Video Problem

[phantom]

Something seems to be wrong with my desktop. Sometimes it doesn't send a signal to my monitor. A couple restarts usually brings up the image. Last night I tried for a half-hour to no avail.
Then, this AM, it brought the image right up. Anyone have any thoughts? Thank you.
Joyuex Noel!

[DennisE]

To eliminate one thing .
If you have a spare monitor around hook it up and see if
the same problem occurs.
It may be your monitor going out.
Also if you have a plug in video card.
Open the case and make sure you don't have a card that has
what is called card creep.
They work out of slots from being warm and then cooling down.
After a couple hundred cycles like this they will creep out just enough to break contact.
Check video cable at both ends make sure they are in tight.
After all that even replace the video cable if you have a spare.
Then it starts costing to replace parts after those tries.

[CaptainShrinkwrap]

I agree with Dennis's comments. I would tend to lean more closely to the bad monitor idea though.

[phantom]

Thanks for the quick replies. I thought I had a bad monitor, also, a couple months ago. The old CRT was a decade or so old. So, I scoured the ads, compared prices and reports, and queried friends. I have a new monitor on the computer -- a nice flat-screen LG. I thought I had the problem solved, because boot-up seemed OK for a while. But, the problem came back a month or so ago and has gotten slowly, but stedilay, more frequent. I will pull out the card and reset it when I have a free moment this weekend. I'll post the results. Thanks, again.

[Deleted]

It is not the monitor. I bought a new one. I have experimented and discovered that if leave power to the computer, the problem happens less often. Turning off the power is an old habit due to frequent power surges and two lightning strikes.
I am wondering if it could be a bad battery since the computer and battery are both about five years old.
Thank you.