2nd monitor going black after a few minutes

[Dfairlite]

I'm running 12.04 with a dual monitor setup. Both monitors have worked wonderfully since the beginning of the year. But the last few days my second monitor goes black after a few minutes of being on (displays my background and works perfectly until it turns black).

I thought that maybe the monitor was going bad, but when I boot into windows it stays on and works wonderfully. I hate windows, but I need my second monitor for my work.

Here's what I've tried
Restart
Unplug/replug
Turning the screen off option from 10 min to never.
Adjusting settings in nvidia control panel

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[QIII]

What GPU/driver are you using?

I know you said it works with Windows, but have you tried physically swapping the monitors at the I/O panel to see if the same monitor goes black or if it is always the one in the same position?

[Dfairlite]

My driver is: NVidia GeForce 9800 GT version 1.11.3 (11103000.

I haven't tried swapping, but i'll try that and report back in a few.

[Dfairlite]

EDIT: it stayed on longer than usual, but the same monitor shuts off. seems like a hardware issue, but why it works in windows is beyond me...

[QIII]

Sounds thermal. You might try VERY carefully giving two or three shots of compressed air through the vents (don't stick the nozzle in the vent!) to see if it's full of dust.

[Dfairlite]

alright, i'll give that a shot and report back. Thanks for the ideas!

[Dfairlite]

No change. A little dust came out, but not much. I'm going to try to hook it up to my laptop (also running ubuntu) and see if it has the same issue.