Dell Studio Hybrid won't work with ViewSonic vx2235wm monitor (DVI)

[Greg Rundlett]

I have a strange situation that has me baffled and I'm hoping somebody
knows what is going on.

I bought a refurbished Dell Studio Hybrid 140G (which has DVI and HDMI
video outputs).  I already own a ViewSonic vx2235wm 22" LCD (circa
2006) monitor (which has DVI and VGA inputs).  If I connect the Dell
to the ViewSonic using a DVI cable there is no output to the monitor.
Nothing.  Because there is no signal, the monitor light is amber
rather than blue.  The cable is known to work with my MacBook Pro.
The monitor is known to work (in Digital mode) connected to my MacBook
Pro.  (The monitor also works in VGA mode, but that is beside the
point.)

A Dell technician visited and replaced the motherboard and cable with
no change in the results.

I have hooked up the Dell Studio Hybrid 140G to 4 other monitors using
either DVI or HDMI and they all have worked.  As I said, I have also
hooked up the monitor to at least one computer using DVI and it works.
 When I put them together I get nothing.

I hooked up the Dell Studio Hybrid 140G to a working monitor at a
friends house and installed the latest Vista driver from ViewSonic
hoping that would fix it, but no change in the results when connecting
the Dell Studio Hybrid back to the ViewSonic monitor at home.

The Dell seems to boot just fine, and goes through a good POST
routine.  (The capslock and numlock keys work.)

The boot order is DVD/CD then hard disk, so I had hoped that a Linux
Live distro would allow me to use the monitor.  However, when
Mythbuntu 8.10 is put into the Dell, I again get no video signal
whatsoever to the display.  Of course Mythbuntu also works fine at my
friends house (with an HP monitor).

In the BIOS settings, I turned off quick boot so that full POST tests
are performed.

I applied all Windows updates - including one from two days ago that
was from Dell and dealt with bus communications and video.

There is this forum post which is similar, but doesn't offer any
solution. http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19244493/19379615.aspx

Although I have updated the ViewSonic driver, I guess I should also
make certain the Intel graphics card driver is the most up to date.

I'm downloading the most recent knoppix live cd figuring that will
have a good assortment of drivers and might be able to create a
display.

Any other suggestions?  I'm also ready to return the thing to Dell
because I'm not likely to buy a new monitor.

-- 
Greg Rundlett
Web Developer - Initiative in Innovative Computing
http://iic.harvard.edu
camb 617-384-5872
nbpt 978-225-8302
m. 978-764-4424
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