Monitor going to one texture

[Nate]

What I mean is, it goes to one colour and covers the screen. Most of the time it's a brownish type. You can't see anything else, not what you might have had up before, just this big colour covering everything.

This happens very intermittently and seems to happen most when I start video/a game up. It happens more when I have my TV hooked up aswell although it might not be doing anything on the TV. Sound still works, and the Keyboard/Mouse functions work most of the time(sometimes it'll stop responding on everything and the computer will beep when moving the mouse/pressing the keyboard) Most of the time when this happens I press the power button to get it to restart properly, and can hear windows doing the shutdown sound, restarts completely fine. I'm pretty sure it happened on my old graphics card aswell.

Any ideas?

Some spec's on the machine:

Operating System: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: INTELR
System Model: AWRDACPI
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 460MB used, 3478MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 8800 GTS 512
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Display Memory: 512.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: SyncMaster 940BF,SyncMaster Magic CX903B/CX916B(Digital)
Monitor Max Res: 1280,1024
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0011.6921 (English)

 

[TdC]

hmm it's just a single colour? no artefacts or other distortion?

 

[inactionman]

Don't know much about this. Is there a maintanance menu on the monitor where you can do any tests?

 

[Nate]

Gets a bit shady around the edges, but that might just be me looking at it at a silly angle No idea about maintenance menu, will have to check it out.

 

[Nate]

Couldn't find anything in the service menu, seems to be what samsung have for the maintenance menu.

Just said some numbers, think it was like 4000~ish hrs on all the lines(the values were the same but it was a different lamp/light).