Computer Screen blinking on and off? May be time to buy a new screen.

A couple months ago, a close friend of mine called me in a mild panic. She told me that her computer screen (monitor) was on but nothing was showing on it. I had to first calm her down (her life is on the computer) and assure her that the problem was less serious than she thought (right!). She had contacted some high price techs who advised her to buy a new computer. (Quite reassuring).

She, of course, could not think of it since all her documents and particulars were stored on her somewhat ancient machine. Being particularly familiar with the computer myself, I attempted to do a telephone diagnosis. We went through the following routine:

• Check the computer cables connecting to the wall to ensure the machine was properly plugged up. (Check!).
• Check the monitor cable connecting the computer and monitor to verify the connection was firm each way. (Check!)
• Turn off the system for about 5 minutes to promote a fresh reboot because an electrical supply spike can mess up the booting process, preventing the loading of essential driver programs.(Check!).
• Reboot the system to see if everything works fine now.(No success! Same problem.)
• Disconnect attachments from the computer (printer, external disks, etc), leaving on the monitor hooked up. (Looking for conflicting equipment in the system.) (No change.)
•  Disconnect monitor from system. Power on and off to see if monitor working well without system. (No.)

• Conclusion: replace monitor. Monitor (not necessarily the system) is bad. 

Several days later, my new tech trainee, happily calls me with news that she had replaced the monitor and everything was now fine. She had visible access to her life and the old machine was humming along as usual. She did not have to buy an entire new system. (Pat on the back, pleez!)


P.S. Sometimes we get so fascinated by the amazing things our computers can do that we forget they are only simple machines conducting electricity through electronic parts. They are quite prone to the failures facing all electronic equipment. Electric spikes (especially from thunderstorms) can destroy internal parts without frying the entire system.  Sometimes the part is too old to do the work it used to do. Sometimes there are too many attachments competing for power from the single power unit feeding the system. This results in the sudden puzzling behaviors that our computers display from time to time. So next time your computer goes haywire, try the above checklist to determine whether you need to junk the entire system or simply replace a defective part.