Dismayed By My Display

April 5, 2007 8:33 AM

My Acer AL1912 monitors have been acting strangely ... the bottom quarter of the display is stretched and distorted. Does anyone have any idea what's causing this? Naturally, there are some odd circumstances and thus there is ...

I posted this on a couple of Acer-related help boards but no joy as of yet.

This problem seems to occur when the monitor is accidentally left on for a length of time (5 days or more, and please note only the monitor is left on for this period). The bottom quarter of the screen becomes distorted and extremely stretched downwards, making it impossible to use anything in that space (thus making it impossible to use the display, really).

I have a two monitor set-up. This had occurred on one of the monitors in the past a couple times after accidentally leaving it on as above. I switched monitors and did enough tests to believe that the problem indeed originated from the Acer and not my computer, cables, or video card (but of course, I could be wrong). As mysteriously as the problem occurs, a solution in the past was to leave the monitor off for a week or more (I travel a lot so this is feasible). Most of the time after it's been off for a couple weeks the monitor displays normally. The last time this happened I just made sure that I switched the monitor off so there was no future problem ... until now.

Recently I was out of town for a month and a colleague used my computer set-up. You guessed it: he left both monitors on after switching off the computer and they were on for over a week. Now, upon returning, both monitors are distorted and stretched in the bottom corner. Leaving them off for an extended time is now not an option as I have a project due in a couple weeks. And with both monitors afflicted I can't just use a 'good' one. Help!

If it makes any difference, I'm running these off a Macintosh G4 in a dual monitor set-up. As I work in music production, there are medium-sized studio speakers about 5 inches away from each monitor.

The warranty is expired on these. If you feel they are broken and think you know why then I'd love some suggestions on the easiest/quickest/cheapest way to fix the problem.

Many 'love-you-forever' points go to anyone who can help. Thanks in advance.

posted by General Zubon to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Can you show a photo of the effect?
posted by putril at 8:40 AM on April 5, 2007

Is this a CRT? Are there any speakers in the vicinity?
posted by TheNewWazoo at 8:40 AM on April 5, 2007

- The monitor is an LCD. HERE'S a review with some info on the model.

- As above there are speakers nearby which was a suspicion of mine as well. But the fact that the problem disappears and comes back (the speakers and monitors haven't moved) makes me think this may not be a factor ... ?

- I'll try to get a photo up if you guys & gals think it will help.
posted by General Zubon at 8:48 AM on April 5, 2007

As requested, HERE'S a photo of the problem.
posted by General Zubon at 9:06 AM on April 5, 2007

Speakers won't affect LCDs. What troubleshooting have you done? Can you borrow a friend's computer, monitor, cable?

Since both screens do the same thing (maybe even starting at the same row of pixels) I suspect the problem is in the computer or video card. But without troubleshooting (swapping/isolating parts) it's just a guess.
posted by putril at 9:15 AM on April 5, 2007

As above, the problem was only in one monitor the first couple times that it occurred. Since I had one good monitor, I switched monitors left and right (using the cables + video output from the computer from the left on the right monitor and vice-versa) and the problem followed the monitor. Thus, even though I switched the cable and video output from the computer, the actual monitor that had the problem remained the same. Does this make sense? Anyway, this led me to believe the problem lie in the monitor itself.
posted by General Zubon at 9:21 AM on April 5, 2007

Update: Just to have my bases covered in this discussion, I plugged in a co-worker's Dell monitor into my set-up (same cables and output I'm using for the left side Acer). His monitor does not exhibit this problem. Does this mean we can rule out the video card? I admit it is weird that both monitors are having the exact same problem. If it is the monitor, then it's also weird that I can't find any mention of this problem anywhere online ... if it's happening to two monitors here then I would think it would be something less isolated than my own workspace.
posted by General Zubon at 9:32 AM on April 5, 2007

Does temporarily changing the video card resolution fix the problem? Also, have you tried cycling the power on the monitors (not just turning the monitor off, but unplugging it too)? Does the monitor have a 'resync' control in the menu? If it's a firmware problem in the monitor, it's not that surprising that both of them do it.
posted by DarkForest at 11:27 AM on April 5, 2007

DarkForest ... "Love-You-Forever" points are now heading your way via karmic transport. Cycling the power as you suggested actually did the trick. You don't know how excited I am that this had such a simple solution. Okay, time for me to get working now. Thanks again, Metafilter!
posted by General Zubon at 11:39 AM on April 5, 2007