Odd problem with my monitor and build engine games on XP.

Discussion about using or improving the BuildXP guide.

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Ninja_of_DooM
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Odd problem with my monitor and build engine games on XP.

Post by Ninja_of_DooM » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:03 pm

OK, now i've been playing Blood and Duke 3D on XP for the past 6 months now. Everything was going OK until a few weeks ago. Whenever I boot up the game and play for about 10 minutes my monitor goes funny.

The thing is, it switches itself off and then switches back on again and then off again very quickly and keeps doing this until I shut down or restart the computer. It doesn't happen with any other games and I haven't downloaded anything lately like updates and drivers.

I don't know if anyone will be able to help me out a great deal here due to the fact it's maybe my monitor acting up (or my dad's been fiddling with stuff he shouldn't touch again) but does anyone else perhaps have this problem?:?

EDIT: I have an ATI Radeon 8500 graphics card..
Last edited by Ninja_of_DooM on Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Lord Molder
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Prob

Post by Lord Molder » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:18 pm

What kind of Graphics card do u have?,check all connections at card and monitor end {including power} Its funny that it only occurs in Build games.I am sure ive heard of this before and will try to google it up.Check that ya old fella hasnt messed with any power saving settings as well!! And disable screensaver.
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Post by Ninja_of_DooM » Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:01 pm

OK I've been into power options and changed the turn off monitor tie to 20 minutes and have disabled screensavers. I'm going to check how it runs now.

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Post by Lord Molder » Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:03 pm

What res are ya running Build games in :?:
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Post by Ninja_of_DooM » Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:28 pm

I'm running them in 640x480 as I was told to in the tutorial on the buid XP page.

Funny, Now I've changed the power settings about. I changed the monitor off time to 20 minutes and nothing happened. Now I've decided that if thsi si the cause I'm going to set it to never turn off the monitor. This may help stop it it seems.:D

If anyone should ever come across the thread about this or somethign please post it up here. Thanks.:)

EDIT: Dammit, It happened again! I don't understand what's going on. It took longer to happen but it did it again anyway. It's getting mighty weird. All the connections are OK so I don't have any idea what's casuing it to happen. It's probaby something my Dad did again, in which case I'll never know what it was. :evil:

Ah well. Once i move out and get my own PC It'll never happen seeing as I'll be the only one using the thing and I actually know how to use it..

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Lord Molder
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Monitor

Post by Lord Molder » Tue Apr 19, 2005 9:40 pm

Ill have a muck around and see if i can mimic the problem,all the stuff ive Googled up is pretty useless so far................ask your dad if he`s mucked around in the BIOS recently.Another thing is try running them at a higher res,im running Blood at 1280x1024 with no probs,also make sure nothing is overheating and do a full driver re-install {first use Driver Cleaner} using the latest drivers.If you have an ATI card {you still havent told me} dont install Control Centre {its EVIL!!!}
Last edited by Lord Molder on Tue Apr 19, 2005 9:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Ninja_of_DooM » Tue Apr 19, 2005 9:53 pm

Well he hasn't touched the BIOS at all. Tha eliminates a BIOS problem. Probably somethign screwy in the monitor and playing Blood or Duke causes it to switch off. Either way, it's very weird.:?

EDIT: Another thing I've just noticed. When I used to turn the monitor on it would make a click then a buzz and then another click before coming on, this was normal and nothing was wrong. Now I've just noticed that the buzz has stopped altogether since this problem started which beleive to be too coincidental. Any ideas?

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Post by Lord Molder » Wed Apr 20, 2005 5:25 pm

Degauss it just in case that does something {ulikely} soundz like your monitor is dying :cry:
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Post by Ninja_of_DooM » Wed Apr 20, 2005 8:36 pm

What does Degauss do? I know how to get it going but I'm not touching it until I'm sure it's ok to use.:(

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Lord Molder
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Monitor

Post by Lord Molder » Wed Apr 20, 2005 10:08 pm

Its the way a crt monitor "de-magnetizes" itself.It sounds as though yours may automatically do it when you turn it on {thats what that buzzing sound is} it wont hurt to do it manually just once or twice,but it probably wont do any good {i can attest that stranger things have happend though!!!} its for de-magging the crt to get rid of color problems created by built up magnetism{the sreen usually has blue "blotches" on it if it needs a degauss} Dont do it if not sure {i guess youll "have" to get a new monitor if it wrecks it though,and it was nothing to do with you,coz a monitor should be able to take being degaussed..........}It sounds like its on its last legs,but diagnose these kind of problems is iffy if you cant see it.
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Post by Ninja_of_DooM » Thu Apr 21, 2005 7:48 am

Well I don't see any blotches on the monitor at all. I'll just leave the degaussing if it won't do much seeing as the monitor's on it's last leg.
We can get a new one I suppose, unless my dad complains about the cost of course. :x

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Lord Molder
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monitor blues

Post by Lord Molder » Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:15 am

Try disabling the screensaver all together and see what happens :idea: and make sure your graphics card isnt overheating,though from what youve said it does sound like the monitor is on the fritz {ive got an old monitor that has a deformed image on one side,it just happened one day while changing resolution} :shock:
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Post by Ninja_of_DooM » Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:39 am

Well screensaver's been disabled for a few days now and it still happens. Also, I shutdown the computer earlier and even after the tower had switched off the monitor was still messing up. I'm very sure it's something up with the monitor and it's definitely dying now.:(

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Lord Molder
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Post by Lord Molder » Thu Apr 21, 2005 12:18 pm

Start dropping hints to ya old man now! I recently got a new monitor but im pretty disappointed in it.Make sure to get a nice flat panel one,i dont know what prices are like in your neck of the world but here you can get a decent 17 inch crt for 180 bucks.If ya think its worth it disconnect the moitor from its power supply and graphics card and then re-connect.Ive seen some weird stuff in my time and sometimes just unplugging stuff and re-connecting it can work wonders,but its a long shot.
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Post by Ninja_of_DooM » Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:59 pm

Well if it's going to be a new monitor the I know my dad will get the same kind of monitor, which is a flatscreen. About 16" I think. I don't think trying to drop hints will help. He never listens to anyone, thinks he knows best. I'll probably have to wait until the monitor dies off before he realises it.:p

As for disconnecting plugs. I tried it a while ago and nothing changed. Tried using different sockets too, but nothing at.:(

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