Do i need to get a shielded vga cable?

[MttFrog13]

I recently got a samsung 216bw monitor but it won't work with my laptop's vga output correctly. It flickers beyond usability on resolutions below the maximum of 1680x1050 but on the maximum it either doesn't show an image at all, or shows an image but it will be off color and off center. What gets me is that it works perfectly fine on both my sister's laptop and my mother's laptop which only have 1gb of memory and integrated graphics. It also works perfectly fine with my xbox 360. They have a dell 1525 and dell 1700, i have a dell 1500 with 2gb of memory and a 256mb video card. One problem that occurs on all three is that when i plug in my external speakers the picture on the monitor flickers and bands go vertically and there is a low and loud frequency coming through my speakers.

I think the problem is either 1) an incompatibility with my video card, 2) damage to my laptops vga output, 3) the vga cable needs to be shielded.

What do you guys think?

[AlucardHS]

do you have the monitor plugged in before or after you turn on the laptop?

did you try and update the video drivers?

what type of video card is it?

is the Hz on the right setting for the monitor?

[MttFrog13]

do you have the monitor plugged in before or after you turn on the laptop? The laptop is already on. I've tried making sure the monitor was off, then plugging it in.

did you try and update the video drivers?yeah i tried the windows update and it was up to date. I tried some from laptopvideo2go with no success.

what type of video card is it? Its a nvidia 8600m gt, it has 256mb of dedicated memory and is a pretty new model, its dx10 compatible.

is the Hz on the right setting for the monitor? I just tried all the different Hz. On 60Hz there is no image at all. On 70, 72, and 75, the colors are correct but its off center and flickering really bad.

I was also thinking of putting a vga to dvi adapter on my laptop and hooking up the monitor via a dvi cable

[AlucardHS]

1. have the laptop off before you plug in the monitor, that can be a reason for the distortion.

2. you should get your video drivers from Nvidia themselves since they designed that card.

3. got answer for this

4. if also you can DL the drivers for that monitor from samsung : http://www.samsung.com/us/support/download/supportDown.do?group=&type=&subtype=&model_nm=216BW&language=&cate_type=all&dType=D&mType=DR&vType=R&prd_ia_cd=&disp_nm=216BW

a monitor like that is recommended at 1680x1050 at 60Hz or else the pic would not look good or distorted.

[MttFrog13]

1. have the laptop off before you plug in the monitor, that can be a reason for the distortion.

didn't help

2. you should get your video drivers from Nvidia themselves since they designed that card.

i tried nvidia's originally

3. got answer for this

4. if also you can DL the drivers for that monitor from samsung : http://www.samsung.com/us/support/download/supportDown.do?group=&type=&subtype=&model_nm=216BW&language=&cate_type=all&dType=D&mType=DR&vType=R&prd_ia_cd=&disp_nm=216BW

I have them installed.

[incstlouis]

3) the vga cable needs to be shielded.

Yes.  There are two types of common VGA cables.  Both should be shielded.  One is just a thin multi-conductor cable and the other will be a slightly thicker "mini-coax" style cable.  Some of these thicker higher performance cables will also have ferrite beads at each end to shield out interference.

Here is a good reference link:

http://www.showmecables.com/showProducts.asp?category_id=234

[MttFrog13]

well i bought a new vga cable a while ago, and i haven't been able to get it to work. Called samsung, they said it isn't their monitor because it works on other laptops. Dell said that it must be that my video card, the nvidia 8600m gt isn't compatible.