WWTBAM Bored

My monitor had started flickering whenever I'd turn on the computer or activate it from sleep mode. This went on for a few weeks. Now it barely turns on, and sometimes doesn't at all until I jiggle the fat beige cord that plugs into it. Sometimes now I even have to unplug and plug it several times before it works, and kind of pull it out partially and jiggle it before it settles it to "work." Once it's on, it's nice and clear for long periods, no problems until it I leave for a while and it goes into sleep mode.

I wonder if it's a cord problem or more likely, the monitor itself?

Thanks for any advice.

I'm interested to hear the answer to this, since the Christmas tree did the same thing this morning, and I sure don't need a fire........

minimetoo26 wrote:I'm interested to hear the answer to this, since the Christmas tree did the same thing this morning, and I sure don't need a fire........

Yikes, I'd keep a good eye on that sucker. And nice and wet, too.

Second Chance wrote:

minimetoo26 wrote:I'm interested to hear the answer to this, since the Christmas tree did the same thing this morning, and I sure don't need a fire........

Yikes, I'd keep a good eye on that sucker. And nice and wet, too.

That's my personal paranoia thing ever since we had a fire when I was about 14. The iron had a short and overheated even though the switch was off. My toaster and iron stay unplugged when not actively being used.

The tree took three tries for the switch to work this morning, then the lights flickered a few times before staying on. Mini-me is The Tree Guy, and he got freaked and asked me to unplug the lights. He's rather be safe than festive.

that would make me very nervous too, yes it would.

Get a silver one.

Silver is better than black which was better than white.

IOW, can't help you.

Second Chance wrote:My monitor had started flickering whenever I'd turn on the computer or activate it from sleep mode. This went on for a few weeks. Now it barely turns on, and sometimes doesn't at all until I jiggle the fat beige cord that plugs into it. Sometimes now I even have to unplug and plug it several times before it works, and kind of pull it out partially and jiggle it before it settles it to "work." Once it's on, it's nice and clear for long periods, no problems until it I leave for a while and it goes into sleep mode.

I wonder if it's a cord problem or more likely, the monitor itself?

Thanks for any advice.

It's probably the video cable. Have you tightened the screws at both ends? How old is your system? If your monitor and computer both have DVI connectors (rectangular ones with a lot of pins), get a DVI cable and use that instead. It's better anyway.

Thanks for the suggestion, Bob. It's about 3 years old. I'll see if a new cable will help. It's getting worse every day; I'm lucky if I can get it to turn on at all anymore, even after just trying to bring it out of sleep mode.

It's probably a short or a bad connection as BJ suggested, but my opinion is that since it seems to happen just returning from sleep mode that it's more likely to be internal than external. And you are correct to be concerned about fire. A monitor is actually a pretty high-power appliance, much more so than the box or the printer or anything else. (I'm assuming it's a CRT-style monitor here)

If you have access to another cable and another computer, try switching them out, one at a time, to see if you can isolate the problem. If the same thing happens, even after switching both of those things, it's inside the monitor, and you're looking at a replacement, most likely.

Second Chance wrote:Thanks for the suggestion, Bob. It's about 3 years old. I'll see if a new cable will help. It's getting worse every day; I'm lucky if I can get it to turn on at all anymore, even after just trying to bring it out of sleep mode.

As MrK said, your more recent post makes it sound like it's the monitor itself.

I just sent my old computer system to my granddaughter and the monitor arrived D.O.A.