Samsung Monitor Problems?

I’m using Windows 7 Home Premium, i7, 8GB RAM and an nVidia GTX 550Ti graphics card and a 21’ Samsung SyncMaster BX2231 monitor that’s about 3 years old.

A few weeks back every time I boot up my monitor setting are off and it has a very dark viewing picture. I did reinstall the Samsung driver and downloaded the entire picture setting software (Magic Tune, etc.). Also, I’ve installed the latest 550Ti drivers 2 times.

Every boot up the picture is dark. After playing with Magic Tune and the menu settings on the monitor itself, I can get back to normal after 15 minutes of tweaking. I’ve also noticed the icon text now has shades of color.

I’m “guessing” either my monitor or graphics card is causing this. However, once I get my monitor tweaked, I can play MW3 for 2 hours and it looks fine...the video streams fine.

I’m curious if this is normal when a monitor starts to fail.I do have an old ViewSonic I’ll hooh up and see what happens.

I was looking at the LG IPS234V 21” with IPS which 1920 X1080 ($169.00)…same as this Samsung. The contrast ratio is 5000000:1 where my Samsung is 1000.1. My Samsung response time is 2 compared to LG’s 5…I’ve read the human eye can’t see the difference. I don’t have the best eyes anyway. If I have to buy a new monitor I hope the LG is somewhat better than this Samsung ever was. I do love my Samgsung LED TV's...no compalints.

Any input would be appreciated.
Mike

I hooked up my old ViewSonic and got the same dark picture so I would think my graphics card is shot.

I'll do a search for an equal or upgrade replacement.

Any suggestions?
Mike

Before spending any money, you may want to try a few more tests.

What happens if, after you have everything adjusted, you power the monitor off, wait 20 seconds, and then power it back on, while leaving the computer powered on? Is the picture still OK?

What happens if you power off the monitor and reboot the computer, then power the monitor back on as the reboot process starts? Is the picture OK?

What happens if you start the computer shutdown process and power off the monitor immediately, then, when everything has been off for 20 seconds, power the system back up and go into the BIOS setup? Is the picture OK?

I'll try those tests and see what happens. To go into the BIOS setup do I keep tapping F5 as if I'm going into Safe Mode?

Also, when graphics cards fail, is it very obvious?

Del, F2 are common keys to enter the BIOS.
Depends on who made the computer and or the motherboard brand.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000192.htm

Thanks for link!

For some reason my PC changes the correct monitor settings when I reboot. I wrote down my monitor setting so I can reset them faster. So I know my graphics card and monitor are fine. I'll Google this and see what I find.

Mike