Monitor going black but computer still running

[write-click]

A couple of times in the past week my monitor has gone black and the message "check your signal cable" has been displayed, but the computer is still running. I tried turning the monitor off and then on again with no luck, so I have been forced to use the reset button to turn the hard drive off and start all over again. Both times it has happened while either viewing an email or clicking on a weblink in an email. Any connection, or is it something more sinister?!! Usually when the screen goes blank the computer has crashed and gone off anyway, but in these instances you can still hear it running but there is no display. Any help gratefully appreciated. It's a PC Company Athlon 1600 running Windows XP Home.

[Noel Nosivad]

Hi write-click,

If it's a crash, it's possibly related to the video card, wouldn't happen to be onboard, if so it might be time to get another video card.

It could be loose connection for the monitor to the computer, or a loose video card.

If you can find driver updates it might be wise to install those for your video card to eliminate if it's a problem for the driver.


Noel Nosivad

[Graham L]

When it does that, unplug the video cable and plug it in again. The cable might have sagged enough to "nearly" unplug the connector. That's more likely than anything else.

In the days when computers were computers and software was reliable, the first thing to check was the connectors. They're still pretty unreliable by real-computer standards ("If you can measure the error rate it's too high").

[write-click]

Thanks Noel and Graham, highly likely the "not quite plugged in" scenario is the cause of the problem as I have an inquisitive cat that likes to "play" behind the computer desk...

I thought I'd check for worst-case scenarios first then work my way down - it's reassuring to be told it is not likely to be total meltdown!

[stu140103]

Blame the cat!

hehe

[Billy T]

Best you do up all the finger screws that secure your plugs in their sockets too. That way the cat won't cause any more blackouts, and you won't get grey hairs worrying about computer failures.

Cheers

Billy 8-{)