My Dell LCD Monitor periodically goes Blank

Squashua

I have a Dell LCD monitor; two to be exact. Side-by-side.

Just last night, I heard an audible "click" on one of them.
Seconds later, it went black. The green LCD indicating power is still on, but the monitor is black.

When I press the power button, the monitor does NOT turn off.

The other monitor is fine.

Every 10 minutes, the blank monitor lights back up and I can see the screen.
It stays on for about 2 minutes, then blanks again.

Anyone?

I'm going to swap the monitor power supplies and see if that's the problem.

devoir

If that doesn't get you anywhere, I'd recommend actually contacting Dell if you have any kind of warranty/support plan with the purchase. Working for a company which sells nearly 100% Dell for server, desktop and laptop stuff, sometimes it is just not worth the trouble of trying to troubleshoot it yourself if you don't know the device completely in and out.

Squashua

IT's way past the 90 day limited; I'm checking to see if it's longer than that. I've owned these things for about 2 years.

The swap was weird.

I put GOOD Monitor's plug in; the bad monitor did not come up; AT ALL.
I put BAD monitor's plug in good monitor; good monitor came up.

I swapped back... BAD monitor came up with bad monitor's cable/supply...

and GOOD monitor did NOT come up with Good monitor's supply. the LED on the good monitor power supply is off now.

I wonder if bad monitor shorted it somehow.

Am currently running good monitor off bad monitor power supply; runs fine.

Squashua

Called Dell both per advice and because I prayed the warranty still held.

Bought in October 2005; it was still covered by warranty. Yay!

After going through many hoops - Dell customer service is AWFUL if you do not have a computer to reference. I got some guy on the phone and he consistently could not understand that I owned two Dell monitors, but ZERO Dell Computers.

Actually, I did buy a Dell computer and shipped it off to my parents. So they kept trying to assign the case to that computer. Even though it's totally unrelated.

Eventually, I explained that it periodically blanked out and that the power button on the front of the monitor

"On the computer? Power switch on your power supply?"

"No, the power button on the bottom right of the monitor; listen, stop interrupting me, just listen. *CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK* do you hear that? That's me pressing the power button multiple times; the monitor will not turn off!"

FedEx just dropped off the replacement monitor; gonna go replace now.

Muchly frustrated, but glad this part of the drama is over.

devoir

Hrm. I have to apologise, I forgot that you'd be dealing with home Dell support, and should have told you to just repeat your service tag over and over.

Glad to hear it worked out and I helped somewhat.

Squashua

There is no such thing as a service tag for a non-PC item. :P

The guy took a half hour, literally, REFUSING to speak to me until he had finished looking up my account.

Whereupon he specifically stated that I had a PC in my account and started using it's Service Tag.

Even though I was calling for a Dell monitor and said PC is not even within a 5 state radius of my location.

It's very tough to talk to someone whose second language is English. They take the first thing you say and run with it. And interrupt you. A lot.

Eventually, I forced him to figure it out. But it took a half hour of him looking shit up on his end first.