[CLUE-Tech] Tired video card?

[Dale Hawkins]

I have an aging (gosh, almost 4 years old) matrox g200 AGP video card
in my home PC.  Lately, when I power up the computer, the monitor does
not wake up.  If I let the box boot all the way, Linux can still
communicate with the video card, but the monitor remains ominously
dark (the sleep mode LED indicates the monitor is still in standby
mode).

These are the experiments that I have attempted:

Power cycle the monitor (there is not G-D power switch so I have to
pull the plug).  In this case, the monitor comes up with a test
pattern for a few minutes and then goes blank again.

Wiggle the monitor signal cable.  No effect.

Pull the monitor signal cable.  All the pins seem good (i.e., nothing
bent or broken).  Plugging the monitor cable back in has no effect.

The only solution I have found which seems to work (are you sitting
down -- this is ugly) is to repeatedly press the computer reset button
until the initial POST screen becomes visible.  So basically, I power
up the computer, and watch the monitor.  If the monitor remains in
standby mode for more than a few seconds, I power cycle the beast.
Repeat up to five or six times!

Eventually, everything seems happy, and the monitor comes to life.  I
can then work for as long as I wish without further incident (even if
I switch video modes, put the monitor into standby mode, etc.).

Has anyone seen this sort of behavior (or misbehavior) before?  Is
there any cure or am I going to have to fork out some hard earned
money for a new card (or worse, a mother board)?

Thanks.

-Dale

-- 
Now playing:
Queen - Classic Queen - (2) - Bohemian Rhapsody

Better to have endured moments of sheer terror, than to have died having
lived life a coward.

A good solution now is better than a perfect solution tomorrow.
- From debian-curiosa

Payin' the bills with my mad programming skills.
- Weird Al