Monitors LCD Monitor Blacks Out Randomly

[kidrow]

Hey all,

My 6 year old Viewsonic LCD monitor has started to randomly black out. It has happened on 3 separate occasions today. None of those 3 occasions involved anything that would tax the GPU. The computer stays on though.

One one occasion when the monitor blacked out, even the 'power led' of the monitor went out. It usually goes from green to amber, when there is no signal from the GPU. But instead of turning amber, it just did not light up. I restarted the power switch of only the monitor from the mainboard & it seemed to work. The monitor came back on.

On another occasion though, the screen blacked out but it came back on within a second all by itself.

I haven't come across any pattern yet with regard to the time interval. The 1st 2 occasions were separated by a couple of hours while the remaining occurred within 30 minutes of each other.

I googled & the problem could apparently be anything from the GPU to the video cable to the power board within the LCD. I'm hoping my symptoms help someone here pinpoint the exact cause. & if not, then how do I go about eliminating the various causes.

Thanks for your time. Cheers!

 

[kidrow]

Alright. What happened yesterday was quite the opposite. The screen just became very, very bright with the current frame being displayed getting stuck. Something that I'd probably describe as ghosting but of a more permanent variety. Also, different colour bands popped up, thus creating a psychedelic image.

When this happened, I removed the VGA cable first. But nothing changed. Next, I tried putting off the monitor by pressing the power button on the monitor itself. But it wouldn't turn off. Finally, I switched off the power to the monitor. The monitor did turn off. When I put the power back on, the display went back to normal.

So I think it's safe to say that the problem is with the monitor & specifically with it's power supply.

So does anyone have any idea about whether this can be fixed? Is it better to buy a new monitor than to be repairing this 6 year old one? & any idea how much the repairs would set me back by?

Thanks for your time. Much obliged.