Monitor won't turn on - still works

[benicillin]

Okay - the monitor worked until yesterday. now it won't turn on anymore when i turn on the computer. I know what you're gonna say, try it with a different computer/video card - so i did, and it wont work with my other box either. The weird part is, when I plug it into the back of my laptop as a secondary monitor and switch over to it, then it turns on and works just fine. So what the heck is going on?? The green light is blinking on the monitor (normal), so it seems be just waiting for a computer to signal it to come on. I even swapped video cards from either computer but that also did nothing. Also, it turned on for a second or two on the second box when I started it up - but this only happened once. The other times it just didn't turn on at all.

 

[Tmagic650]

Welcome...

What kind of monitor is it? LCD/CRT?

 

[benicillin]

Crt

I knew I would forget something. It's a CRT monitor plugged into a VGA port (I think its vga - its the more common port)

When I unplug the monitor from the computer that little thing flashes around the screen saying "monitor is working check signal cable" so im sure its working to some degree. anyway thats my info.

 

[Tmagic650]

Since you've changed video cards in your systems, do you get a boot up screen on them?

 

[benicillin]

no i get no screen.. thats why its weird - the monitor just keeps on blinking away with that green light like when the computer is off. even once i turn the computer on, it just keeps on blinking. problem is, i dont have another monitor to try - the other box was just sitting idle here so i decided to try the monitor on it. i know it works though, i just dont have a monitor at the moment for it.

 

[Tmagic650]

My only other suggestion at this point would be to try another monitor either LCD or CRT when you can... This CRT monitor may have developed some strange issues, that we can't explain

 

[benicillin]

do u know if there is any difference between the way it works when plugged into a laptop and the way it works when plugged into a desktop? like in terms of how it gets powered on? cause it works fine with the laptop but not the desktop and im thinking maybe it has something to do with a signal telling it to turn on.

ok ive decided it must not be the monitor.. i dont know how two of my boxes can have gone dead at the same time, but somehow they did. they are behind a surge protector so i dunno what got messed up, but i brought another monitor in here and hooked it up and that little screen kept bouncing around saying monitor is fine, but no connection. last night i went to move two of the pci cards in the system to different slots and ever since i did this, i havent been able to start the computer up. i checked all the internal connections, tried removing every non-essential pci card and cd-rom/floppy drives when booting but i still get nothing at all. now im clueless.

 

[Tmagic650]

You're in Baltimore, MD... Because of ice, have you had any power outages in the last 2 days? Surge protectors can go bad even during their first power/surge hit. Try plugging the computers directly into the AC outlets

 

[robin_bga]

u knw wat u dont hav 2plug de computer directly coz yo other box work on de same surge protector,check ram,try removing it & put it another one from yo other box.then let me knw of yo progress on my email.robinlinux47@gmail.com.

 

[benicillin]

yeah tried it - no luck.. so before i was getting no sound when the computer started - i just swapped out the video card and removed the power cord from the motherboard and then removed the battery from the motherboard - then replaced the battery and the cord and put a different video card in - now im getting a floppy drive read on startup and then two quick beeps ... but still no screen to go with it.. this is getting more and more mysterious.

and the story gets weirder... kay..

i swapped out the ram from the computers.. switched it up.. now ive also swapped the video cards from the computers. now computer 2 is giving me a screen, although computer 1 wouldnt give me anything with that set of ram/vid cards.. this doesnt make much sense though, as i had been using the vid card and ram combo in computer 1 for some time, and now it seems to be working only in computer 2.

 

[robin_bga]

I just can't really figure out what your problem is, becoz two quick beeps mean the computer is fine, but u still dont have a display?it doesnt make any sense at all.does it show all the lights? is the fan fine? what card are using is it AGP/PCI? ok u know what, findout your processor and try swapping it or change it, i would say buy another one, it better to borrow or test yours in another working box.is it an intel or AMD? you should make sure that they match and u have to be careful not to bend the pins, if nothing happens the u may have to take it to a workshop near u or buy a new Mobo.R

 

[benicillin]

yeah the whole thing turned into a mess. i just took all the parts out of that comp that i liked (HD, DVD-ROM, RAM) and stuck them into the other box.. now i try to get moving on that box and the freakin hard drive from the original computer has all kinds of corrupt data on it. i dont know what happened to that computer, but it sure got screwed up.

this corrupting of data i think happened when i tried to use the stupid intel express bios update. it restarted the comp and then it would just hang between restarting and coming into the bootup screen and then restarting. now my hd is shot, most of the files on the computer are corrupt, and im having to try to fix this all by booting off another hd.

when it rains it pours.