[r0ckstarr]

Windows XP
Asus M3N78-EM Motherboard
AMD Phenom Tri-core processor

I replaced my tired 7yr old Samsung 204b LCD monitor with an LG IPS236 monitor. I uninstalled the drivers for my old Samsung monitor, then restarted the computer. I connected the new monitor using both the D-SUB cable and the DVI-D cable. (According to the instructions, you can use both cables, and there is a button on the screen to switch between one or the other.) I then installed the drivers for the IPS236. I believe I restarted after doing that as well.

There are two drivers. One for DVI-D and one for D-SUB. From my understanding, D-SUB is analog, and DVI-D is digital. DVI-D gives a better quality picture.

From there, I went to change the screen resolution from my computers setting of 1024x768 to the new monitors max resolution of 1920x1080.

Everything looked good using D-SUB, so I hit the button to switch it to DVI-D. The screen went blank and the monitor went into power save mode. I tried to switch back to D-SUB, but nothing happened. It switched back to D-SUB, but remained in power save mode.

There wasn't much else I could do, especially without visual. I tried turning the monitor on and off, and tried restarting the computer. I tried disconnecting the DVI-D cable and just leaving the D-SUB connected. I tried it the other way around as well. I even tried using my old monitor. Nothing would bring the monitor back on. The old monitor not working is what told me that the problem wasn't the new monitor itself.

(here's where I screwed up)

So, I tried to remember my way to Windows Recovery mode using keyboard shortcuts. I thought I had it, but wasn't sure which recovery I went into. The computer restarted, then went into an infinite reboot cycle. No monitor to use, so I couldnt exactly hit F8 on the restart.

Fearing that I had now reached the point of no return, I put the Windows disc in and did the In Place Upgrade (or whatever it's called) and restored Windows.

(After doing some reading online, I now see that there are other ways that I could have avoided having to reinstall Windows. Ah well, you gotta learn the hard way sometimes.)
After the eleven-billion XP updates, I was back online. Since I pretty much reinstalled Windows, I also had to reinstall the software for my MOBO and built in graphics card. MOBO has NVida GeForce 8300? on it. Using the default drivers for that, the monitor worked fine.

The MOBO has the connections for both D-SUB and DVI-D, but would not recognize DVI-D, whether it be with the D-SUB cable hooked up, or by itself.

Thinking I would attempt to install the drivers again, I got an idea. I ran an HDMI cable from my computer to my TV. The computer recognized the TV. I then set the NVidia software to clone itself to the TV.

Now, I had two displays.

My thinking in this was that the computer is losing signal to the monitor, but wouldn't to the TV since the TV is not connected to the D-SUB or DVI-D cables.

I reinstalled the drivers that came with the monitor. Switched to DVI-D and the monitor went off again. Back into power save mode.

The TV on the other hand, still worked!

I uninstalled the LG drivers, restarted, reinstalled the MOBO drivers and now I am back with the new monitor. But only on D-SUB.

So, my question is this. Could my problem be the LG drivers themself? Could this be a hardware problem with my DVI-D connection on the MOBO? Does anybody else have the same monitor, and if so, were you able to get the DVI signal to work correctly? If so, how?

[reeftool]

Sounds to me like there is a serious problem with either the monitor or Mobo DVI. I've never had to reinstall Windows after changing a monitor. Normally, Windows will recognize any monitor without having to install any drivers at all. I have built several computers and all my monitors have worked right from the initial startup before any drivers were installed. I have one computer running in the house now where I never installed any of the monitors software at all. All it does is allow me to adjust the monitor from the computer instead of manually playing with the monitor buttons. I would guess that there is an issue with the DVI either on your monitor or the motherboard. I have never had the same monitor plugged into my computer with the D-SUB and DVI both connected. Your motherboard obviously didn't like this hookup. Since you still had output to the HDMI, the obvious thing to look at is the monitor itself. You could try plugging another DVI monitor into your computer to see if it works.

[r0ckstarr]

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll try that and see what happens.