Why is my monitor shifting colors?

June 24, 2004 7:03 AM

Monitor color shift causes?

I have 2 computers on a counter at work. Monitor A displays everything in shades of green. If I switch the monitors, Monitor B shows the same problem. If I rotate the monitor, it reverts to normal color when it's facing almost completely backwards. I realize it's some sort of field causing the problem, but what should I look for? I don't see anything that's unique to one side of the counter, and the employees in the area say they've changed nothing about the setup in the last few weeks. Initially, a degauss worked, but no more.

posted by donnagirl to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

It's either the cable or the port on the video card, and is probably related to stress on the cable. One of your color channels is not making a connection. Try a different cable if you can, and if that doesn't fix it on either monitor, it's your video card. The ports may have gotten loose.
posted by ulotrichous at 7:15 AM on June 24, 2004

Thanks, ulotrichous! Your answer lead to a solution, but it only confuses me more. Switching the cable with one from a less used computer (I didn't have a spare) fixed the problem, so I thought the cable was bad, until I hooked the bad cable up to the other computer and didn't get the green screen. Since all my monitors are working, I'll pretend there's no problem, but I don't think that's actually the case. It's fun to be tech support!
posted by donnagirl at 8:18 AM on June 24, 2004

It could have been a bent pin in the monitor cable that righted itself when you unplugged/plugged it in to the different machine. Or when you placed the new cable in the video card, you jiggled the card back in to a better connection. If you're curious, open up the case and make sure the video card is secure in it's slot( presuming it's not on board video).
posted by mnology at 10:25 AM on June 24, 2004