Slow start on PC monitor

[sherwindu]

I posted something about this problem as a reply to a similar situation from 2011. It went to the Windows 7 forum, but I think this should be addressed by my video card.

I have a Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT video card that was purchased over 3 years ago, so the company considers it a legacy product with no support provided. My problem has surfaced in the past few weeks with the display on my Acer LCD computer monitor delaying the display of the Windows 7 desktop for several minutes flashing Acer logos occuring after a reboot or recovery from the sleep state. I have the latest drivers and Windows diagnostics say the card is performing correctly. Can my video card be the culprit and can it be fixed?

The other problem is an occasional lockup in Internet Explorer where the Nvidia software attempts to reinstitute the web page. It usually will lock up the computer at this point requiring me to reboot. This problem occured long before the first problem, but I have been just ignoring it.

Should I need to replace my GeForce card, I would like to get one that can handle firewire feeds from a video tape cassette camera. I saw on the web that several of these cards do not
work with Windows 7. Are there any recommendations for one that will?

 

[Maxx_Power]

I posted something about this problem as a reply to a similar situation from 2011. It went to the Windows 7 forum, but I think this should be addressed by my video card.

I have a Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT video card that was purchased over 3 years ago, so the company considers it a legacy product with no support provided. My problem has surfaced in the past few weeks with the display on my Acer LCD computer monitor delaying the display of the Windows 7 desktop for several minutes flashing Acer logos occuring after a reboot or recovery from the sleep state. I have the latest drivers and Windows diagnostics say the card is performing correctly. Can my video card be the culprit and can it be fixed?

The other problem is an occasional lockup in Internet Explorer where the Nvidia software attempts to reinstitute the web page. It usually will lock up the computer at this point requiring me to reboot. This problem occured long before the first problem, but I have been just ignoring it.

Should I need to replace my GeForce card, I would like to get one that can handle firewire feeds from a video tape cassette camera. I saw on the web that several of these cards do not
work with Windows 7. Are there any recommendations for one that will?

When you say the Acer logo is flashing, is it the same behaviour you would get if the monitor was unplugged on that monitor ?

When you say "reinstitute the web page" what do you mean ? What is the Nvidia software you are referring to ?

One more thing you can check is the physical condition of the card. Some 8000 series of Nvidia cards from the past had capacitor issues. Take a look at the physical card, and see if you see any of these:

http://wxdragon.com/images/bad-caps-2.jpg

They are usually bulgy on the top, and/or are leaking electrolyte.

 

[mesab66]

Can you test your system out using another monitor? - any issues there?

Does your motherboard (i.e. not the gfx card) have a firewire port? if it does then you may find that most video capture software may 'see' the connected camera as a device source (you might need to install a camera driver). You should google your camera + pc video capture - you might get lucky and find other folk who have done this successfully. Also, check the camera manufacturer's website for advice.

 

[sherwindu]

When you say the Acer logo is flashing, is it the same behaviour you would get if the monitor was unplugged on that monitor ?

When you say "reinstitute the web page" what do you mean ? What is the Nvidia software you are referring to ?

One more thing you can check is the physical condition of the card. Some 8000 series of Nvidia cards from the past had capacitor issues. Take a look at the physical card, and see if you see any of these:

http://wxdragon.com/images/bad-caps-2.jpg

They are usually bulgy on the top, and/or are leaking electrolyte.

With the monitor disconnected, powering it up first shows one screen with the Acer logo for about 2 seconds. The screen goes black for another 2 seconds and then I see a message the
there is 'no signal'. There is no reappearance of the Acer logo. With the monitor connected to
the PC, I only see the Acer logo, which repeats itself every 4 or 5 seconds, up to 6 times. I then get the Windows 7 desktop display and can proceed. This problem consistently shows up
when I bring Windows 7 out of sleep mode by pressing the start button on my PC. It will also
appear if I do a reboot of the PC.

I think the Nvidia software is driving the Acer Monitor. Is there no software/hardware connection between the video card and the monitor?

I will check for bad capacitors which I have seen on other electronic devices. Usually they are leaking out the ends.

 

[sherwindu]

Can you test your system out using another monitor? - any issues there?

Does your motherboard (i.e. not the gfx card) have a firewire port? if it does then you may find that most video capture software may 'see' the connected camera as a device source (you might need to install a camera driver). You should google your camera + pc video capture - you might get lucky and find other folk who have done this successfully. Also, check the camera manufacturer's website for advice.

My Asus P5N-D motherboard does have a IEEE1394a port, which I believe is firewire. I didn't know I had it. I'm not sure what software needs to be running on the PC to accept video data.
My intention is to store it on my hard drive and convert it to Blu-Ray for editing and burning.
I guess the Nvidia board I have plays no part in this proceedure. I'm not sure what the compatibility problems are with Windows 7, but if it is running my motherboard, I assume it is compatible with the built in firewire port.

 

[sherwindu]

When you say the Acer logo is flashing, is it the same behaviour you would get if the monitor was unplugged on that monitor ?

When you say "reinstitute the web page" what do you mean ? What is the Nvidia software you are referring to ?

One more thing you can check is the physical condition of the card. Some 8000 series of Nvidia cards from the past had capacitor issues. Take a look at the physical card, and see if you see any of these:

http://wxdragon.com/images/bad-caps-2.jpg

They are usually bulgy on the top, and/or are leaking electrolyte.

As regards the capacitors, if they need replacement, I'm not sure if the cost of repair would
be comparable to just replacing the card. I am not a gamer and the most taxing thing I do
is stream High Def video off the cable. Would a newer generation video card give me any significant advantages over my current card, and if so, which card would you recommend?

 

[smorizio]

with old pc it can be lack of ram..a damaged program at start up or some bad hardware. with old pc start with memtest86 to see if it a ram issue. also run smart test and vendor test on your hard drive. when drives start dying they can start slowing down. for a damaged program use msconfig and go to the start up tab.turn everything off other then your anti virus and video drivers.
for the video drivers...use a drive sweeper to remove the nvidia driver in safe mode then install the newest ones from nvidia.

 

[Maxx_Power]

As regards the capacitors, if they need replacement, I'm not sure if the cost of repair would
be comparable to just replacing the card. I am not a gamer and the most taxing thing I do
is stream High Def video off the cable. Would a newer generation video card give me any significant advantages over my current card, and if so, which card would you recommend?

If it is bad capacitors and you can't find anyone competent with soldering. Put it in the big old box of old parts I suppose. Check to see if the card has lifetime warranty on it. XFX and EVGA cards of that era had life time warranties.

If you just need a card to replace this one but not planning to game much, I would suggest something cheap from AMD in the HD 64xx series. When you are shopping for a non-gaming card, just go for a quiet, low powered card that can decode newer videos. So the HD64xx series are great in this sense. Then it is just a matter of whatever is cheaper or your other preferences.

Did you have any bad capacitors ?

 

[Maxx_Power]

With the monitor disconnected, powering it up first shows one screen with the Acer logo for about 2 seconds. The screen goes black for another 2 seconds and then I see a message the
there is 'no signal'. There is no reappearance of the Acer logo. With the monitor connected to
the PC, I only see the Acer logo, which repeats itself every 4 or 5 seconds, up to 6 times. I then get the Windows 7 desktop display and can proceed. This problem consistently shows up
when I bring Windows 7 out of sleep mode by pressing the start button on my PC. It will also
appear if I do a reboot of the PC.

I think the Nvidia software is driving the Acer Monitor. Is there no software/hardware connection between the video card and the monitor?

I will check for bad capacitors which I have seen on other electronic devices. Usually they are leaking out the ends.

Based on the symptom, just try reinstalling the Nvidia drivers again (go to Nvidia.com, then download new drivers for your card and operating system). It seems that your card is not giving out a signal, or the signal is not being read by the monitor prior to the windows desktop.

Do you have another monitor to double check this ?

 

[sherwindu]

Based on the symptom, just try reinstalling the Nvidia drivers again (go to Nvidia.com, then download new drivers for your card and operating system). It seems that your card is not giving out a signal, or the signal is not being read by the monitor prior to the windows desktop.

Do you have another monitor to double check this ?

Seems like a lot of work to fix this not so annoying problem.

I do not have another monitor to try out.

I am also suspicious of the Windows software, but have no way to check this out. The Windows diagnostics tell me all the hardware is ok, but they are not very rigourous.

 

[sherwindu]

I should add that another occurence of this problem is when the monitor is blanked out by the screen saver. Then, by moving the mouse to reactivate the screen, I see the delay problem again.

I have no reason to believe I have bad driver software. I have the latest version that was working before this problem showed up, so reloading it may be of questionable value.

 

[Maxx_Power]

I should add that another occurence of this problem is when the monitor is blanked out by the screen saver. Then, by moving the mouse to reactivate the screen, I see the delay problem again.

I have no reason to believe I have bad driver software. I have the latest version that was working before this problem showed up, so reloading it may be of questionable value.

Okay. I have seen some video cards and monitors with rather slow wake up times. One thing you can try is to go to BIOS, and find the option that specifies:

Suspend Mode:

You can usually choose between S1 and S3, try S1.

Repost Video BIOS (or Repost Video) on S3 Resume:

If you selected S3 above, turn this off. Either way, leave this off.

See if that helps. It is an annoying problem I understand.

 

[sherwindu]

Okay. I have seen some video cards and monitors with rather slow wake up times. One thing you can try is to go to BIOS, and find the option that specifies:

Suspend Mode:

You can usually choose between S1 and S3, try S1.

Repost Video BIOS (or Repost Video) on S3 Resume:

If you selected S3 above, turn this off. Either way, leave this off.

See if that helps. It is an annoying problem I understand.

I don't know if I am ready to switch from S3 to S1. I believe S3 is needed to run my sleep
function. S3 is the default Power Management setting, so even if S1 fixes this problem, I am afraid it may mess up other things. S1 will not shut down the power as much as S3 and is
probably not a good choice.

I did do a Power Management analysis of my PC. I don't know how to send the report which is on my hard drive as an HTML file. There were some warnings and errors, but I don't know the significance of them. My Sleep function is working now. I have had Sleep Function problems before when I tried to attach an external hard drive through a USB. I gave up on using that device.

 

[Maxx_Power]

I don't know if I am ready to switch from S3 to S1. I believe S3 is needed to run my sleep
function. S3 is the default Power Management setting, so even if S1 fixes this problem, I am afraid it may mess up other things. S1 will not shut down the power as much as S3 and is
probably not a good choice.

I did do a Power Management analysis of my PC. I don't know how to send the report which is on my hard drive as an HTML file. There were some warnings and errors, but I don't know the significance of them. My Sleep function is working now. I have had Sleep Function problems before when I tried to attach an external hard drive through a USB. I gave up on using that device.

Ah, okay. The less devices you have in your computer, and attached as externals, the better your chances are for getting your computer to sleep.