display troubleshooting

display troubleshooting

Troubleshooting video problems is usually simple because there are only a limited number of issues that may come into consideration for troubleshooting. All video problems can be summarized by the following two statements:

There is either no video or bad video. Either the video card or the monitor is faulty.

General strategy to deal with display problem: 

In the vast majority of cases when you have a video problem, a good troubleshooting approach is to identify by replacement that works in the following steps:

• First check the monitor by transferring it to another working machine. If it works there, then perhaps the problem is not the monitor. But if the problem persists then the monitor is faulty. If it goes away, it is certain that the video card (or possibly the driver) is the problematic. 

• Now check the video card is seated in the slot properly and the installed driver is the newest driver. 

• You can download the newest driver of the video card from the manufacturer’s website.

Symptoms of Video Problems

Followings are some common symptoms and their causes in the context of video problems:

The system boots only in Video graphics array (VGA) mode. 

In VGA mode the display is 640 × 480 with 16 colors. In this case there are two possibilities: either the card’s resolution is set a level that the card can not handle or the driver is incorrectly installed. For the first case, set the resolution at a level the card can handle and for the later case re-install the correct driver. If the problem is still there you should replace the video card.

No image on the screen. Troubleshooting this one is relatively easy. Try another monitor or try this monitor on another computer. That will narrow it down pretty quickly. Remember, if the monitor is not problematic then perhaps the video card is faulty. You must make sure that the system is POST tested.

Monitor that shuts down repeatedly. This is often caused by overheating. Monitors have their own internal power supply, and they can overheat. Although it was more frequent event with CRT displays. But

LCD displays also get overheat in some cases. Take proper precaution so that the air flow is smooth on the back of the monitor.

Dead pixels or artifacts. These two problems are certainly connected to monitor. Dead pixels are unwanted spots on a specific area of the screen. These spots do not fire or light up. It can be tested by setting the background of the screen as white and observing if those spots are not still fired up. Artifacts, on the other hand, you will always see the outlines of a different image no matter what is the background image. In both cases, the solution is to replace the monitor.

Incorrect colors. This problem occurs when the LCD monitors controller board starts to fail and doe not perform color mapping correctly. This can also happen if the connector pins are damaged.

Dim or flickering images. This problem is more related to LCD displays. They are most commonly caused by the backlight starting to fail. Replacement of the backlight solves the problem.

Other Issues: Other graphics issues are mainly related to memory of the video card. This memory stores the information of the screens to be displayed by the monitor. Problems with the memory modules on the video card depends on how well it works. Occasionally adding more memory to a video card increases in both quality and performance. Otherwise, you should replace it with a new one.

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