New Monitor with Rolling Lines...WTF?

cytorak

I bought a brand new Acer 22" LCD monitor. I hooked it up to my laptop's docking station, and now, I get faint rolling lines scrolling upward on my screen.

I've downloaded the newest drivers for my monitor and my laptop's integrated chipset graphics adapter. I can't change the refresh rate; 60 is the only option.

I'm guessing my graphics card in the laptop is just shitty, but the laptop is only 2 years old, so that seems unlikely.

Any ideas, or am I just hosed?

urahonky

The easiest thing to do to troubleshoot this is to plug up another monitor. That way you know if it's the monitor or the video card.

PeregrineFalcon

Are you using VGA? That smells like old-school interference to me. Make sure you're not running your signal cable alongside the power cable, and if it's a shitty provided VGA cable with no ferrite clamps, get a better one for like $2 from Monoprice.

That's assuming you can't run DVI, which you should absolutely do if you can.

cytorak

I had been using another monitor with no problems, but my boss got on a kick to upgrade monitors. I just assumed a brand new monitor with a fairly new laptop/docking station would not be an issue.

Can you use the DVI cable without the VGA cable as well? I tried plugging just the DVI cable in, but I got no signal. Consequently I used the VGA cable that came with the monitor, and it "works."

PeregrineFalcon

cytorak wrote: »

I had been using another monitor with no problems, but my boss got on a kick to upgrade monitors. I just assumed a brand new monitor with a fairly new laptop/docking station would not be an issue.

Can you use the DVI cable without the VGA cable as well? I tried plugging just the DVI cable in, but I got no signal. Consequently I used the VGA cable that came with the monitor, and it "works."

That's kind of the point.

DVI >>>>> VGA. You shouldn't hot-plug DVI though. Power everything off, connect it up, then fire the monitor/laptop back up.

Vars

I had these lines awhile ago, they would seem to travel up the screen. What caused it was the cable, which wasn't pushed in entirely. That could be it or could be that your card is unseated and moves back when you try to attach the cable.

cytorak

PeregrineFalcon wrote: »

cytorak wrote: »

I had been using another monitor with no problems, but my boss got on a kick to upgrade monitors. I just assumed a brand new monitor with a fairly new laptop/docking station would not be an issue.

Can you use the DVI cable without the VGA cable as well? I tried plugging just the DVI cable in, but I got no signal. Consequently I used the VGA cable that came with the monitor, and it "works."

That's kind of the point.

DVI >>>>> VGA. You shouldn't hot-plug DVI though. Power everything off, connect it up, then fire the monitor/laptop back up.

Fair enough.

Just DVI: No picture
Just VGA: Picture with rolling lines
Both: Picture with Rolling lines

This experiment led me to believe that you needed both cords.

I rebooted as you suggested, and the monitor says "No Signal" and goes to standby mode with just the DVI cable plugged into the docking station.

MisterGrok

cytorak wrote: »

Fair enough.

Just DVI: No picture
Just VGA: Picture with rolling lines
Both: Picture with Rolling lines

This experiment led me to believe that you needed both cords.

That's not even wrong.

Make sure you've got the cables seated correctly on both ends. Make sure when it's plugged into DVI only that your monitor is switched to the DVI input and not sitting on VGA input thus giving you no picture.

Failing that:
Take your laptop out of the docking station and hook the monitor directly to it. Rinse and repeat with switching inputs.