My new (late last year) desktop computer has a video problem.
Whenever I run a video fullscreen and, for the first time today, when I run Skype close to fullscreen, the monitor blacks out after a random period of time and cannot be coaxed back to life short of a hard reboot.
I initially thought it might be a conflict between Windows 7 64-bit and my three-year-old 24” Dell monitor (Model 2407WFP). So I went to the Dell site and looked for a newer driver for the monitor. But the closest I could find was for Model 2408. So I went to the Dell tech chat to see if the ‘08 driver is compatible with the ‘07 monitor.
The response:
Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_John_Frederick): "Let me transfer you right away to our Tech Support Team for better assistance. Please hold on a sec."
I waited, but the chat connection dropped out and, despite the fact that they have my email address and phone number, I never heard back from them.
I put the question to my computer Guru Tim Balough and he opined it is more likely a video driver issue.
Consulting Windows Update, I was assured that I have the current driver for my NVidia GeForce GT220 video card. But the NVidia web site shows an updated driver that was released on Jan. 20 and the log of my Windows Updates shows no video driver update since then.
Consequently, I downloaded and installed the latest NVidia driver and am waiting to see how it works. I’m resisting the temptation to bang on it with a fullscreen video to see if it breaks because of the anxiety of watching my screen go black. But sooner or later it will get tested.
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