Help me with a very strange problem...

[Q-bit]

So here's the problem. I have a very cheap non-shielded 6-foot belkin vga cable that works fine for extending my monitor cable. Windows seems to work but I get some ghosting effects because of the lack of shielding.

Then I go down to the local electronics store and purchase a very nice 6-foot low-voltage vga monitor cable. It gets to the DOS startup screens, and the 'starting windows ME' screen. Once windows kicks in, I get an 'OUT OF RANGE' error, meaning that my video card detected that the power coming to the monitor at the end of the new cable was not sufficient (correct?). I take the cable back, assuming it was a bad cable, but the replaced one had the same problem.

So the cheap non-shielded belkin cable works, but the nicer low voltage shielded cable does not work - and they are the exact same length. I have an ATI Radeon 32MB card and I don't why this length should be a problem to begin with. Does anyone know what's going on here? I'm totally baffled by this, as are most of my friends. Apparently an extra 6-foot cable should not cause an out-of-range error on any recent graphics card. The only thing I can think of is the power output coming from the card is very low (configurable??), or the low voltage cable is causing a problem. I would like to get rid of this ghosting problem is at all possible. A multiplier/amplifier is out of the question since they cost over $100!!!

Thanks for any possible answers on this!

[ddebuss]

Could be a bad card...

1. How does the image look without the extension?
2. Have you tried a different monitor?

[Q-bit]

I've tried THREE different monitors with 3 different high quality low voltage cables - same results from this card. Yet the cheap belkin cables still work (although with a little ghosting). The card works great with the monitor directly plugged in (without any extension). I thought it might be the actual connectors on the high quality cables, but I tried some adapter plugs but it didn't help. Oh by the way, here's a VERY strange caviat: once I get the cheaper cable working and window is running, I can replace the cheap cable with the high quality cable and it will work! But I can never reboot with the higher quality cable ot else I get an 'out of range' error.

[u_rebelscum]

Sounds like it's the cable.  Plus Windows Plug&Pray monitor technology.

I think the cable you are getting is missing a pin or grounds one that Windows doesn't think should be.  So win is receiving a boot-up signal that your monitor can do a higher resolution or faster refresh than it really can.

Try this:

• Boot your computer using the old cable.
• After computer boots to windows, replace the old cable with the new one.

If that works, then Windows is thinking your have a different monitor plugged in than you do.  To disable the PLug&Pray feature:

• With the old cable plugged in, go to start->settings->control panel->display.
• Click the setting tab, and then click the Advanced button.
• Click the monitor tab.
• Un-check "Automatically detect Plug & play monitors.
• Click Okay button and note the resolution settings (size & color) in case something goes wrong.
• shut down computer
• replace old cable with new.
• reboot.

Hope this helps.

[Q-bit]

Thanks for your advice but it shut me down TOTALLY. I couldn't get any monitor to work at all for a long time. Eventually I had to boot up in safe mode and then change the monitor/graphics card setting to the lowest possible level to even get the 'auto detect windows' to even show up again in the menus. I suppose I'll just have to accept the shadowing effect. I can't afford the time or the $$ to keep trying out nicer cables