Monitor turns off suddenly GPU temps are normal

Question

I have a Sapphire ATi Radeon 6850. My monitor is a DELL 2007w. OS is windows7.

The problem I am having is that my monitor suddenly turns off as if it isn't receiving a signal from the GPU. At first I thought it might be a graphic card problem so I stress tested it under furmark and the temperatures under load were perfectly normal. It is only the monitor that turns off, the PC itself keeps working normally. Windows doesn't show anything out of the ordinary in the event log. The only way to get things back to normal again is to turn off and turn the PC back on. A reset won't do, the PC resets but the monitor doesn't turn back on. This is a problem I've been having in the last few days and I've experienced it 3-4 times. It seems to be happening at random, not triggered by anything special.

How can I further diagnose this problem?

Answer 1

The first thing I would do is to switch the monitor for another. Although; since the monitor shows signal until you are in windows - it may be a graphics card problem.

If you have overclocked your card, make sure you use GPU-Z to track your VREG temps. They often get hot when people are only looking at the die sensors.

If switching the monitor does nothing, it is most likely the card or the drivers. Try reinstalling the drivers (if you can) or switching out the graphics card to confirm that is the problem.

If it is the graphics card, can you RMA it?

If not, you can try the following:

1. Install new drivers using another card, and then switch back to the 6850
2. Unscrew the card, and apply new TIM
3. Sell the card as-is on craigslist/ebay and get a new card
4. Flash the bios (if you are really daring and do your research, this voids 99% of warranties)