3 dead monitors in 2 months, the common link, a 4850x2

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stewartjm

Limp Gawd
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Sep 10, 2003
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In November I lost an HP LP2475w and a Samsung 2343BWX, I replaced them, along with a still working LP3065, with HP 3 ZR2740w monitors. Tonight, one of the new HPs just died.

Everything is hooked up to an APC SUA1500RM2U UPS. Voltage looks good, currently 118.7 and 59.9Hz as measured by a Kill A Watt meter. I haven't had any issues with any hardware on this UPS, just the monitors.

I've tested the monitors on other machines with different cables, and they are definitely not working anymore. I opened the first 2 monitors up, and examined all of the boards, and I didn't see any bulging caps, or burn marks, or other physical signs of component failure.

In late November, after the first 2 monitor failures, for unrelated reasons, I upgraded to a new PSU, motherboard, CPU, and RAM, keeping only the 4850x2 and two sound cards from the old system.

I'm pretty convinced my Sapphire 4850x2 is somehow causing this. And I'm going to replace it ASAP...

But how could the signals carried by a Dual Link DVI port kill a monitor? It's possible that it was indirectly caused by a driver update. I was running 12-18 month old drivers with no issues, and updated them in Late October early November, at the same time I updated another system's Radeon drivers for BF3.

There seems to be some correlation with the failure occuring at wake from sleep time. The LP2475 displayed something for 20-30 seconds after waking, and then it was dead. I wasn't there when the Samsung died. The new HP also seems to have died around the time of waking from sleep. At least it was working perfectly 1-2 hours before I attempted to wake up the monitors, it died, and it's twin on the other side woke up.

Any ideas what's going on? Has anyone else experienced similar issues with similar hardware?
 
Sounds like the powersupplies of the monitors is damaged. I will have a look at your power output as there might be something wrong. Have you send one of the screens back to the manufacturer and hear what they have to say what's wrong with the screen?
 
The first 2 that failed were no longer under warranty. The brand new one is, though I'd guess HP will swap it and tell me nothing about how/why it failed...
 
I am not saying this is your problem, but a long time ago, I had a similar problem. Lost two monitors in about 6mos. After losing the second one I decided that there was something going on...figured out that the grounding for that particular outlet in my home office was not working properly (guessing someone put a staple or nail through it when they built the house...it was new construction when I bought it). Anyways, I had an UPS as well, but it can't provide a ground where there isn't one where it's plugged in. That's where I would start...at the wall.

Merry Christmas...tis the season to by yourself another display :D
 
This is a relatively high end UPS, and I think it would be screaming at me if it detected a site wiring fault. But, I'll keep it in mind, as it could be something subtle. How did you determine that the ground was the issue?
 
After receiving a new ZR24w, I did some research and found a LOT of folks are having power related issues with their ZR24w as well. It could be that HP has used sub-par quality power units in their monitors and you've now had it happen too? That UPS looks like it has active power regulation which is a step up from the typical standby types.
 
I'd chalk this up as just being bad luck honestly...I really wouldn't look that deep into it. Probably as others have said it's just a faulty monitor power supply.

I don't think it's a problem with wiring nor do I think it's the UPS...as it should detect any issues or at least be able to prevent them.

Video card COULD be the issue if the display port being used was the only bad thing, however, considering that it's a power issue I HIGHLY doubt your video card is the problem.
 
I can definitely believe the coincidence theory. The first 2 died from being "old"(rather heavily used), and the newest is a case of infant mortality. But still, it's so clustered, it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up a bit...

I'll have Amazon or HP replace this one, and see what happens. Annoying to be without it for a week or 2 though, especially since I thought my monitor woes were behind me, at least for 2-3-5 years or so...
 
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