Is it a bad monitor, or a suicidal computer?

[Evenjos]

Hi everyone. I just blathered about this in my blog (http://www.abbygoldsmith.com/blog/), but I'll paste it here:

I just restarted my computer 18 times (maybe more than that), and the monitor never kicked in. The power's on, but nobody's home.

So I figured, maybe I have a dead monitor. Time to test it with another computer. I dragged out my ancient Windows 98 machine and hooked it up. The monitor worked, but it looked pixellated and weird. I began to hope that my problem truly is JUST that I need a new monitor. Replacing a monitor is easy. Replacing my computer would be a huge chore, because it has a ton of stuff on it that I don't want to lose in the transfer.

I hooked the monitor back to my newer computer . . . and lo, it worked fine. It was as if nothing was wrong at all.

You might say, "Well, Abby, maybe your monitor wasn't hooked up properly the first time." But you'd be wrong! Because this blank monitor is a recurring problem that's been happening AT RANDOM for the last half a year. Every once in a while--usually when I plug or unplug a USB device--the monitor goes blank. It's been happening more and more frequently. At first, it only happened once a month or so. Now it's very common, and sometimes the monitor won't work on start-up.

You might say, "Well, Abby, maybe you just have a bad video card." But you'd probably be wrong again! Because I've replaced my video card TWICE in the last year or so. If it's gone bad a third time, that's just not fair. Not fair, I say.

What do you think I should do? Buy a new monitor? Or bite the bullet and buy a new computer, even though I'd rather wait to do that?

Please, I beg your advice!

[bathurst_guy]

Firstly I would check that your drivers are correct for the monitor. Then check to see if there are any conflicts between your monitor and any other devices. Maybe even visit the manufacterors website(forum) and see if this is a recurring problem with their product or not. Other than that, try a new monitor.

[pcthug]

You say it goes blank when USB devices are pluged/unpluged, where are these USB ports?
If they are at the rear, next to the monitor input, your monitor input plug may have become partly detached from the motherboard.

By simpily bumping your computer could also be the reason as to why the monitor occasionaly dosent start when the computer boots up.

[drhowarddrfine]

pcthug is correct.

[Evenjos]

Hey, thanks guys!

I'm not sure how to check drivers (I'm not much of a tech person, I just rely on them). I guess I'll look through the CDs I have and see if I can find something for the monitor.

As for the USB ports -- the monitor randomly goes blank when I use either the front or back USB ports. It doesn't seem to matter. But maybe it does have something to do with bumping the tower. I'll try experimenting with that, too.

[EJMAES1973]

In my opinion I would try another monitor first, only for the fact that before I updated my graphics drivers the monitor I used would make my comp blue screen. switched it for another monitor and it never happened.

[Evenjos]

I posted this problem a year ago, and here's an update.

I learned to live with my computer's weird quirk. The monitor works 99.9% of the time, except for those rare occasions when it's been turned off for several days (if I'm on vacation). Then I just unplug or plug in a USB device a few times, and it springs back to life. Not too big a deal ... although it's definitely past time for an upgrade.

Thanks for the help!