Monitor

[Robert]

I have a gateway monitor about 5 years old, lately it goes black, I turn it off then on again, the screen comes up of less then a second then goes black again. Is this the beginning of the end? (It has returned to normal twice.)

[UberGaijin]

I have a gateway monitor about 5 years old, lately it goes black, I turn it off then on again, the screen comes up of less then a second then goes black again. Is this the beginning of the end? (It has returned to normal twice.)

Probably. See if you can borrow another monitor. If the second monitor behaves like the first, then that suggests that it is the video card and not the monitor.

I was thinking that it may be some sort of setting on the video card (like the refresh freq), but usually monitors provide a message when such a setting is out of range.

Good luck.

[Robert]

It was the monitor.. Thanks Uber

[Duncan Edwards]

I have a gateway monitor about 5 years old, lately it goes black, I turn it off then on again, the screen comes up of less then a second then goes black again. Is this the beginning of the end? (It has returned to normal twice.)

If this is a tube and not an LCD then yeah, the power supply is shot. Time for a new one. The good news is that LCD's cost squat now and save their cost in power over the life of a comparable tube.

[Robert]

I have a gateway monitor about 5 years old, lately it goes black, I turn it off then on again, the screen comes up of less then a second then goes black again. Is this the beginning of the end? (It has returned to normal twice.)

If this is a tube and not an LCD then yeah, the power supply is shot. Time for a new one. The good news is that LCD's cost squat now and save their cost in power over the life of a comparable tube.

Its an LCD. Yea, feel fortunate all around it was just the monitor. Thanks Duncan.

[Aiko]

Sounds like the LCD back light is gone. That means that the image is technically there, you it's not really visible, because the light source behind the panel is off. You can confirm this by using some external light source, holding it very close to the screen and looking closely. You should be able to make out parts of the image.

This probably won't be of much use to you though. It's usually not worth the trouble to try and repair the back light of an old LCD, unless it was a very expensive one and there are spare parts available.

[UberGaijin]

It was the monitor.. Thanks Uber

No prob, and thanks to Aiko, I now know about LCD "backlights". Cool!

[Robert]

I don't suppose there is a junction that could allow two computers to use the same monitor is there?

[UberGaijin]

I don't suppose there is a junction that could allow two computers to use the same monitor is there?

Why yes there is!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=987089&CatId=597

And no, I do not work for Tiger Direct.

[Mynock]

I don't suppose there is a junction that could allow two computers to use the same monitor is there?

Does your video card have duel outputs? If so you can just plug both moniters into the computer and set both screens to display the same info. I do it at work for training purposes.