Monitor Mystery

[Luka Brazzi]

Hi, all! Here's a poser for you. I just gave my sister
my old computer. It's kind of a Frankenstein with a
40gig hard drive, a 1 gig processor and a PNY graphics
card and it ran well for me. She plugged it into a
monitor she she got from her workplace and it started up,
displayed the Windows XP startup graphic and then the
screen went to black. She tried repeatedly with the same
result.

I brought it to my home and plugged it into my monitor
and it successfully booted all the way to the Windows
desktop like a good machine. So I gave it back to her,
telling here to make sure she plugged the monitor into
the right spot.

She just called me and said that it's doing the black
screen thing again and won't give her a desktop. While I
had her on the phone I had her plug the monitor into her
laptop. When she did the monitor worked fine and
displayed her laptop desktop.

Why would her monitor work with her laptop and her
computer work with my monitor but her monitor not work
with her computer? Any suggestions? Many thanks in
advance for any Hardy Boys or Nancy Drews that can solve
this one. Much appreciated!

 

[Steven Hull]

Its the refresh rate. I would boot to safe mode and change it.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Either that or the resolution is out of range as well. Tell her to press
F8 before Windows loads up and choose VGA mode (or VGA Something). That
will reset the resolution and refresh rate

Nathan McNulty