Monitor problem?

Discussion in 'The Living Room' started by Andrea, Mar 16, 2011.

  1. #1
    Andrea

    Andrea best friends. LPA Addicted VIP

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    Can a monitor stop working without any warning? My mom was using my dad's computer and left for about an hour to go do something else. When she returned to the computer, the monitor was black with blinking white lines through it and the power button on the monitor was blinking green. Nothing I did helped the situation and I can't figure out what to do, other than purchasing a new monitor, but even I don't know if that will work. It seems like everything else is working fine, except the monitor. Soooo...suggestions?
     
  2. #2
    Jesse

    Jesse Out of the abyss. LPA Über VIP

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    Anything can stop working without any sign of warning. In fact, my old TV just stopped. It was working fine and then one day it just wouldn't come on.

    Did you unplug the monitor and take out the video card? If it's a PC then try removing the video card as well as unplugging the monitor. Sometimes, they can get a bit loose if they're not in tight enough. But then again, if that was the problem you'd probably hear more BEEPS than usual. (I think the 2 is the amount you're suppose to hear)

    Anyway, try that and then if it doesn't work hook up an entirely different monitor and if it is still black and white it may be the video card that is the problem.
     
  3. #3
    Andrea

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    It's a PC: a Dell. I unplugged the monitor, plugged it back in and it's still acting up. I rebooted the computer a bunch of times and every time I did that, I heard a beep. It's never beeped before until now. I haven't hooked up a different monitor yet. I guess I'll hook up mine that I'm using right now and see if it works, but that'll take a while because of the way my computer and computer desk are situated lol. If that doesn't work, I'll try the video card. I have yet to mess with that. I have no idea what I'm doing though ha.
     
  4. #4
    Vriska

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    That beep is your computer's BIOS saying something is messed up. In a Dell 1-2 beeps means no video card was detected. Is that the exact number of beeps you heard?
     
  5. #5
    Andrea

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    I only heard one beep.
     
  6. #6
    Jesse

    Jesse Out of the abyss. LPA Über VIP

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    Yeah, it seems to me like it's not detecting your video card. It may have come loose or it may have just gone bad, or overheated if you don't have a good enough cooling system in the PC. You should make sure the Fan is working inside of the case.
     
  7. #7
    Vriska

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    :/ That's the most ambiguous case to me. One beep usually mans "OK," but it would beep every time you turned it on, even when it was working. Part of me think that since you didn't hear any beeps before, the PC now is having a problem internally. I've tried researching dell codes and I'm getting different code sheets :/

    I was expecting a series of beeps, like "beep beep-beep" where the hyphen was two short ones together.

    In any case, rebooting your computer isn't going to help much. Something needs to be replaced.
     
  8. #8
    Jesse

    Jesse Out of the abyss. LPA Über VIP

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    I have an old Pentium 4, Dell computer, and it beeps 2 times when I turn it on.

    Once, there was this really long beep. My monitor wouldn't show anything. I took out the video card and reinserted it and it started to work fine again...
     
  9. #9
    Andrea

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    It's now two beeps. So I supposed it is a video card problem then.
     
  10. #10
    Vriska

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    It means you're breaking your computer turning it on so much. Beeps changing means you're doing more damage to it.


    Two beeps can also mean "OK." Different kinds of computers have different codes.
     
  11. #11
    Andrea

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    Ok so I messed with it again today and it was indeed the monitor, not a video card or anything else. I just replaced the monitor and everything is now working as it should be. How weird lol.
     
  12. #12
    Vriska

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    yaaaaaaaaay
     
  13. #13
    Jesse

    Jesse Out of the abyss. LPA Über VIP

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    Well, that is weird. I'm glad you got it to work but it may not have even been the monitor. It could have been something that had overheated and just needed time to cool down. I dunno. But yeah, yay!
     
  14. #14
    ThaHandyman

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    ohhh okay yeah i thought this was about those big lizards
     
  15. #15
    Jeff

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    [​IMG]
     
  16. #16
    ThaHandyman

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    Haha naw I knew what the thread title meant.

    But I do have a related question, I have a Dell Inspiron desktop, nothing was altered except a hardrive I added, the rest was all customized on the website. I can't tell you what kind of video card I have, but I know it's got 256mb. It's not so much a problem, as an inconvenience, but I discovered I had an HDMI out with my video card (PCI?) thingy. (Sorry I'm not good with hardware). I can successfully hook up a monitor cable to my TV, but when I connect the HDMI ports my computer makes both screens (my computer monitor and TV) black, as if it doesn't recognize them. Like I said it's not that big of a deal, but I'm sure the HDMI connection would look a lot sharper.
     

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