Is my monitor shot?

For the 3 night in a row all of a sudden everything on the screen looks weird. The tool bar at the bottom is green and the header bar at the top has a green line going through it. A lot of the letters are weak and are green and blue. Some words are all green. Everything in the background is black. People's pictures look like negatives from a film camera. The last 2 nights everything went back to normal after a while, but not tonight. Any clues?

I wonder whether it was a video card problem.

Is there a bullet hole???


Sorry couldn't resist, I'll go to the corner now.

Nope, no bullet holes, but there will be if I don't resolve this soon.

Quickest way to find out is to plug a known good monitor into your computer and see if you get the same results. If you do then it might very well be the video card... this doesn't mean the video card is necisarily bad it could be seated badly in the card slot or you may have a bad VGA terminal on it... if you video card has multiple VGA outputs try plugging into a different port on the vid card.

If the problem pursists with the known good monitor you may need to replace your video card.

If however, when you plug in the known good monitor and all is well... then yes your monitor is probably FUBAR. Chuck it and get yourself a nice 22" widescreen monitor and smile.

Clean the connectors for the monitor, and they may have loosened themselves.

The monitor needs to be de-gaussed (de-magnetized). Older TVs used to have this problem all of the time. Then automatic de-gaussing circuits were built in, and activate every time the TV\monitor was turned on.

The solution kind of looks like magic. Buy a de-gaussing coil for around 15 dollars. Hold the coil flat side of circle facing the monitor about 6" away and move it in flat circles around the set ( as if you were putting a spell on it :sqbiggrin:) for about 30 seconds. Then back well away from the set with the coil still flat side forward. When well away, turn it edge forward and turn it off..

If your auto-degaussing circuit is faulty, you may have to do this every month or two.

The monitor needs to be de-gaussed (de-magnetized). Older TVs used to have this problem all of the time. Then automatic de-gaussing circuits were built in, and activate every time the TVmonitor was turned on.

The solution kind of looks like magic. Buy a de-gaussing coil for around 15 dollars. Hold the coil flat side of circle facing the monitor about 6" away and move it in flat circles around the set ( as if you were putting a spell on it :sqbiggrin:) for about 30 seconds. Then back well away from the set with the coil still flat side forward. When well away, turn it edge forward and turn it off..

If your auto-degaussing circuit is faulty, you may have to do this every month or two.

Well I'm thinking I shouldn't do this when people are around. They might think I'm going crazy on them or losing it.
I tried a different monitor and thing are fine so far. The other monitor is kind of old, so maybe I'll junk it. Thanks for the advice though.

Well I'm thinking I shouldn't do this when people are around. They might think I'm going crazy on them or losing it.
I tried a different monitor and thing are fine so far. The other monitor is kind of old, so maybe I'll junk it. Thanks for the advice though.


I think you just answered your own question here... if you pluged in another monitor and the display was just fine and then you plug your old one back in and it isn't any good then your answer is...... drumroll please brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-pop-crash!

The answer is blowing in the wind... oops sorry, no really its the monitor.

Gosh... I've had some monitors die but never with the weird color abnormalities you describe. For the most part, they just quit working altogether.

The first one I had years ago started arcing ~ the high voltage was buzzing and it finally gave up the ghost.

The next was taking longer and longer to start. Y'know... when ya boot the puter, the mon starts with it? Well, this one finally didn't start at all. Out to the rubbish bin it went.

My last CRT mon was getting dimmer by the day. It finally got so dim that I could barely see the screen anymore. Out to the hopper it went.

It was replaced with a Sammysung LCD widescreen mon last year. I got it at Sams for under $250.00 if memory serves.

In some of the cheaper CRT type monitors and TV's especially ones left on 24/7 with or without screen savers... can develop problems with the deflector mirrors (not sure of the tech term for them) which can cause discoloration usually in the corners of the monitor... that's why Joe suggested useing a degauser or basically a maginet with an opposing field to break the line of flux... this can sometimes correct the problem. You would need a pretty highpowered maginet to do a CRT as compaired to say a reel to reel recorder.... we do this in the Navy to reduce excess noise on recordings of whale farts. (sorry the rest is classified) I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you.

I've also seen problems with wierd colors when the cable was getting loose where it connects to the computer. just disconnect and tighten it up.

Because it only happens in certian areas - it may be a magnetism problem and need to be degaused.... have you moved speakers or lighting in the room recently (few days / hours before the problem) sometimes cell phones - not not very often....

btw - if this is an lcd screen - it could be a power supply or backlight going - it's common on Toshiba notebooks

In some of the cheaper CRT type monitors and TV's especially ones left on 24/7 with or without screen savers... can develop problems with the deflector mirrors (not sure of the tech term for them) which can cause discoloration usually in the corners of the monitor... that's why Joe suggested useing a degauser or basically a maginet with an opposing field to break the line of flux... this can sometimes correct the problem. You would need a pretty highpowered maginet to do a CRT as compaired to say a reel to reel recorder.... we do this in the Navy to reduce excess noise on recordings of whale farts. (sorry the rest is classified) I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you.


A degaussing coil produces an A/C electric field which totally demagnetizes through disruption. Using a magnet MAY help, or it may make things worse. Be careful....

Beat the screen 3 times on the left and 2 times on the right. Then Spiderman that thing and then it should work.