Crossposted from EVGA boards, I'm going batshit here. Open to all ideas

My 8800 recently died, so I popped in my 8600 from the kids' computer after I spoke to the tech support and they said I should RMA it. I uninstalled all drivers before taking out the 8800gts, booted into safemode, and used Driver Sweeper. I popped the 8600 in, and that's where the problems started. I was greeted with this after post, wavy lines, black background :
http://img832.imageshack../img832/46/dscn1676s.jpg
Hm. So I unplugged my Hyvision mv220 monitor, and tried my HP monitor. Boom, worked fine. Weird. Plugged the old one back in, wavy lines. I was upset thinking my monitor was shot, but it displayed POST fine, and was working literally minutes ago. So I tried different cables, here's where it gets confusing, please bear with me:

The set up is from the card, to the DVI/VGA converter the cards come with, to the cable, to the back of the monitor's vga port, and in one case my LCD TV's vga port. All combos of the Hyvision, converter pieces, and cables work fine with the other computer in the house. All combos of the HP monitor, TV, converter pieces and cables work with my main computer. The Hyvision and the 8600 are the only direct problems, and they only work together with one cable for some reason.

-Cable1 is 8', I've had it a few years, this is the normal PC cable normally works fine. Hyvision = Wavy lines, all others good.
-Cable2 is 50' Had for 3 years, it's a cable run through the walls to the LCD in the living room. Hyvision = Wavy lines, all others good.
-Cable3 is 5' Had it... got to be 5 or 6 years at least. Plugged into Hyvision works fine this is the only cable the Hyvision and 8600 will work together on. All others good.

I'd say maybe the cable or monitor or card went bad, but they didn't, they all work on other equipment. Pulling my hair our here trying to figure out why I'm stuck with this small cable if I want to use my Hyvision with the 8600. I've tried putting in the other dvi port, no luck. I've tried it in the top PCIE slot, the bottom slot, with different pcie power plugs in it, tried using the molex to pcie power converter just to say I tried everything. I've tried updating my bios to the mobo, didn't work. I saw that video corruption was a problem with the 750i and nvidia cards with the more recent bioses, so I flashed back down to the one I was on that was solid for nearly 3 years, no luck. Nothing matters except using the old cable. Windows is a fresh install, maybe a week old. I need to use the 8' so the monitor is centered on my desk, and not on the edge of it off to one side. I'm unemployed atm, so running out and buying a bunch of cables to play test kit with isn't an option. My last resort option would be to reinstall Windows again, but like I said I just did it, and the cable/card combo seems to the problem, not typical windows crashes.

I tried to get to the OSD of the monitor when it's on a cable that causes the line problem, but some genius decided it'd be a good idea to only be able to see and change the monitor's settings when you're computer is acting fine and the display isn't on the fritz. I can't access it to see anything unless it's already working fine.

Specs: Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate / EVGA 750i FTW / Hyvision 22" LCD Monitor MV220 Using Windows' drivers, they didn't bother making one for this series/ 6gb Ram / Thermaltake 750w PSU

My reply to a suggestion to not use the Windows built in monitor drivers:"

Bad thing is, they didn't make any monitor drivers for me to use with this, so I dunno what else I'd use except the standard windows drivers, the Generic PnP Monitor/monitor.sys, which worked fine for years up until I put in the 8600. I don't understand why either, if the monitor drivers from Windows are the problem, why it'd work fine with just one specific cable set up, despite all the other setups working fine with every other monitor/pc combo I've tried them on. Come to think of it, I could of sworn though that it used to show Generic non-PnP Monitor before, hrm.

Borrowed a neighbor's brand new backup cable, and by brand new, I mean I had to unwrap it, lol! Same thing with the Hyvision + 8600, wavy lines, no display behind it, but on other monitors, and even this monitor on other computers, worked perfectly. Driving me insane.

 

I had a couple thoughts.

First, the driver for monitor.sys in my 64-bit Win7 is such:
Monitor.sys
Generic PnP Monitor driver
Driver Date; 6/21/2006
Driver Version: 6.1.7600.16385

If your system file is different, that may have changed the performance standards being used. I don't think this is the problem, but all things are worth checking.

What differentiates DVI cables has to do with the type of signal they carry. Most modern stuff is built to feed digital and analog, with the equipment defaulting to digital. I stumbled onto a nifty overview with pictures for reference.

http://www.pacificcable.com/DVI_Tutorial.htm

Two things from that article pop to my attention. One is the different cable types- the short cable may be analog-only, which is why it's working, where the other ones are mixed and defaulting to the digital signal. If something is wrong with the digital signal translation but the equipment is still feeding, it will run the (bad) digital signal unless told to do otherwise.

The other thing in the article is this

Which means I may have my digital/analog situation backwards. Anyway, look at the article and then check out the cable ends on the 5'. This at least may narrow down the problem to the type of signal at fault.

 

Checked, same stuff



My converter plugs are 1x DVI-A Analog Only, and 2x DVI-I Dual Link which also should work because they can transmit the analog signal also. I currently have the DVI-I dual link plugged in, I'll reboot after switching to the DVI-A analog only and see if it makes a difference, since swapping them in and out with the pc running doesnt seem to do anything.

The cables are all VGA cables, using the DVI adapters that come with the more expensive video cards that only have DVI outputs. It occurs to me to just buy a fucking DVI cable if I get the money. Or they could stop being dick and make it so you could choose the output mode of your goddamned video card.

 

I made a custom .INF file based off the monitor's EDID, no difference. Also I managed to get the 8800gts running for a few minutes before it locked due to overheating, on.every.single.cable.combo.

 

Took a look around on comparing the two. 8800 is like 'Aliens' when compared to the 8600's 'Battle Beyond the Stars'. In other words, the 8600 was crap to begin with; it's probably lost its mind for certain bandwidths of info. As it works in VGA (boot) mode, we can assume something was fried along the way, but not completely- just enough to turn the enhanced output into goulash with anything but a highly-shielded cable.

I'd resign myself to buying a cheapish replacement until the RMA comes back.

 

I'd agree, except for the facts:
1) it works on other computers fine.
2)it works with other monitors on this computer fine.
3)It works on this computer and this monitor with one specific cable combo.

My RMA card gets here Friday, but I really want to get to the bottom of this, cause it's too weird to ignore.

 

I haven't the slightest clue how to solve your problem, but if you're looking to buy cables, make sure to check monoprice. It has the best deals on cables, bar none.

 

/facepalm, I appreciate the help, but if you're going to advertise a site for me to check out, you needa fixa ya linka

 

Fixed. Apparently you need the "http://" or it'll go to "http://forums.darklordpotter.net/www.website.com".

 

So I went and got a DVI Dual link cable. Works perfectly. Fuck it, at this point I don't give a shit anymore.

EVGA upgraded my busted 8800 gts to a 8800 GTX, which is awesome for me, cause it's hella stronger, 10-30 more fps in benchmarks according to Tomshardware, and despite it still being a few generations old now (2007 I think) there wasn't anything I couldn't run on the GTS on full with respectable framerates.