GeForce2. Both are about 3 years old and have worked faultlessly up
to now.

My mains power supply seems fine. I recently removed several devices
from my PC (three hard drives) so PSU is more lightly loaded than it
has been.

Strange you say this. My monitor has been doing this same thing for a few
weeks now.
Sizzling noise at the same time so probably voltages of 50 volt or less.
Cracking noise would be higher voltage area.
Sometime I'll take the cover off and trace the dry joint/loose wire.


If you wait until "someday" chances are you'll be doing much more
troubleshooting and component replacement than if you fix the solder joint
now. Bad solder joints are the cause of probably 60% of power semiconductor
failures.

It could be an optical illusion. I have heard of such an effect, but
don't recall the specifics. Apparently easily reproducible if you know how.

Franklin wrote:

My monitor's display seems to twitch slightly every ten minutes or
thereabouts.

It's just a very small movement but I notice it easily when I am
reading the screen. The movement seems to be mostly in the
horizontal plane. It never used to do this.

As best as one can guess, is this likely to be a fault with the
monitor or with the graphics card?

The monitor is a 17 inch CRT and the graphics card is an NVidia
GeForce2. Both are about 3 years old and have worked faultlessly up
to now.

My mains power supply seems fine. I recently removed several devices
from my PC (three hard drives) so PSU is more lightly loaded than it
has been.



--
Joe Leikhim K4SAT
"The RFI-EMI-GUY"

The Lost Deep Thoughts By: Jack Handey
Before a mad scientist goes mad, there's probably a time
when he's only partially mad. And this is the time when he's
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