What is probable cause of intermittent EDID from monitor?

[JohnBoyCr]

I am running Debian Wheezy on and older Biostar motherboard that has the Intel 945GC graphics chipset. The monitor is a 19" Viewsonic VA912b . Things have worked well for years but recently I have been seeing an issue with the EDID data not being received at startup. Generally the data is not received about 8 out of 10 times. I can force the monitor settings using xrandr but would prefer to have everything work as it should. Since the problem is intermittent I am assuming that it is not a software issue nor a bad EDID memory, as both should be more permanent in nature. Would I be correct in assuming that the problem is most likely the VGA cable? That cable is about 6 feet long and is about 8 years old. I am asking the question here because I live in Costa Rica and good quality VGA cables are hard to find, and I don't want to go to the trouble of ordering a cable from an on line source and then have it NOT be the fix. Thanks for your inputs..

 

[scout_03]

since it have both dvi and dsub did you try with the other connector on it from system .

 

[JohnBoyCr]

since it have both dvi and dsub did you try with the other connector on it from system .

Nice idea but I have no video/graphics card and my motherboard has no DVI output, only VGA.

 

[scout_03]

name and model of this gpu .

 

[ccampy]

He said it in his origanl post its a onboard GPU
Intel 945GC

 

[scout_03]

there are many board using the 945gc chipset so i need the name and model of motherboard to see if we could do something .

 

[JohnBoyCr]

there are many board using the 945gc chipset so i need the name and model of motherboard to see if we could do something .

I have a Biostar I945-M7B motherboard, but I think we are straying from what are likely cause of the problem. Since the EDID works periodically I would think that we could eliminate the GPU, the EEPROM in the monitor, and the software driver and likely culprits. In general failures in those items don't become intermittent. They fail, or they don't. However, things like cables DO become intermittent. Especially vulnerable would be the socket pins for the d-sub connectors. They are generally made as cheaply as possible and over time they will lose contact pressure. I suspect that this is the real problem.

As an update, I did some "manipulating" of the VGA cable and re-tightened the connections. That seems to have helped as I have had no problems for a couple of days. I suspect that the "female" sockets have become less secure over time and the connections are not reliable. Whether that is at the computer or the monitor end of things, I don't know. I will try to not move things and hopefully all will be okay. Thanks for the help.

 

[scout_03]

there are some little nut on the board and monitor connector check if they are not loose so even if cable is well plug in they could be making issue .

 

[JohnBoyCr]

I found the solution. The Viewsonic monitors have been known to have a problem in which the control circuitry sometimes does not reset correctly on power up. The cure was to shut down my system. Keep all power and video cables connected and then disconnect the power cable to the monitor. Wait 5 to 10 seconds then plug the power cable back in and start the system. Works every time for me.

 

[scout_03]

good to know i am using a viewsonic monitor this is like a reset .

 

[JohnBoyCr]

good to know i am using a viewsonic monitor this is like a reset .

It works for me on my va912b. Don't know how it will work on other Viewsonic models but at least gives you a shot at taking care of this particular issue.