My mom called me last night and said her monitor would not turn on. I went over and checked it out and determined that her monitor was completely bad and it was time to replace it. I thought I would write up a blog post telling you what steps I took to make sure it was the monitor and not her computer or video card that was bad. Monitors are not cheap. It would be a shame to buy a brand new monitor for no reason at all.
My mom’s monitor was old to begin with. She was still using those really large monsters that use to come with all computers. I grabbed a monitor I had sitting at home, which was one of the much smaller and thinner monitors, to take it with me to her house.
The first thing I did was turn it on. You never know, do you? She was right, of course. It was completely black. I did make sure the computer was turned on too. I checked the connection in the back of the computer. I even disconnected it and then reconnected it to make sure it was connected tightly.
I unhooked her old monitor and set it on the floor of her computer room. Wow that thing was so heavy. I immediately set the new monitor in its place and my mom was amazed. I connected it to her computer and immediately the monitor came right on. Obviously, my mom’s monitor went bad. It was about 5 years old so it was time for a new one. I just let her keep my monitor as I wasn’t using it. She was very pleased with her new monitor. Now, if I can just talk her into getting a new computer. She is still using Windows XP if that tells you anything.
Now, if the new monitor would not have worked on her computer I would have checked the cable itself. Sometimes the cable can go bad. If that wasn’t it, I would suspect the video card. That means taking apart the computer and removing the video card and looking at it. I also had a replacement video card with me so I would have replaced it inside of her computer. That more than likely would have fixed her problem.
When your computer starts getting older there are many things that can go wrong with it. If your monitor goes out and your computer is over 5 years old, more than likely you simply have a bad monitor.
