My monitor on my desk top is not showing anything from my computer, help please?

Q: My aunt and uncle just mailed me there used Dell dimension 2400 because they got a laptop instead. It was in good condition and they had a computer engineer friend of theirs wipe the hard drive. It was working before t left their home, and after the wipe down. When it got here I hooked it up. When I plugged the monitor into the computer it stopped saying that it needed to be connected to something, but when I turned the computer on the light on the monitor stayed orange and the monitor doesn't show anything. I tried the monitor on my Dad's laptop and it works fine. Can anybody give me any ideas on what to do. (I tried unplugging the monitor, restarting everything, all the function keys, and even the delete key) I'm stumped. Any help would be great.

A: Do you have more than one video card? Multiple ports on the same card? Does the monitor cable have any bent over pins? (it may not have all 15 pins installed, this is normal) Often at work we find someone has moved the cable to the wrong video port or a different video card, just swapping it back to the right video port fixes the problem. The second most common problem is the video card gets wiggled or bumped and needs to be removed/reseated. They can look perfect but not be fully connected. This is especially likely if it was droped or bumped in shipping or if the wire was pulled at an angle as it was unplugged (believe me, it happens a lot more than you think). I've found that DVI can be strange, usually requiring that the digital video cable be connected to everything a minute or so before startup. It shouldn't matter but it seems to. Otherwise I'd suggest trying another monitor on that computer (if you can). You may have a defective video card...they can go bad. I'm not sure what else to suggest...call/online-chat with Dell and see if they're willing to help you for free (or under warranty).

Related items