Hi Chris,

 

I have something similar to what G0ggy described with one of my three 2407WFP-HC LCDs connected to the one PC. At times, down the left hand side of the LCD there appear blue streaky patches (made up of short blue flickering lines) that are up to 4 inches in length. At other times (when the screen saver - with dark grey backfround - has cut in) there are several horizontal blue flickering lines (localised to the botton left hand side of the screen) some of which extend horiziontally most all the way across the screen.  Also I can open a window with dark grey background and position it half half on two LCDs, the half on the left is normal, the half on the right shows alternating dark/light columns of 1/8in width in the area that is grey. This appears intermittently, and sometimes not at all - and mainly when the window/image is grey. 

Not sure this is an LCD problem or its a video card problem. As I have 3 LCDs and 2 video cards, I need to switch around DVI connectors and swittch between the two video cards to see if the problem follows the monitor or remains on the same DVI connection.

Only reason I have not tried the switching yet is because I have 2GB RAM and to avoid having the DVI going into sleep mode on reboot, I had to disable the BIOS FastBoot so the DVI can synch with the PC/video card (earlier advice from Chris). So from power down to full reboot, it takes my system some 5 mins - and changing DVI cables, or to a different video cards is likely to take several long reboot cycles. However know I need to do it in the next day or two.

Chris, in your recommndation to G0ggy you did not explain what the procedure was intended to achieve. Can you advise? Given the similar nature of my problem, should I try the same procedure?

Thanks, Rom.

Custom PC (Dual 2.8 Xeons), XP Pro, 2GB RAM
Parhelia 256MB AGP, Parhelia 256MB PCI-X
3Ware SATA RAID PCI-X (RAID 5 - 3xRaptor 70GB (plus hot spare Raptor), RAID 1 - 2xBarracuda 250MB, plus other Single Disk Units)
Creative 2 ZX PCI Audigy Audio

Hi Chris,

 

You advise me to try the same SofMCCS procedure that you recommended to G0ggy. My plan is to do that over the weekend.

However I have a concern. I notice in another thread "2007WFP Gradient Banding Issue", ohmike tried the same procedure and found that "the image looked pretty unusable when I reset everything", "the screen geometry stuffs up", "turns out the color gradient are even worse now" and "my screen is unusable".

Should something similar happen when I try the procedure, can you please advise what I should do to revert to the original settings? Last thing I want is to create a worse situation then have to spend time and frustration trying to clean things up - to get me back to where I was. Or is the simplest fix to use the OSD to restore factory settings?

Also, I have 3 by 2407WFP-HC LCDs connected to my PC (in a left - centre - right arrangement), so how do I apply this procedure to just the one (right) with the blue flickering? Does the SofMCCS app recognise multi-monitor systems and allow me to select which screen to make the changes to? Or do I have to change the Matrox PowerDesk settings from 3 screens to 1 screen, disconnect the two OK LCDs and leave only the problem one connected so I can apply the procedure to it alone? 

Excuse me for trying to anticipate what might happen. Just that I have a few hours work to try the blue flickering LCD with different DVI cables, switch it between the two Parhelia video cards, etc and if all that does not identify where the problem is (the LCD, the video card, the cable) then I will try your SofMCCS procedure. And if that messes things up, I want to know what to do beforehand so I can minimise frustration and just quickly reinstate things.

Thanks and kind regards,

Rom.

 

Hey Chris,

Its Friday night, things are quiet so I decided to download and install SofMCCS. In doing so I have answered my own questions re multi-monitor support - it does! I can select which of the three LCDs I want to work on. Great. All that remains is to read the Help info to understand what SofMCCS does and how.

The only question that remains/matters is - if when I run SofMCCS, should the changes make the situation worse (like they did for ohmike), what is the best way to revert back to "as was" state? Maybe there is a revert option in SofMCCS, but have not found it yet.

Failing that, I presume I should simply use the OSD>Menu Settings>Factory Reset>All Display Settings to revert to the original factory settings. Is that right?

Thanks kindly, Rom.

The blue flickering lines problem deepens.

 

I have three 2407WFP-HC LCDs in a Left - Centre - Right configuration. The Right LCD has previously shown a blue flickering lines problem (see earlier post in this thread).

I had just turned the system on an hour earlier, and was working on the LCDs, when suddenly the Right LCD started showing alternating blue flickering lines about 2-3ins from the top and 2-3ins from the bottom, sometimes alternating top and bottom, sometimes together. Its only one or two full lines of pixels at each location. Its very similar to the video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSYyAJZRMps

Only way I found to stop it was to turn the Power switch Off - wait 5 secs - Switch On, and no more flickering. Unfortunately there is no way to intentionally reproduce this symptom/problem - it just starts to happen every 2-3 days.

I suspect there is an electronics problem with this LCD that causes certain full lines of pixels to go awry and start flickering. I have 3 more days until my 15 day Total Satisfaction Guarantee runs out, so unless I can an explanation as to what is going on/resolution to this issue, I believe I have no other choice than to ask Customer Care to allow me to return this LCD in exchange for a new one.   

I am concerned that this LCD has an problem (may have faulty circuitry driving the horizontal lines of pixels, or may have a component failing in the pixel driver circuitry) which will one day lead to a full failure and the intermittent blue flickering lines will either become permanent...or worse. Think its better to do a return and exchange withing the 15 day Total Satisfaction Guarantee period which gets me a new LCD - because if I do it after the 15 days, it will be a refurbished unit, potentially with dead pixels, scratches (like other members have experienced - at other threads). 

Any advice or something I should try before I make the call to Customer care in the next couple of days?

Thanks, Rom.

Thanks Chris,

I know I have done three long posts since last Friday so perhaps you did not catch where I am at in regards to the use of SofMCCS.

Keeping it simple:
- I have downloaded, installed and run SofMCCS.

- SofMCCS scans the system, it must sense the two Matrox cards, and it lists three entries 1, 2, 3 as Dell 2407WFPHCLCDs  - so its obviously seeing them separately

- this seems to suggest that it sees LCDs 1 & 2 on the Matrox Parhelia AGP and LCD 3 on the Matrox Parhelia PCI.  (I cannot find anything on the SofMCCS listings that tells you what video card each display is connected to)

- I guess there is no harm in applying the procedure starting with No 3 which is exhibiting the blue flickering lines, then doing the same for Nos 1&2.

The only remaining question I have is a simple one. If I apply the steps in SofMCCS as you suggest, and say it messes up the LCD settings (like it did for ohmike where the display became unstable, geometry was messed up, etc. and he had to fiddle with various settings) can I assume that if I exit SofMCCS, and then use the OSD Factory Reset, it will over-write the SofMCCS effects and reset all displays to original factory settings. I am worried that if SofMCCS messes things up, I might not be able to use the OSD Factory Reset which will require time and frustration in fiddling with the settings to try to get as close to AS WAS condition before SofMCCS was applied.

Another way of looking at it, if the display settings are changed (whether it be through SofMCCS or user twiddling) does the OSD Factory Reset>Reset All Display Settings still do its job regardless?

Sorry for labouring this point. Its just that I have messed around enough with setting up the 3 LCDs that I do not want to go on another time consuming and frustrating round where I have to play around with settings that I do not really understand. What I want to hear you say is that regardless of what anything (user or SofMCCS) does to the LCD settings, the OSD Factory Reset will do its job in Resetting All Display Settings?

Just trying to avoid time and frustration by thinking ahead.

Many thanks and kind regards, Rom. 

   

Great!

Thanks Chris, with this info I can now go ahead and apply the procedure in the next day or two and let you know the outcome.

Kind regards, Rom.