Is my monitor dying?

[zoid]

About 2 or 3 times a day my monitor at work will go completely blank. Immediately after this happens, a thin bright white horizontal line appears across the center of the screen and the monitor seems to “wake up” (for lack of a better term). It makes that weird “bong” sound like it’s degaussing and comes back to life as if I’d just turned it on.

The computer itself is plugged into the same power strip and it doesn’t seem to be behaving strangely.

So is this a sign of eminent monitor death? Should I order a new one now while I can still work?

[gotpasswords]

Originally Posted by zoid

Should I order a new one now while I can still work?

No time like the present to upgrade to an LCD display!

Just as a vaguely-educated guess, the monitor's power supply is on the way out, or the circuit that senses whether there's a signal coming in is going bad and putting the monitor to sleep, or the vertical scanning circuit's flaking out - the thin white line is a decades-old symptom of no vertical scan (or sweep as we called it back in the days of vacuum tubes).

Three possibilities - all are probably repairable, but not economically so.

[Jake]

More information please. What kind of monitor? Is it really 2 - 3 times a day or just once after you turn it on?
The reason I'm asking is that I have a Sony Muntiscan 200GS that automatically does this a minute or so after I turn it on. I don't know why and the manual dosen't help. After it blinks it works just fine, although I have to reset the brightness control. Great monitor (for a CRT) otherwise.

[zoid]

Originally Posted by Jake

More information please. What kind of monitor? Is it really 2 - 3 times a day or just once after you turn it on?
The reason I'm asking is that I have a Sony Muntiscan 200GS that automatically does this a minute or so after I turn it on. I don't know why and the manual dosen't help. After it blinks it works just fine, although I have to reset the brightness control. Great monitor (for a CRT) otherwise.

Jake
Sony MultiSync FE1250.
It really does do this a couple times a day at random intervals.

And gotpasswords, thanks my gut tells me it's gonna die but the powers that be will never let me upgrade to anything than we don't have lying around in the spares room

[FatBaldGuy]

Check that the power cord is plugged in securely in the back of the monitor. I have seen this kind of symptom where the plug is slightly loose and will cause the monitor to shut down briefly if it is bumped or jiggled.

[Will Repair]

You are losing vertical deflection.
A bad capacitor would usually degrade over time.
A bad IC would not come back on.
Sounds like a loose connection, solder joint.

[gotpasswords]

Originally Posted by zoid

Jake
Sony MultiSync FE1250.

I'm guessing you meant NEC MultiSync FE1250+, which by coincidence, is what I've got here.

When we got new PCs recently, they came with 15" LCDs. I said "Thanks, but I'll keep the bigger screen!"

[ZipperJJ]

Sorry to ask the obvious but...

Is this happening while you're working or while you're idle? My computer's power scheme is set to turn the monitor completely off after 15 mins of inactivity. Hitting the mouse or the keyboard makes it come back on.

If it happens while it's idle...check your power scheme by right-clicking on your desktop and choosing "properties" then the "screen saver" tab and the "power" button.

If it happens while you're in the middle of working then well...carry on.

[zoid]

Just a quick follow up to thank everyone who helped in this thread - it was the video card.

Luckily I just got a new machine - no more worries.