Need help with horizontal line/artifacts on 2nd monitor.

[Bmac43]

I built my first PC about 6 mos ago. I'm getting some horizontal misalignment on my 2nd monitor, particularly when viewing active video. I contacted MSI Tech Support and have done everything they recommended to troubleshoot, including updating the BIOS, trading the card with a known working card, verifying drivers for the GPU and the MOBO, running memtest. The results seemed to point to a defective card. That said, I did more checking today and noticed that the video aberrations went away when I ran only the 2nd monitor. When I changed to "duplicate these displays" in Windows 7, the artifacts/lines returned. The 1st monitor is a 27" LG Flatron while the second monitor is a 50" Panasonic Plasma TV. Both are 1080p. My components are Asus H-97 Pro Gamer mobo, i5-4590 CPU, 4x4gb GSkill memory, MSI Radeon R9-380 Gaming 4G LE running at stock speed, Windows 7 Home Premium. No error messages, no crashes, no blue screens, just video aberration on the 2nd monitor when both are running via "duplicate these displays". My question is, am I likely to resolve the problem by RMA-ing the card?

 

[davidt128]

An error i encounter when I set up my TV as my second monitor was that i had to change the refresh rate for my TV i had the same issue where i was getting artifact line across my TV. I would assume that the tech support has all ready had you try this but it's worth a shot if you haven't.
It wouldn't hurt to RMA, Is it a guaranteed fix..no
Have you tried to duel screen with two monitors other then the second one which is giving you issues.
If you also have another GPU you could always see if it's a setting or the actual card by checking to see if that card displays the same issue.

 

[Bmac43]

An error i encounter when I set up my TV as my second monitor was that i had to change the refresh rate for my TV i had the same issue where i was getting artifact line across my TV. I would assume that the tech support has all ready had you try this but it's worth a shot if you haven't.
It wouldn't hurt to RMA, Is it a guaranteed fix..no
Have you tried to duel screen with two monitors other then the second one which is giving you issues.
If you also have another GPU you could always see if it's a setting or the actual card by checking to see if that card displays the same issue.

 

[Bmac43]

Thanks for your input David. I tried the refresh option but it was unsuccessful. Your reply prompted me to check further into the AMD settings and I noticed that one of the settings has you select which monitor you want as the primary monitor (gets the best performance - apparently more resources). I changed the primary monitor to the big TV and the lines went away...but they are now on the smaller monitor on my desk! At this point, the onboard Intel HD 4600 is outperforming my high-end video card on the 2nd monitor. I've also tried substituting an older Radeon HD 7850 card, which handles the second monitor with no problems. It's becoming more obvious to me that the R9-380 card is defective, that I should return it for repair or replacement while it's still early in the warranty period.

 

[davidt128]

Glad i could help kind of i guess.
At this point it would be a smart choice to send it back because it is still under warranty. Hate saying that...