marantz
11-19-2004, 02:31 PM
I've had my dual-DVI Gainward 6800GT 'Golden Sample' card for about 2 months now and haven't run into any real issues with it after replacing the defective power supply I had when I bought the card. I've been running my 1800FP on one of the DVI ports without any screen flicker problems whatsoever.
Yesterday, I got a 20' HDMI cable (and an HDMI/DVI adapter of course) to connect my HDTV to the second DVI port so I could watch videos and HD material from my computer on the bigger screen. I'm using the 66.81 ForceWare drivers (the new 66.93 drivers significantly reduced gaming performance for me) and am running the displays in Clone mode. I set the TV as display #2 and designated it as a 1080i HDTV, and I set the overlay to full screen on the secondary monitor (TV) so that the TV functions as a second monitor until I play video (at which point it goes to full screen video). This worked great for about 30 minutes!
A short while later, while doing just remedial stuff on my LCD, I noticed the picture would completely turn off for a second and then come back. This seemed to happen when I opened new programs or clicked menus or something of that nature. Sometimes it would happen every few seconds, and sometimes it'd go a few minutes without a blip then go black again. A few times, it even went completely dark and flashed the 'no signal' message I usually get when my computer is off or in standby.
All the while, though, the HDTV would retain its signal without flicker. The only way I could get it to stop was by either disabling the second monitor or unpluggging the HDMI cable from the computer. Even then, sometimes I had to still disable the monitor, which is pretty hard when you have a completely black screen in front of you! I really like being able to watch videos and HD rips of TV shows from the computer on my HDTV, but not at the expense of usability on my primary monitor.
So, I ask, has anyone ever heard of people having problems like the ones i described? Could the problem be as simple as low signal strength (and that the 1800FP requires a strong signal?)? Could it be a defective card? Does anyone have a 6800-series card and run dual monitors? Thanks in advance!
Yesterday, I got a 20' HDMI cable (and an HDMI/DVI adapter of course) to connect my HDTV to the second DVI port so I could watch videos and HD material from my computer on the bigger screen. I'm using the 66.81 ForceWare drivers (the new 66.93 drivers significantly reduced gaming performance for me) and am running the displays in Clone mode. I set the TV as display #2 and designated it as a 1080i HDTV, and I set the overlay to full screen on the secondary monitor (TV) so that the TV functions as a second monitor until I play video (at which point it goes to full screen video). This worked great for about 30 minutes!
A short while later, while doing just remedial stuff on my LCD, I noticed the picture would completely turn off for a second and then come back. This seemed to happen when I opened new programs or clicked menus or something of that nature. Sometimes it would happen every few seconds, and sometimes it'd go a few minutes without a blip then go black again. A few times, it even went completely dark and flashed the 'no signal' message I usually get when my computer is off or in standby.
All the while, though, the HDTV would retain its signal without flicker. The only way I could get it to stop was by either disabling the second monitor or unpluggging the HDMI cable from the computer. Even then, sometimes I had to still disable the monitor, which is pretty hard when you have a completely black screen in front of you! I really like being able to watch videos and HD rips of TV shows from the computer on my HDTV, but not at the expense of usability on my primary monitor.
So, I ask, has anyone ever heard of people having problems like the ones i described? Could the problem be as simple as low signal strength (and that the 1800FP requires a strong signal?)? Could it be a defective card? Does anyone have a 6800-series card and run dual monitors? Thanks in advance!