Strange monitor issue - screen goes black after a few seconds (2 Solutions!!)
Channel: Roel Van de Paar
Date: 2020-08-19

Strange monitor issue - screen goes black after a few seconds


The Question: My LCD monitor display is going black (turning off). It's a Samsung SYncMaster
2233 widescreen.
I am trying to figure out if there is anything I can do about it, or if the
monitor is junk.
I have tried multiple computers, all have the same issue. I have tried a
different vga cable, same issue. Power and video cables are tight / double
checked.
When I power on the monitor, the blue light turns on at the bottom. Then a
second or two later the video comes up as expected and it looks fine.
However, about 2-3 seconds after that, the screen goes black. The blue light is
still on and solid at the bottom (blue light normally flashes when the monitor
is sleeping).
If I power cycle the monitor, same thing happens.
With no computer connected or when I unplug the vga cable, I see the searching
for signal message "digital", then the screen goes black. However it usually
shows "digital" then "analog" after that and switches between the two a few
times.
The buttons on the side do not do anything, although they may be, I just can
not see if they are or not. I can usually get the "digital" message by pressing
the buttons on the side, but then it quickly goes black again.
What is really strange is sometimes I can get it to work fine. I am not sure
what the difference is. Last week I connected it up and it worked fine and it
stayed fine for at least a week! I did not turn it off or anything, I just let
the OS put the display to sleep. Then this week one morning I started having
the screen going black issue again.
Seems like something is either loose inside or beginning to fail.
Do you think there is any hope for it?
update: pushing the input select button causes the "digital" and "analog"
messages to flash on the screen, but only for a few seconds then it goes black.
When it was working properly, those messages would flash back and fourth for
probably 10-20 seconds then a message would show saying check input signal, but
now just a black screen.

Solutions: Please watch the whole video to see all solutions, in order of how many people found them helpful

== This solution helped 1 person ==
Check for contamination in the DVI and VGA connectors on the monitor, it's
possible that the automatic source detection is preferring the port which isn't
connected due to some contamination fooling the monitor into seeing a
connection. Use a can of air-duster to clear contamination.
Also, check that the monitor is actually shutdown when it appears failed - when
the monitor goes black, does the screen appear the same as when the monitor is
powered down? Shine a bright light into the monitor and check whether there is
actually an image displayed. It's possible that the backlight is failing.

With thanks & praise to God, and with thanks to the many people who have made this project possible! | Content (except music & images) licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 | Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music | Images: https://stocksnap.io/license & others | With thanks to user Scott Szretter (https://superuser.com/users/35329), user Raz (https://superuser.com/users/147262), user Mike Insch (https://superuser.com/users/88991), user bertieb (https://superuser.com/users/461558), and the Stack Exchange Network (http://superuser.com/questions/313207). Trademarks are property of their respective owners. Disclaimer: All information is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. You are responsible for your own actions. Please contact me if anything is amiss at Roel D.OT VandePaar A.T gmail.com.