Is my vid card the problem?

[Laurie]

I bought an ATI AIW 8500 128 meg two weekends ago to replace the old G400MAX. Install was a breeze and it worked great for a couple of days. Then for no apparent reason(ie no new hard/software) the screen shrank vertically and I could only resize with the monitor controls to the point where a couple of black bands about 6 mm wide remained top and bottom. The really odd part is that the screen stayed squashed even during the bios boot sequence right into windows. I always assumed that the bios boot sequence screen resolution was part of a standard for vid card manufacture.
Since I was installing XP on my wife's comp this last weekend I put the AIW in her machine and there were no problems so it went back into mine and its working fine again with the default XP drivers. I haven't had time yet to download the latest set from ATI.

Anyone have any thoughts about what could be causing this behaviour?

[Greebe]

Your monitor is dying?

[Technoid]

Yup, same thing happened to me when two monitors in row died for me

[Laurie]

The monitor was the first thing I thought of. Its an LG Flatron still under warantee so if it packs it in I'm covered. I just had never seen behaviour like this and was unsure of what really might be the problem. The monitor has already been in the shop once. I guess this is a wait and see until something quits permanently.

[lindberg]

Perhaps you have the AIW connected to a TV? I've noticed that when I have my 8500LE connected via S-VHS to the TV the screen shrinks in bios/boot but is normal in windoze. Crap ATI it is...

Try to disconnect (pull the cable) if you have it connected, might help.

[Goc]

Most definitely a monitor problem...

I've seen it a few times, and my friends Nokia died the same way a couple of weeks ago... It will only go worse with time, so you better return that monitor and get a new one... Don't settle for them fixing this one because it will reappear...

[Laurie]

The AIW is only running the monitor right now. Yes, I realize the ATI tv out isn't as good as M but my intention was only to output to an old HItachi 19" to watch recorded stuff while on my treadmill. The old vcr that is hooked up now suffers from electrical interference from the treadmill but the comp should be far enough away and the AIW has a remote which the old vcr doesn't.
The monitor still has 3 years left on the warantee. I can only hope it dies completely and is unrepairable.

[Kooldino]

Try adjusting the monitor display settings in your control panel. The thing that lets you make adjustments to your monitor the same way monitor controls would...

[Goc]

It won't help I bet... Maybe he can get it fullscreen again but the picture on the monitor will shrink again with time... No help there except getting a new monitor...
I knew exactly what the problem was all about but have forgotten it...
I'll have to call my friend and see if he remembers...

[Laurie]

The monitor worked fine until yesterday. The screen control for vertical size only needed to be at 64 % to fill the screen. Then I booted when I got home from work and I could tell right away it had shrunk again. The odd thing is, when I went to the monitor controls the vertical size control was already at 100 !! Where the heck is that coming from? Its almost as if there is a config file with different settings being loaded from somewhere. Anyway, I changed monitors to my old Acana and it worked fine so the monitor is the problem.

Update: The reason I'm posting again is that I am typing this on the LG Flatron screen and its working again. Monitor screen vertical size control set at 64%. I can't take it in to get fixed if it keeps doing this intermittently.

[Wombat]

Could have been a static charge or something. Is it grounded correctly?

[Laurie]

Wombat, the monitor had been working fine (except for when it died some months ago) until I installed the AIW. That's why the title of this thread. Maybe its a reaction to having the G400/RRG taken out.