Monitor works but screen is blank (1 Viewer)

[Tommy_N]

Hello everybody,

I’m wondering if someone can help me out. The other night I kept my computer running and I shut my monitor off. I do this almost every night and have never had a problem. When I went to use the computer the next morning the screen was black.

When I shut the computer down the monitor displayed the “screen test message,” stating that the monitor is work properly. I checked all the cables and nothing is loose. The machine seems to boot up fine however no signal is being displayed.

Anti-Virus, Firewall, Spyware removal apps are all up to date. However, earlier in the evening while trying to format a back-up hard drive and I disabled my Anti-Virus and Firewall. Normally I unplug my cable modem before doing anything like this; however they were only off for about 1-2 mins. and the computer worked fine afterwards.

Any suggestions as to what happened? The video card is an ATI All-in-Wonder (9600 I believe). I have an older video card I can try to install. However I'm not sure if this will fix things. Is it common for video cards to just stop working? Even when the computer boots up nothing is displayed.


If you need more information just ask.

Thanks

Tom

PS - I'm not overclocking anything and I keep my PC and Case relatively dust free.

 

[Tommy_N]

Update - So I swapped video cards and all is good....except for the fact that I am using a cheap video card.

Does this mean I need a new video card? Are they fixable? I would have thought a video card should have lasted more than 3yrs. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Tom

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Man, does that suck! Your warranty ended after 3 years? (mine does) Knowing that I'll have to buy a new card doesn't sit too well with me. I wonder how long other cards are supposed to last. Would it pay to get a card with a 5 year one?

It won't pay to have it repaired, unless you can see a burnt out part on the card - and then be able to replace that part.

Ouch!

Glenn