Is my monitor broken?

Raneados

sorry if this is an easy one, I've only got a bit at a public computer and haven't had time to really look around for the answer

seemingly my monitor is broken, it's been doing this thing for a long while (year and change) where, when you start it up, or turn the monitor on after it's been off for a while, it'll flash the power light on and off and give no picture

computer boots up fine and has done whenever it does this

so the blue power light blinks on and off and the screen is black the entire time. Sometimes after a few seconds/minutes, it'll flash the message "going to sleep" and go into sleep mode, and the light on the monitor will turn a steady orange

can't tell you the monitor model number or code or anything other than I think it's called a "median" or something similar. I'll look it up when i get home

it's an LCD monitor, about 8 years old

I bought a new monitor--CPU cable, whatever it's called, the 15 pin one, and it's doing the same thing, so it's not that

restarting the monitor doesn't help
neither does restarting the computer (I say this now, but BEFORE, sometimes restarting the computer has helped, maybe?)


like I said, it's been doing this for a while, but it would "catch" a couple of seconds into the CPU startup and work as normal with a little flickering

don't want to drop 100+ bucks on a new monitor unless it's necessary

Thanatos

Best way to tell for-sure is to hook it up to another computer, see if it does the same thing.

Essee

Yeah, hooking it up to something else also helps to rule out the possibility that it could be your video card that's giving you the trouble instead. I've been dealing with a damaged card that usually works fine, but every once in a while if you tab out of a fullscreen program it'll suddenly stop properly sending the signal to the TV and I'll have to play a fun game where I switch the cable between ports until it feels like working again. It's not a very fun game.

Buuuut if your monitor is 8 years old, I would definitely bet on the monitor over the video card. It's had a good run, after all!

Raneados

short of buying another computer to hook it up to

:V

or carting it miles to work/friends

any ideas what the problem might be?

edit: nuuurgh also been worried it's my video card, but it just does feel like it

Essee

The problem with your monitor, assuming it is indeed the monitor, would probably be that it's 8 years old, as I said.

Thanatos

Well, the best way to test the video card would be to hook up another monitor to it, see if it does the same thing.

Elimination

When you play games, does your PC start getting crazy artifacts and bluescreen? If it does, it's your video card.

Raneados

it never bluescreened from any games, at least with any frequency

the monitor had a weird shimmer sometimes after starting it up, like the pixels were wavy

it's almost certainly the monitor, but I'd like to know exactly what happened, being the curious george that i am

it's sad that it's basically the newest PART of my computer

I'll go a-searchin' for some POS monitor to tide me over tomorrow after I make sure the video card is seated right and maybe ask a neighbor if I can test my monitor

BlindZenDriver

Raneados wrote:

it's almost certainly the monitor, but I'd like to know exactly what happened, being the curious george that i am

it's sad that it's basically the newest PART of my computer

I'll go a-searchin' for some POS monitor to tide me over tomorrow after I make sure the video card is seated right and maybe ask a neighbor if I can test my monitor

Chances are it's some parts in the power system of your monitor. If you google or even look at youtube you can find DIY repair guides for common monitor issues.

As for getting some POS monitor do look in the classified. It is late in the change cycle but these last years people have been discarding perfectly good CRT monitors for so-so LCD's (and some good LCD's) because they think new is automatically better. If you were local I could hook you up with a Sony GDM-F520 which is a 21" CRT and among the very best monitors ever made - once it was a 2K$+ item and now it can be had for free.

Tox

Also check and see if any local pawn/used goods type stores sell computer hardware, and what kind of warranties/guarantees they offer. We have a Trade-It here, and they have tons of used electronics, and offer a 30 day guarantee.

darkmayo

most monitors have some sort of basic display diagnostics, even older LCDs, like if you have it powered on and nothing is connected to the device you might see something on the screen telling you cable disconnect, or no imput or maybe some color bars floating around with text (depends on the model) if those come up then the issue may lay with something else (still could be the monitor but without known goods to test against it makes it harder to figure out)

Raneados

so I went without a monitor for a few days, as my step dad said he had one I could have

brought my, assumed, broken monitor over to his place to check it out and.... it works perfectly over here... hmm... he's giving me another monitor to take home to make sure something loose in the monitor didn't get bumped back into place in the car

I've reseated my video card several times, but I'll give it another shot when I get back home

glad I didn't buy a monitor

next up: buying a video card?

computers is jerks

Raneados

darkmayo wrote:

most monitors have some sort of basic display diagnostics, even older LCDs, like if you have it powered on and nothing is connected to the device you might see something on the screen telling you cable disconnect, or no imput or maybe some color bars floating around with text (depends on the model) if those come up then the issue may lay with something else (still could be the monitor but without known goods to test against it makes it harder to figure out)

it has automatic detection, but they don't do anything

Raneados

quick update before I head home

when I DON'T have the 15-pin cable attached to the computer+monitor, it flashes the message to attach it, but when i DO attach it, it does the blinking light (blue) OR it goes to sleep and flashes the "going to sleep" message (steady orange light on the monitor)

bringing it over to my mom's place has been weird, because I hooked it up to their computer and the monitor works fine. I doubt that there's something loose in the monitor that got jarred back into place on the ride over, so it's gotta be something in the actual computer, motherboard, video card, etc

which is a whole bigger section of problems

mbannick

Does your computer boot up? Do you hear the little post beep, or the hard drive working? Do you hear the windows start up sound through your speakers? It may be a loose component in the computer itself. Most of the time when I look at someones computer its because the ram is unseated. Try popping your ram back into place (there should be a nice *pop* when its completely in). Other than that it may be your video card or power supply is dead.

Raneados

huzzah! i am king of computers!

looked up a bit of info on the internet and went about sticking my fat retarded fingers into the sensitive underbelly of the computer

went home, unplugged the monster, and tried a few things

different monitor just in case, nope
reseat video card again, nope
switched out the video card, nope
tried the on-board video card, nope
any loose connections, nope
reseat the ram, nope
looked for the cmos reset toggle thingamajig, nope, apparently my motherboard doesn't have one
removed and put back in the CMOS battery, well hey there sailor, that worked

the fan worried me when it sped up, but it seems to be working fine

CMOS reset to default on startup and everything SEEMS good

huzzah no money spent

thrift triumphs again!