Technology dead lcd monitor? dvi cable?

[stoic]

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the monitor on my PC has completely stopped working. when powered on, it immediately goes to power saving mode - can't even bring up the monitor menus. i can tell the computer is booting because the sound is still working fine.

i know it's not the computer, i've hooked up the monitor to another computer with the same results.

could this possibly be a dead DVI cable or is it most likely a dead monitor? i haven't had a chance to switch DVI cables yet, but are there any other "test" or reset functions that could be tried?

thanks,
s

 

[16846]

The fact that the monitors internal menus are not coming up is a good indication that it's a monitor circuit board issue that has nothing to do with any external cables, computers, or otherwise.

One likely possibility is that the inverter board has gone to **** (or one of its cables has fried) and the feedback is causing the monitor to go into a "Safety" mode (looks like power-saving), which it is designed to do in order to prevent the monitor from bursting into flames if it detects a voltage irregularity in the inverter.

The second likely possibility is that the main interface board inside the monitor (sorta like the motherboard for the monitor) has gone to **** and is putting the monitor into a type of "safe mode" because it realizes something is wrong and the higher functions (on-screen menus, input) are disabled.

If you're handy, and know something about high voltage electronics, you might want to try fixing it yourself. A replacement inverter or main interface board (or there associated cabling) are both pretty cheap, usually easy to find online, and not too difficult to install. If you don't know **** about electronics, don't try to do it yourself, you will probably end up dead, shorting an inverter accidentally would send enough voltage/amperage through your body to severely burn you and/or stop your heart.

There isn't much point in bringing it to a repair place as the bench fee+parts is most likely more than the monitor is worth. If it's a really expensive monitor you might want to consider this if you can't do it yourself, but make sure you know how much the monitor is worth, what the replacement would cost, and how much the fees would be to fix it.

 

[Dr Who]

Eponym is most likely the worst case scenario. The same thing happened to me, the Lcd would not start, but when I hooked up another moniter (CRT) it would work just fine. In the end it was that the computer's display driver just refused to accept the Lcd. No matter what we did it refused to accept the lcd display. In the end that was the perfect excuse to get a new computer, and I got myself a 24" Imac. My "old" computer is now taking up space in my closet waiting for me to give it away. Havent looked back since.

 

[16846]

Eponym is most likely the worst case scenario. The same thing happened to me, the Lcd would not start, but when I hooked up another moniter (CRT) it would work just fine. In the end it was that the computer's display driver just refused to accept the Lcd. No matter what we did it refused to accept the lcd display. In the end that was the perfect excuse to get a new computer, and I got myself a 24" Imac. My "old" computer is now taking up space in my closet waiting for me to give it away. Havent looked back since.

You'll notice that he said he hooked it up to another computer. Also, any LCD monitor should display it's On-Screen Display menus even if it isn't hooked up to a computer and these are not being displayed. Since the monitor is displaying abnormal behavior even when not hooked up to a computer and it has failed on two separate systems that are known to be functional there is almost a 0 percent chance it has anything to do with that computer or any other.

 

[Dr Who]

Ok then do what I did.... get a mac

 

[stoic]

actually, i have a mac. my "primary" computer is a 2.5yr old G4 powerbook that has never given me a single problem.

i buillt the PC about 4 months ago to do some gaming and generally house all the BS (IE MP3's, porn and old lecture ppt's) that I don't have room for on the notebook.

i'll end up buying another monitor, but honestly i'm sold on mac's over PC's. building the PC vs. buying a imac was strictly a lack of cash decision.... one that may end up costing more in the long run.