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what's dying- video card, or monitor?

B

boynigel

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 19, 2009
268
7
about a week ago, out of the blue, my video monitor went black. i know it had been a while since i blew out any dust so i blue out the inside of my mirror-faced G4 with some canned air. it was dusty, but not gross. anyway, i hooked it back up and it worked.

today it did it again. i thought maybe it was the monitor so i unplugged it from the computer to see if i could get the monitor's own menu to come up on it's own which would tell me that the computer was the problem. the menu wouldn't come up, but "no signal" was flashing on the screen while it was disconnected from the G4.

i did a hard shut down and hooked the monitor back up, and it works again. seems to me it is the computer. should i plan on buying a new video card? i didn't know video cards could die slowly. i'm assuming that's what's happening here. anyone agree? disagree?
 
boynigel said:
about a week ago, out of the blue, my video monitor went black. i know it had been a while since i blew out any dust so i blue out the inside of my mirror-faced G4 with some canned air. it was dusty, but not gross. anyway, i hooked it back up and it worked.

today it did it again. i thought maybe it was the monitor so i unplugged it from the computer to see if i could get the monitor's own menu to come up on it's own which would tell me that the computer was the problem. the menu wouldn't come up, but "no signal" was flashing on the screen while it was disconnected from the G4.

i did a hard shut down and hooked the monitor back up, and it works again. seems to me it is the computer. should i plan on buying a new video card? i didn't know video cards could die slowly. i'm assuming that's what's happening here. anyone agree? disagree?
Click to expand...

Hmm sounds like it could be either the video card or the cable. I doubt its the screen as its displaying the No signal message just fine. Have you tried swapping the cable (if its not the cable then it likely is the video card).
 
chrismacguy said:
Hmm sounds like it could be either the video card or the cable. I doubt its the screen as its displaying the No signal message just fine. Have you tried swapping the cable (if its not the cable then it likely is the video card).
Click to expand...

no, i haven't tried the cable as i don't have an extra one. what are the odds though of a cable going bad? if the cable were in an environment where it got moved and/or pulled on a lot, i could see that happening due to a break forming out of the "abuse" but it NEVER moves. certainly not impossible though. maybe i'll see if i have any extra cables at work tomorrow that i can borrow...
 
boynigel said:
no, i haven't tried the cable as i don't have an extra one. what are the odds though of a cable going bad? if the cable were in an environment where it got moved and/or pulled on a lot, i could see that happening due to a break forming out of the "abuse" but it NEVER moves. certainly not impossible though. maybe i'll see if i have any extra cables at work tomorrow that i can borrow...
Click to expand...

Its more that just in case the cable has gone, its the cheapest component to replace (these things happen occasionally, but occasionally enough to check vs the cost of having to replace the graphics card or screen).
 
boynigel said:
no, i haven't tried the cable as i don't have an extra one. what are the odds though of a cable going bad?
Click to expand...

From the perspective of someone that worked on desktop support for a corporate it's not unknown. On an analog cable you tend to lose a single colour first and get a funky tint to the picture. I've only ever seen one duff DVI cable and that just didn't work.

What's the monitor and how is it connected to the PowerMac?
 
MagicBoy said:
From the perspective of someone that worked on desktop support for a corporate it's not unknown. On an analog cable you tend to lose a single colour first and get a funky tint to the picture. I've only ever seen one duff DVI cable and that just didn't work.

What's the monitor and how is it connected to the PowerMac?
Click to expand...

And if it was the screen it tends to start either not working, or displaying lovely pretty colours.
 
MagicBoy said:
From the perspective of someone that worked on desktop support for a corporate it's not unknown. On an analog cable you tend to lose a single colour first and get a funky tint to the picture. I've only ever seen one duff DVI cable and that just didn't work.

What's the monitor and how is it connected to the PowerMac?
Click to expand...

chrismacguy said:
And if it was the screen it tends to start either not working, or displaying lovely pretty colours.
Click to expand...

no loss of any colors, or anything funky going on w/the picture. it just suddenly goes black. the monitor itself is just a 17" Samsung about 6 or 7 years old connected with a multi-pin connector. right before the mac it goes into an adapter so that it will fit the G4. this adapter came with the G4. not sure what it is called.
 
You might have the MDD's which one of them... but it doesn't matter. Do you happen to know the different video connectors? DVI, VGA, ADC to name a few. These were the common connectors on the graphics card on which the MDD G4's have on them.
 
Nameci said:
You might have the MDD's which one of them... but it doesn't matter. Do you happen to know the different video connectors? DVI, VGA, ADC to name a few. These were the common connectors on the graphics card on which the MDD G4's have on them.
Click to expand...

it's a VGA
 
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