PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Troubleshooting Flat-Panel Displays

If you’ve tried the basic troubleshooting steps and your FPD still doesn’t work properly, you may have one or more of the following problems:

No image

If your FPD displays no image at all and you are certain that it is receiving power and video signals, first adjust the brightness and contrast settings to higher values. If that doesn’t work, turn off the system and FPD, disconnect the FPD signal cable from the computer, and turn on the FPD by itself. It should display some sort of initialization screen, if only perhaps a “No video signal” message. If nothing lights up and no message is displayed, contact technical support for your FPD manufacturer.

Screen flickers

Unlike CRTs, where increasing the refresh rate always reduces flicker, FPDs have an optimal refresh rate that may be lower than the highest refresh rate supported. For example, a 15-inch FPD operating in analog mode may support 60 Hz and 75 Hz refresh. Although it sounds counterintuitive to anyone whose experience has been with CRTs, reducing the refresh rate from 75 Hz to 60 Hz may improve image stability. Check the manual to determine the optimum refresh rate for your FPD, and set your video adapter to use that rate.

The screen is very unstable

First, try setting the optimal refresh rate as described earlier. If that doesn’t solve the problem and you are using an analog interface, there are several possible causes, most of which are due to poor synchronization between the video adapter ...