Sunday, July 20, 2008

My Screen is Dark

Hmmm, something happened overnight to my desktop computer and/or monitor. I'm on the laptop pecking away.

Last night, I left the computer and monitor on overnight as I usually do. I know I did not leave Internet Explorer open, but I think I left Outlook Express open.

This morning, the monitor was DARK even after I moved the mouse, hit a key, etc. Uh oh. I turned the monitor off then on, and my Outlook Express Inbox flashed for one second then the screen went dark again.

So I turned off the computer and monitor, then rebooted the computer and turned on the monitor. Windows XP booted up, showing me several screens for one second, ending up with a dark screen. When I turned the monitor off then on, the startup screen for Windows was there for one second then went dark. Drat... (stronger words deleted...)

The computer is a Dell Dimension D3000 about 3 years old running Windows XP. The monitor is a Dell flat screen, about 21 months old.

What to do? How can I get it back? Any advice from my really great tech readers? Thanks!

I can receive email on my laptop at rjseaver@cox.net if you want to reach me that way.

UPDATED 2:30 pm. Thank you to Tamura Jones, Thomas MacEntee and my son-in-law James for helping with this problem. It looks like the monitor went on the blink overnight. I'm just glad it's not the graphics/video card. I will try to replace the monitor tomorrow. Should I stick with the 19" or go bigger? In the mean time, I'm on the laptop and can email, blog and read on it until the new monitor is installed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

First, get more information.

Reboot in safe mode and to the Last Known Good configuration, to see if that helps.

Connect the monitor to the laptop to find out whether the monitor is still okay.

If you have a spare graphic card, try swapping the cards.