A dying monitor

[Hazel M]

What are the symptoms of a monitor going bad? What particular things might be happening that give a clue? Also, if a monitor is going bad, can it affect the actions of the mouse?

 

Thank you.

[studiot]

A substitution test with a friend's monitor is best if at all possible, many also laptops have a monitor output socket of some sort.

If it is a separate monitor you may be able to test it with a friend's computer.

 

Yes there are , or mostly were, computers, PC and Apple that ran the mouse from the monitor, but they are dying out so unless yours is one of these, most computers have no direct electronic intraction between mouse and monitor.

 

This is a good time to ask you to tell us more about the computer in question and the symptoms.

Edited June 28, 2014 by studiot

[Sensei]

What are the symptoms of a monitor going bad?

That depends on whether you're talking about CRT or LCD.

 

For LCD they usually have bad pixels.

 

CRT also can have burned Luminophore.

 

What particular things might be happening that give a clue?

That's rather you should tell us what happens...

 

Also, if a monitor is going bad, can it affect the actions of the mouse?

Highly unlikely.

 

You should mention what kind of mouse we're talking about. Wire, radio wave, or Infra red.. ?

 

If you can take app like VirtualDub (File > Capture AVI..) and record these bad behaving it would help.

If you can record it on app, it's rather virus than hardware issue.

[Hazel M]

Let's see what I can explain. One, the monitor is older than the CPU. When I bought a new computer with Windows 7 a year ago, we kept the old monitor which I'll guess is about nine or ten years old now. I think, but not sure, that we also kept the same mouse.

 

What happens? It suddenly freezes up and will not let me close out. Meanwhile the screen grays out. I have to shut down at the CPU and reboot. Also, when I am typing, it will suddenly stop and print nothing for about thirty seconds. All these things are at the "occasionally" stage right now. Not happening constantly. I just want to get some facts in information about it while I can.

 

I suspected the hard drive. I have never yet bought a computer where the hard drive didn't die within the year and this one is almost one year old. I had a man out yesterday who checked and said the hard drive is fine. He suspects the monitor because it is older than the CPU. He says the freezing and graying is usually the monitor. I decided to ask here in case someone can give me more information - other symptoms.

 

Dare I add that I don't like computers?

 

As for testing it on a friend's computer, the only one I know with a computer has a Mac laptop. Mine is a desktop Windows. So, that won't work even if I had the nerve to ask.

[Sensei]

Let's see what I can explain. One, the monitor is older than the CPU. When I bought a new computer with Windows 7 a year ago, we kept the old monitor which I'll guess is about nine or ten years old now. I think, but not sure, that we also kept the same mouse.

You didn't answer the main question: CRT or LCD. If it's just 10 years old, I suspect it's LCD?

 

What happens? It suddenly freezes up and will not let me close out. Meanwhile the screen grays out. I have to shut down at the CPU and reboot. Also, when I am typing, it will suddenly stop and print nothing for about thirty seconds. All these things are at the "occasionally" stage right now. Not happening constantly. I just want to get some facts in information about it while I can.

Sounds to me like CPU overheating problems, than problems with monitor. Monitor problem would appear as not possible to see what happens. But computer would run like normal - you could press ctrl-alt-del, then press alt, press 4 times arrow right, then arrow bottom 3 times, and enter. And computer would be shut-down. You don't have to see all this (black monitor display), but it's standard Win XP procedure to shut down computer using Task Manager, using just keys. (adopt this procedure to your own OS version).

 

GFX card is on card or built-in motherboard? If GFX is built-in, you would need to replace whole mobo. If it's on card, replacing 10 years card would cost 10-20 usd or so. Any currently existing the worst est card would be faster than yours.

 

Clean up all FANs and radiators. When they are dirty they don't release heat so efficiently as clean/new one. Eventually replace them by new one. They're quite cheap.

Touch CPU radiator after couple hours of working.

40 C temperature you should be able to stand.

If it's >70 C, you won't be able to touch it.

 

I suspected the hard drive. I have never yet bought a computer where the hard drive didn't die within the year and this one is almost one year old.

I have never had computer that HDD died after just 1 year.

I had many servers that run 24h for many years crunching data, and their HDD are still working.

 

I had a man out yesterday who checked and said the hard drive is fine. He suspects the monitor because it is older than the CPU. He says the freezing and graying is usually the monitor. I decided to ask here in case someone can give me more information - other symptoms.

 

There is also other possibility - damaged wire or plug.

When it gray out again, start moving wire and plug. Don't unplug! You can't plug and unplug monitor (or other wires except USB) while computer is running. It's ending up with damage of hardware.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Sensei

[Hazel M]

I have no idea what CRT or LCD are. So, skipped it. I am not a computer person. I just use it.

 

I'm sorry, Sensel, but all your abbrevations are over my head. Your idea about the CPU overheating is worth taking a look at. We had to replace the fan a few months ago because it wasn't cooling properly. I'll find out about that.

 

Thank you.

[Sensei]

LCD = Liquid Crystal Display/Diode

 

Flat screen monitor.

 

CRT = Cathode Ray Tube.

 

Typical old school televisor is CRT

 

[Hazel M]

Ah yes. Mine is LCD then. Thanks.