And I thought buying new stuff would help...

[dreamshark]

It all started with my monitor burning out. I borrowed an old 17" CRT (which actually worked fine) but decided that what I really needed was a lovely new wide-screen LCD. So I went out and bought a nice Viewsonic - a little more expensive but supposed to be one of the best brands. It looked great for about 3 days. Yesterday I started noticing little green sparkles in the darker parts of my screen background. Today the sparkles are popping up all over, and twinkling more. Yes, my brand new monitor appears to be failing. I've tried shutting off various electronic devices in the vicinity to see if they might be causing interference, but nothing helps. Besides, it wasn't doing this the first 3 days, and nothing else has changed.

*sigh* I guess I'm going to have to box it up and lug it back to Office Depot. What I'm really afraid of is that I'll bring home a new one and it will do the same thing. Could it be something in the computer causing this?

I'm particularly dubious since I was convinced one of the buttons on the new keyboard was malfunctioning and I was thinking I'd have to take that back. Then I unplugged the USB cable and plugged it back in - and magically the whole thing started working perfectly again. I don't understand any of this.

Not only that, the Christmas tree isn't taking water.

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I dunno. It doesn't sound like a software problem and it seems fairly unusual for a hardware problem. I'd go online to check reviews of this particular model # and/or search on the problem, just to see. If there's not an easy solution available, bring it back. Better, see if the problem replicates on their end. I'm guessing a problem with the power supply, but don't quote me.

Can't help you with the Christmas tree.

[fmsv.livejournal.com]

It could be your video card. (The video card in my Windows box appears to be acting up and showing odd artifacts. I'm pretty sure it's that rather than the monitor because the artifacts don't show up on the other two systems that I use this monitor for.)

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I almost hope that's it. I wouldn't mind upgrading the video card - this one is 3-1/2 years old, which is ancient in gaming terms. I just don't want to lug the monitor back to the store, since it's one of those big efforts that doesn't gain you anything, just gets you back where you were.

Incidentally, shortly after I made that post, the monitor suddenly cleared up and all the little green sparklies went away. So it's something intermittent in the hardware, or in the environment. Damn. I hate intermittent problems. Maybe I'll just wait for it to become less intermittent so I can debug it. Thanks for the suggestion.

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

Seriously! What has been going on over there! I think you need someone to lift the jinx.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Maybe when we're all over for the carolling we can sing one for the computers: We wish you a merry Techmas!