This is a desktop monitor that I’ve had for at least 10 years that has developed an issue.
I use it primarily for photo editing (Adobe Lightroom) and, occasionally, YouTube video watching. There are now vertical streaks of red that show up both in Lightroom and YouTube. The streaks are faint but annoying, and appear on the entire screen, not just the video window or the photo window of each program. I have not noticed that they are present anywhere else, and they are definitely not there on the desktop.
I’m fine getting a new monitor - I want a larger one anyway. But I wonder if something else could be at the root of the problem.
So - the entire screen when an application is frontmost, but NOT when your ‘desktop’ has the focus? That would indeed be an odd failure mode. Can you borrow a monitor to swap in and make sure your graphics card isn’t wonky?
Vertical lines are often the symptom of failing flexible edge connectors to the LCD panel in the monitor. Squeezing the bezel of the monitor just above the lines may make them go away temporarily - or get much worse. In either event, it would clarify the urgency of shopping for a new one.
I don’t have another monitor. I do have a laptop, but the failing monitor is old, with just a vga and a dvi-d port; I do not have a cable to connect my laptop to either of those ports.
If you have another computer available, hook same monitor to other computer. If you’ve got red streaks, yeah, it’s the monitor. If you don’t, it most likely isn’t, although it could be a failure that, at this point, only shows symptoms under select circumstances that Computer II isn’t subjecting it to or something.
What seems very odd to me is that it’s just specific applications. That would suggest a problem before the image comes out of the computer, and thus probably the graphics card.
However, it could be that the issue there all the time, but you can only see it when certain images are on screen. For example, if it only shows up when the pixels are dark in that area, or when something is in a specific part of the screen. That could be the monitor, or it could be interference on the cables.
One way to check if it’s the monitor would be to take a screenshot, and then look at that screenshot on a different screen. If it’s the monitor, it will not show up in the screenshot.
Heck, you might could just rotate the screenshot on the same scree, if the problem is in a specific spot. See if the problem goes away or moves.
A screenshot is a record of what the computer is putting on the screen. A faulty monitor does not affect the content of a screenshot. If you have a screenshot that displays red streaks, you probably have a faulty graphics card.
No, a screenshot captures the actual pixel pattern the computer is trying to send to the monitor. Paste it into a photo editor, save it as a JPEG, and take it to another computer. If the streaks are still there the problem is likely the video card, if not then it’s the monitor or cable.
It could make sense that it is certain applications, because some make more use of the graphics card than others. When the heavy-GPU-use apps are doing work, they might tax the card, causing it to use more cores, and the fault would lie in those cores. In which case, the errors could end up spilling over into actual content.
If you have a screenshot that doesn’t have red streaks, it could still be the graphics card - depending on how the computer is using the graphics card with respect to desktop rendering, and depending on the nature of the fault (for example a fault in the output interface part of the card or the physical connector)
Well, I went ahead and ordered a new monitor anyway. I’ll report back if the streaks remain.
If I do need a graphics card, what’s the cheapest I can get away with? I do zero gaming, just photo editing and watching the occasional YouTube tutorial.
Many monitors have a self-test mode built into them that works independent of the computer. Usually accessed via fiddling with the switches on the monitor. (Maybe even on your 10-year-old one.) See if the red streaks show up in those.
You might also try downloading some monitor test software to do this. Eizo & Nokia have good ones, I’ve heard. And free!
Just wanted to mention, I had this exact scenario when my 2nd to most recent video card started going out. No problems at all unless I played that -one- game. Then, I got weird, diagonal snow of pixels that were about 1-2 tones off the correct color running from upper right to left across my screen.
But no where else.
Figured the game was borked somehow and went on with life.
A few months later, it started turning up in OTHER games, but not under normal (non GPU intensive use). So I replaced it with my prior video card which was still functional if underpowered and the problem went away. I went ahead and did a stress test on the old card (the one I pulled) a few months later when the new card I ordered came in, and the stress test killed that old card. It had been just baaaarely holding on, doing the best it could.
