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Weird... monitor?... issue

jdarksunjdarksun StrugglerVARegistered User regular
I'm getting these uniformly spaced thin black/"oily" vertical lines. They don't show up all the time, it can be temporarily fixed by unplugging the DVI cable/plugging it back in or turning the monitor on and off.

Examples (I apologize for the crappy images, I had to use my phone's camera)...

Problem:
tomb-raider-picture-issue_zpsa18176bb.jpg

No Problem:
tomb-raider-picture-no-issue_zps1ee67dab.jpg

It doesn't seem to show up in screenshots?
tomb-raider-screenshot_zps1f72c2c0.jpg

They seem to have just started recently; I've seen them in The Sims 3, SimCity, and Tomb Raider. Not just in games, either - they like to show up in the medium blues of my desktop background (which is where the oily sheen comes in). It also shows up in the tab bar of chrome, the header bar of the PA forums... and sometimes I can make it go away just by refreshing the screen with a different image.

What the hell? It doesn't seem like a video card (EVGA GTX 570, purchased 10/13/2011) issue, but this monitor (Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24") is like a month old. Could it be the cable? Should I pick up a display port cable from somewhere?

(apologies if this was better posted in H&A)

Posts

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    FoomyFoomy Registered User regular
    edited March 2013
    Well you have 3 things that could be wrong
    Videocard is dying, this is the most likely culprit, sometimes you just get a bad card that dies early from heat cracking a solder joint.

    Monitor is dying, test this by either running a different source into it, or by using your computer on another tv/monitor.

    Your cable is bad, so you need a replacement to check if the one you have is ok.

    Foomy on
    Steam Profile: FoomyFooms
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    DissociaterDissociater Registered User regular
    I'm no expert, but if it was a video card problem wouldn't the screenshots be all wonky too?

    Obviously try the cable first since it's the cheapest option. Do you have a backup monitor you can test with to help rule out it being a vidcard problem?

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    jdarksunjdarksun Struggler VARegistered User regular
    I have a couple extra DVI cables and access to another monitor. I'll try switching out the cables first, the monitor second. Turns out that graphics card doesn't have DisplayPort, and that monitor doesn't have HDMI. Converters are cheap, but I'm still researching.

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    FoomyFoomy Registered User regular
    edited March 2013
    I'm no expert, but if it was a video card problem wouldn't the screenshots be all wonky too?

    not always, it depends exactly on what has gone wrong.

    Like when my 8800gtx died, it was displaying green characters all over the screen and giant white bands, but a screenshot would show perfectly fine.

    but check the monitor and cable first, as you have the spares to do that, and it's the cheaper thing to check if all you need is a dvi<->hdmi adpater or something similar. if you eliminate those 2 options, then your gpu is the culprit.

    Foomy on
    Steam Profile: FoomyFooms
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    jdarksunjdarksun Struggler VARegistered User regular
    Hm. The purple artifacts I was getting when my 8500LELE would overheat showed up in screenshots. Now I'm more concerned.

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    jdarksunjdarksun Struggler VARegistered User regular
    Wanted to post the resolution to this. It was a monitor issue, the monitor had the same problem on a different computer. I contacted Dell to get it replaced, and they said they'd take care of it, gave me a Request Incident Number, and told me to call back in a couple days.

    So I did. The Request Incident Number was bad. The person I spoke with at Dell Support told me that no products were registered under my name, and that she couldn't help me. When I tried to explain that my problem was with a monitor, she told me that I had to register it on the web site and that she couldn't help me.

    There is, of course, no way that I could find to register a monitor on the Dell website.

    But Amazon is awesome, so they're refunding my money. Screw you, Dell! I'm never buying another monitor from you again.

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