Monitor woes

I powered off my desktop this afternoon because my husband was doing some electrical work, and when I tried to turn it back on, it wouldn't come up. It looks like it's the monitor; the lights on the CPU come on as normal, but the monitor stays black, with the power light flashing on and off. I connected the monitor to a laptop and the same thing happened. We have an old CRT monitor we'll have to dig out of the basement, so that's the next thing I'll try.

Two questions: First, is there anything I'm missing, anything else I could do to determine whether the monitor is defunct?

Secondly, presuming it's RIP time for my old monitor, can anyone give me some guidance on what to look for in a new monitor--it's been years since I bought one! The probably-dead one is a 19" widescreen, and I don't feel the need to replace it with a much bigger one, so if anyone has recommendations for a 19" or 20" monitor under $200 (under $150 would be even better) I would greatly appreciate it.

Have you tried plugging it into a different electrical outlet to find out if the outlet is the problem? I've had similar things happen at school and sometimes it's as simple as unplugging the monitor's power cable on both ends for about 5 minutes then plugging it back in, sometimes to a different outlet or sometimes even to a different port on a power strip.

If nothing else, it's worth trying and much cheaper than replacing the monitor.

Time for some research if it's gone bye bye. Have you done any google on the specfic monitor/problem and see if anyone had similiar issues?

I was able to repair my older gateway when it went out. The power inverter went bad. Fairly easy repair, the site that sold the inverter had all the instructions to replace it. Getting the bezel faceplate off without damage was the hardest part. Took maybe an hours time and saved me a little cash.

Here are a couple links to sites that you may need to start looking at.
http://www.pcworld.com/products/monitors.html http://dealnews.com/categories/Compu...nitors/75.html

You could also try just leaving the monitor unplugged from the wall for a while. I thought this monitor had packed it in once but I discovered that even though it has an on/off button, it doesn't actually turn off, its like a standby, and I am not sure what happened but in easy terms I guess you could say my monitor crashed! I'd turn it on, but never see anything. I thought i'd be out a monitor, frustated I left it unplugged for an hour while I checked the computer out on a backup monitor to make sure it was ok.

I tried my old monitor again and tada, it came back up! I'm still using it.

Well, it was definitely the monitor. I tried the "unplug for a few minutes and plug in again" tactic, but no go. When I replaced it with an old CRT we have kicking around, the CRT came up immediately. Oh, and C_M_A, I know the laptop was "seeing" the old monitor because it showed monitor 2 as capable of taking 1440x900 resolution, the native resolution of the dead monitor.

So, it looks like I'm in the market for a new monitor. I like ASUS too--just bought my son a ASUS laptop at Christmas--and Newegg has several for under $150. Here's one that appealed to me in particular:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236073

It's slightly larger than the one that just died, I like the style, and the price is right. What do you guys think?

Here's the 24" monitor I bought a few months ago on Newegg for $219. I bought it to replace a failed Samsung SyncMaster 204 and it's much superior.

Looking at the unit you've selected it ought to serve you well; the specs look good and I think it would be tough to go too far wrong with an Asus.

Finduilas, here is something else to try before you buy a new monitor...a little background first.

I have an HP widescreen LCD monitor (HP w2408). The monitor comes with the usual VGA plug and a DVI-D plug. Sending the video signal over DVI results in a marked improvement in the image quality, so that is what I use.

Whenever I upgrade my video card though, I uninstall the video drivers. Once the video drivers are installed, I can select the HP monitor and use the DVI. HOWEVER, when the computer reboots with the new driver BEFORE I can select the monitor, the card doesn't send out a recognizable signal to the monitor, either on VGA or DVI, and the monitor remains blank and the LED flashes, just like yours, and I can't complete the installation. (My hypothesis is that by default the new card is sending out a VGA signal, but my fancy schmancy monitor doesn't understand VGA unless it is "translated" by the driver.)

So how do I complete the installation? I go get my old CRT monitor and plug it into the VGA port, and it shows Windows just fine (just like what is happening to you). I finish installing with the CRT, hook up the HP monitor on DVI, and reboot. Now I get a basic signal to the monitor, and can go to the video driver and select the HP monitor and get full access to the full resolution and features. (I believe I have also tried a "safe" boot, but to no avail IIRC...)

So you might have a fried monitor, but you might try this procedure and find out that the monitor was fine, just that the video driver (which can "see" it) isn't sending a signal that makes sense to it.

Thanks, Agonist. I have a second monitor connector on my desktop, so I tried connecting the malfunctioning monitor in addition to the CRT. After rebooting, my computer "sees" the second monitor, and even lets me set it to the native resolution, (1440 x 900) but it's still blank.

So, unless I misunderstood your post, I think my monitor failed that test, too. Bummer.

Probably a blown capacitor in the monitor. If you are electrically inclined it's easy enough to find and replace. If you aren't or don't know somebody who is then don't bother. Paying a "professional" to fix it would be too pricey.

Thanks, Mandu. My husband might be able to do it, he knows his way around electronics pretty well, but I've got a looong list of things I want him to do this summer, and I'd rather not distract him by having him mess with my monitor.