Monitor problem

[Diflower]

The last couple of days our (desktop) monitor has suddenly gone off, just gone black.
Yesterday as soon as I switched it back on it came on again - it happened two, maybe three times.
Today it stayed on all day then went off about an hour ago and wouldn't switch back on. Now it has.

Is it knackered, or could it be the power lead or something?
And if it's knackered, could anyone recommend one? - preferably easily obtainable, either online or a common shop
Thanks

[Workingman]

A few things come to mind:
*Overheating
*Video card on the blink
*Bad capacitor(s)
*Bad inverter

Do the easiest first. Give the vents on the monitor a good blow through and take the casing off the desktop and give the components a good blow and clean. If you can borrow another monitor hook it up and see if the same thing happens. If it does you probably need a new video card. If everything works OK go back to the original monitor. Remove the back casing and have a look at the capacitors.... they look like little cotton reels without the hole. If their tops are flat they are OK, but if they are bulging, either on the top or down the sides, they are creamed and need replacing. If it is the inverter there is not really much you can do except replace it.

You can get monitors almost everywhere. I took some stuff, including a 4x3 flat screen monitor, to the charity shop and there on display was a widescreen for £12.... Ideal as a second display for me to watch TV on from the computer!

[Diflower]

Thanks so much Wm - just off to do dinner.
Will take the tower cover off tomorrow and give everything a good blow, dust is always a problem here
And have a good look at those bits

[Suff]

You only missed a loose or broken video cable WM. Sometimes it can just be loose on the back of the PC or on the monitor itself.

Although cables, when they are partially broken, tend to do weird things to the display.

Constant switching off usually means something is borked inside the display but looking at what WM says first is a good idea. It could just be something simple. Monitors are becoming more reliable over time, rather than less. The move away from CRT to LCD has done wonders for the working life of a monitor.

I didn't think about the Charity shops. I tend to just buy new. As you can see my monitor requirements are a touch more eclectic... The middle one is 24".



Monitors are becoming more affordable...

[Diflower]

The one we have is good, a IIyama, not sure of size but quite big - it belonged to our lovely friend who died, our old one went kaput.
It just went off again then, as I was typing
Will give it attention tomorrow morning

[TheOstrich]

Just to say, I've got a slightly similar problem in that my monitor boots up very reluctantly nowadays and often doesn't start to display until the desktop's been initialised (so I don't think it's an overheating problem). It's also reluctant to wake up from sleep-mode.

So far, it has come right - eventually - but I think I'll have to change it before too long, because, like Di's I suspect, it's pretty ancient now. I inherited it from Master O a few years back. It's a 19" monitor, an Advent MW19E-AAA.

[Workingman]

Ossie, that sounds more like a Windows problem than the monitor, possibly with sleep options or hibernation. I have never used those two as they save the "state" of the computer when they operate. If the "state" was wrong when they "shut down" it will still be wrong when they "wake up" and start operating again. However, I also get the black screen sometimes after a Windows update. The first time I boot up after an update can take some time, but afterwards it reverts back to normal.

Try doing a few normal shutdown and boot ups, at least three consecutively, and see what happens. You could also go to Power in Control Panel and turn off any sleep or hibernation options.

[Diflower]

Thanks for all the help, we did what we could this morning; didn't find anything apart from dust
Phoned the guy who fixed it before, who also said it would be either the monitor or the graphics card and couldn't tell which without testing so Bb took it over to him.
He's busy and all his towers were hooked up so he'll phone once he's tested it.
If it is the monitor he has one there for about £40 so a fair bit less than a new one.
If it's the graphics card I think he said that would be about £30-£40, does that sound ok?

[Suff]

Actually if the Graphics card needs to be changed and he will do the work, then £30-£40 sounds more than reasonable. A reasonable entry level graphics card would be £20 - £30, bought direct. So £10 for fitting is not bad at all. If that is the total cost. I assume there will be some cost for checking. If not then it is a good deal.

[Workingman]

Di, I agree with Suff, there are plenty of cards out there in the £30 - £40 range well capable of watching YouTube vids, DVDs or TV.on a reasonable sized monitor, and a few quid for fitting isn't excessive.

At least now that everything is dust free it will be able to breathe more easily.