Issues with computer monitor/GFX card.

Last Son

So I suspect my monitor has died, or at least I hope it has because the only other possibilty I can think of is my GFX card died and I really don't want to replace that.

I was playing Civ 4 when the screen became covered with what looked like snow(the bad-signal kind), white dots with black outlines flickering. I could still see my screen underneath it and my mouse would move but I couldn't click on anything. After 10-15 seconds the monitor died completely.

When I try to reboot the monitor shows part of the bootup-sequence but some sections of the screen are mising. IE: when its listing my hardware it says "Ge or e 80 " instead of Geforce 7800 and on the windows splash screen it has black lines running horizontally through it. When it would normally get to the sign-in screen it then dies completely. Have tried unplugging/replugging both the powercord and the connection to my tower to no avail.

Tell me H/A, what do I need to replace to have a functioning computer again?

Foomy

sorry it sounds more like gfx card than monitor.

my gfx did the same sort of things when it went.

do you have a spare monitor or tv or something to check and be sure which it is?

Deathwing

Yeah, also sounds like the graphics card to me - generally a dying monitor would interfere with the video only and not the actual functioning of the system. If you can swap it into another system that you're absolutely sure has a working monitor, that would help nail things down.

On the bright side, if your motherboard has a PCI-E slot, you should be able to find a fairly cheap replacement that's a considerable upgrade to the Geforce 7800.

Raern

To clarify a little, a dying monitor wouldn't do things like blank out certain letters, it doesn't know enough about what it's displaying to pull that off. Also, modern monitors switch themselves off if the video card stops sending a signal, usually when you power down the system, but also after a crash or hardware failure, so that explains the monitor 'dying'.

On-screen corruption is a sure sign of a graphics hardware, driver or software problem. Again, the monitor doesn't have the processing ability to do weird things with your image like flickering pixels or patterns of dots. A dying CRT monitor usually loses colour control, or screen image shape/size/stability for what it's worth, like someone messed with the monitor controls.

As Deathwing said, a new graphics card could be relatively cheap compared to a monitor though, so it beats having a dead monitor. If you have a friend with a laptop you could quickly confirm the condition of the monitor by plugging it into that.

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up

I'm seconding everyone here.

A snow crash means your video card's fragged*. Good news is a video card is actually cheaper than a monitor. I got a 1gig PCI e 16x2 for $80 wheras a decent monitor is closer to 200 for a small one. trust me video card is the best you could hope for in this

(*side note: It's fun to use ultra nerd lingo and I don't get to do it nearly enough...)

Last Son

Yep, you were all right it was the gfx card. Damn piece of junk, it was only like 18 months old too.

Anywho the reason I wanted it to be the monitor was because the gfx was fairly new and I don't really do anything that was necessitate an upgrade, meanwhile my monitor is like a 12 year old CRT that I wouldn't really mind replacing but I can't justify a new monitor to myself when I already have a perfectly functioning one...