Monitor turning itself off

  • Thread starter Thread starter Patricia
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Patricia

My desktop monitor suddenly won't stay on. I turned on my computer this
morning and the screen flashes for 2 seconds before the monitor turns black.
I kept restarting, thinking it was not loading correctly, but I heard the
windows startup sound. The green light on the monitor stays green, but it
seems like it's going into hibernation of standby, except my screensaver
doesn't even come up. I keep pushing the monitor's power button but it
doesn't stay on long enough to check any settings; it will only stay on for 2
seconds at a time. Anyone have any suggestions. The computer is an older
model (maybe 4 or 5 years old) Dell with Windows XP SP2. Thanks for any help.
 
Patricia said:
My desktop monitor suddenly won't stay on. I turned on my computer this
morning and the screen flashes for 2 seconds before the monitor turns black.
I kept restarting, thinking it was not loading correctly, but I heard the
windows startup sound. The green light on the monitor stays green, but it
seems like it's going into hibernation of standby, except my screensaver
doesn't even come up. I keep pushing the monitor's power button but it
doesn't stay on long enough to check any settings; it will only stay on for 2
seconds at a time. Anyone have any suggestions. The computer is an older
model (maybe 4 or 5 years old) Dell with Windows XP SP2. Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...


Replace the defective monitor.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
Patricia said:
My desktop monitor suddenly won't stay on. I turned on my computer this
morning and the screen flashes for 2 seconds before the monitor turns black.
I kept restarting, thinking it was not loading correctly, but I heard the
windows startup sound. The green light on the monitor stays green, but it
seems like it's going into hibernation of standby, except my screensaver
doesn't even come up. I keep pushing the monitor's power button but it
doesn't stay on long enough to check any settings; it will only stay on for 2
seconds at a time. Anyone have any suggestions. The computer is an older
model (maybe 4 or 5 years old) Dell with Windows XP SP2. Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

Check to see if it does the same thing when Windows doesn't load.

Go into the BIOS at startup and wait...

Richie Hardwick
 
Patricia said:
Thanks, Richie. Yes, I tried that already and it does the same thing.
Click to expand...

It's time to buy a new monitor.

The only other thing it would be is your graphics card, but the
monitor is more likely.


Richie Hardwick
 
Patricia said:
My desktop monitor suddenly won't stay on. I turned on my computer this
morning and the screen flashes for 2 seconds before the monitor turns black.
I kept restarting, thinking it was not loading correctly, but I heard the
windows startup sound. The green light on the monitor stays green, but it
seems like it's going into hibernation of standby, except my screensaver
doesn't even come up. I keep pushing the monitor's power button but it
doesn't stay on long enough to check any settings; it will only stay on for 2
seconds at a time. Anyone have any suggestions. The computer is an older
model (maybe 4 or 5 years old) Dell with Windows XP SP2. Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

The "two second time constant" is your backlight and inverter in the monitor.
The inverter makes enough voltage (about 1000V), to "strike" the CCFL lamp.
So you see some light initially. But when the voltage drops back to the
"burn" level, it is shutting off. That gives the classic "I see lights
for 2 seconds" symptoms. The green power LED on the monitor is still on,
because the rest of the monitor thinks everything is still working. It
is just the light source inside your monitor, that won't stay on.

<Insert recipe about tearing monitor apart and fiddling with stuff>

If you want a quick but rather useless workaround, try to turn down the
intensity setting of the screen. To do that, you have to know from
memory, what order to push the buttons on the side of the monitor.
That is virtually impossible to do (at least, unless there is some
way to shine some light through the monitor, so you can see the OSD
when you push the buttons). I cannot remember which combination
of buttons does that on mine :-)

Turning down the intensity of the screen, reduces the load on the
inverter in the "burn" state, possibly allowing the monitor to
stay on longer. Such a workaround, gives you another two to three
weeks before the light is gone for good.

Paul
 
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