I have an Emachine W3650, XP Serv Pack 2, bought in 2008 at Walmart. Attached to it is an Acer 21.5" widescreen LCD monitor, model P215H, 2 1/2 yr old, also bought at Walmart. The monitor has 5 months left of the 3 year warranty.
The problems: the auto config keeps appearing on the screen, telling me to wait. Manual controls are nonresponsive. Picture shudders, and sometimes resets resolution. This happens repeatedly, without warning, then just stops. It's been doing this for about 2 months. Frequency was increasing until the second issue started, described below. I don't game, but I do watch a lot of streamimg video.
Second issue: In the last 3 weeks, the screen goes black, and in the upper right corner appears a small picture of a plug with the words VGA or HDMI. This also happens several times for no reason, and without warning. The only way I've found to fix both of these issues is to reboot. 1-4 reboots usually fixes it, but it's getting worse in frequency. I have notice that, since this 2nd issue started, auto config rarely shows itself, although it did happen tonight.
Sometimes, frequently, there is a quiet steady ticking sound within the tower. Right now, it is quiet, and the screen is stable. I've checked the connections of monitor on both tower and monitor. Both are tight. The physical power button also stopped working.
Acer tech support tells me that the problem is that my tower is old, and is causing the auto config issue, but the auto config issue didn't happen when I hooked an old AOC CRT monitor to the tower. They also say that when the screen goes black, and the VGA etc appears, that means my monitor is functioning properly. They say take the monitor to a local repair shop to be tried on a different tower. I haven't done that yet. Trying to avoid expense while I find another car.
If you guys have any ideas, I'd really appreciate your suggestions, and thanks very much for your time.
dmorrow
Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2
OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2, 32 bit
Processor: Intel Celeron processor, x86 Family 6 Model 22 Stepping 1
Processor Count: 1
RAM: 1015 Mb
Graphics Card: Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family, 128 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 152617 MB, Free - 119721 MB;
Motherboard: ELITEGROUP, 945GCT-M3
Antivirus: avast! Antivirus, Updated: Yes, On-Demand Scanner: Enabled
