G5 1, display 0

Thanks BDAqua, and would you mind elaborating on the "Backlight or Inverter" part of your reply? I got a new cable at Best Buy and the **** thing is still blinking every 5 minutes or so.

Also… I bought the same type of cable that the monitor came with, which plugged and played five years ago, but maybe it really wasn't right? It appears to be single-link DVI-D at both ends. Tonight I noticed that the ports on my G5 look like dual-link DVI-I. Does that matter? Could it be a type of mismatch that takes a toll over time?

Thanks… <gulp>… I won't be soldering anything though. Last time I wielded a soldering iron was roughly 50 years ago in an attempt to impress/bond with my daddy.

The new cable, though failing to fix the problem, does seem to have helped somewhat, especially after I gave an extra couple of twists to the stabilizing pins (or whatever you call those) on the connector at the G5 late last night. The blinking has been less frequent and less spastic. I'm not sure what message I should get from that as to the nature of the problem.

From your links, the backlight thing seems to be more of a power issue than a data issue? or did I read too fast/misinterpret? I wonder if there is any point in replacing the Samsung's AC power cord… I know most people would just get a new monitor. Not an option at the moment. If it starts really driving me nuts I'll switch back to the CRT and maybe see what I can scrounge up on eBay.

Yeah, it's kind of like that. For the first hour or two of a session, less so—the screen goes to dark hazy blue (not black) for a second or two, then snaps back, and this only happens, on average, perhaps once every 15 minutes. But when my sessions are longer, the malfunctioning is more reminiscent of a dying fluorescent tube, with rapid flickering where only "slices" of the screen will briefly show.

On top of that, the controls on the front of the Syncmaster seemed to die yesterday. Can't access the menu at all now. That was the last straw. I put it on ice and spent a good hour last night reconfiguring my "workstation" to accommodate the NEC Multisync 70 on my traditional desk. Boy, do I miss the drop-leaf table that used to be my computer desk—the base of which was, I suspect, destroyed over time by the weight of this monitor.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the Syncmaster. From surfing a bit I gather I probably could get it fixed for significantly less than the cost of its equivalent, and as broke as I am, I have to consider that option. But considering that it is more than 5 years old, I'll probably just ditch it and live with the Multisync for now.