Old Monitor Seemes to Die and Ressurect at Random

[Kamex]

About 3 years ago, I was using an older computer with an even older monitor (a nice one, but still old, as in coming with our first win95 computer old), Well, after a while, the bottom of it developed a twitch which would happen for periods about about 5 minutes about once every few days. It slowly got worse and worse, but I ended up getting a new computer. I continued to use my old computer because of DOS games, and its monitor sat on my desk next to the monitor of the other computer. Well, I found that if I accidentally bumped the desk, the monitor would sometimes shut off completely and not turn back on. When this first happened, I desperatly shook my desk to get it to turn back on, and it took a long time before it mysteriously turned on again a few days later.

When the computer itself died, we gave a lot of its parts away. As for the monitor, it was cluttering up desk space, so I put it on my spare nightstand in a corner in my room blocked off by the murphy bed. There it lay in darkness for about 4 months.

My friend is rather poor. His computer is so old that it's too messed up to run windows, but he doesn't care. When he found it would no longer run windows, he simply installed DOS on it. This guy always makes the most of things.

Well, until recently he had 3 monitors he switched between because they all had problems. One was pitifully small, one kept narrowing its view and had to be slapped to get it back, and one was nice, and a decent size, but could not see the color red, and could not see reddish tints in colors (yellow become green, purple became blue, red text on black background was all black, etc). About 2 months ago, he decided the redless monitor was no good and threw it out. His small monitor suddently stopped working one morning, and that evening, his other monitor died. His parents told him they could not afford to buy him a new one, and that he'll have to use their computer from now on.

I suggested we use my old monitor, and he was really excited. When we turned it on to test it however, it wouldn't go. I tried shaking the desk like I used to but no matter how hard I tried, it was just no good.

My question is, what do you think is wrong with the monitor, and do you think it's fixable?

[Catweazle]

Kamex, I think that you simply have to accept that old monitor has passed its useful lifespan, and in fact is most likey dead and buried.

Shaking and banging things to get them going might seem like a good idea, but it usually means that parts which need replacement are simply being further stressed. And you also need to consider that old equipment like that which have power problems like you describe are potentially a fire hazard. In a 'worst case scenario' that could mean using it can lead to loss of life, perhaps.

I really think the 'help' that your friend needs from you is assistance to raise the funds necessary to obtain ANOTHER old secondhand monitor, which actually turns on and off as it should when it's told to!

[rcrevolution]

pfft whats the point of living, if you don't live on the wild side. :twisted:

[Catweazle]

pffft!!

If you're trying to resurrect the dead, you're living on the 'dark side', not the 'wild side'!

LOL!