Black Screen. Computer Still on!!

[kwagner_51]

Ok. for about a week now my pc will be running and after I walk away, the screen will go black. Usually it is no problem to bring it back, just hit the mouse.

However, about 5-6 times now I have touched the mouse and the pc wakes up but the monitor stays black. The mouse is viewable on the monitor but it is black!!!

My OS is W98SE

288.0MG RAM

ADM k6 450 Processor

ATI Rage Pro Video card 1yr old.

I just reformatted and reinstalled the OS. I alos upgraded to IE6. It didn't start doing this until AFTER I installed IE6.

Also, one other piece of pertient info. I have cockroaches. [They were here when I moved in.] I have bait all around the monitor and glue traps too. Plus Terminex is coming out Friday to spray, fog, and otherwise get rid of the creepy crawlies...

Should I use canned air to clean the monitor out?

I already did the tower. It was filthy!! YUCK!

Also should I cove the PC or let the guy get ALL the bugs?

Has anyone heard of a glitch in IE6 causing the monitor to go black?


Thanks!!

[Jhorner1]

Two thoughts. One don't blow out your monitor, even if you have it turned off it still retains a high voltage (enough to kill) for several months. Two, you just reinstalled Windows and IE6. There is a power saving feature that is turned on by default. This can be changed from the Power Options in the control panel.

[Variable]

Well it couldnt hurt to blow canned air in the back of your monitor. Don't mess with taking the back off or anything, the inside of the monitor can give you a nasty shock.
I't could be that your monitor is going bad. But, I would try this first. Right click an empty spot on the desktop and click properties, then click screensaver and set it to none. There should be a Power button under the "Energy savings features.." heading (I have win2k so your win98 may be slightly different), click it and you should see something that says Turn off monitor and then a time frame. Set this to never, same with hard drive. Now, with these things turned off your monitor should never go off, unless you shut down the computer. Leave the computer on for an hour or so, if the computer screen goes dark again and you can still see your mouse then its likely your monitor is going bad. If it stays fine then it may be that your old monitor is just having a hard time adjusting to the power saving mode. You could just leave the power saving feature off. This is a simple way to troubleshoot the monitor.
V