Help! My Monitor Won’t Come On
By ryan ~ March 3rd, 2008. Filed under: pc help.
There are several things that can affect your computer monitor. The easiest is to start witht the simplist and work your way forward.
1. Check to make sure the monitor is plugged in (electricity). There’s usually a light next to or around the power button that lets you know if it’s on or not. I swear to you I’ve had people who accidentally turned it off and didn’t know they had to turn it back on themselves 
2. Is the computer on? The computer is usually in the form of a tower. If it’s on, then turn it off for 5 seconds and then start it up again. You can just push the power button or unplug it, whatever suits you best.
If the monitor does come back on then it could have been just a one-time glitch. If it keeps happening then I would suggest noting when it happens. There are two common problems associated with the monitor not responding; one is when it goes to “sleep” and the other is when the computer boots up.
If you are using the computer then leave for while and come back to the monitor not coming on, then you need to check your monitor power settings via the “power options” control panel. First see if hibernation is enabled, if it is then turn it off. Also, see if system standby is enabled; if it is, then set it to “never”. Make sure to click “OK” then restart your computer. If the monitor problem goes away then problem solved! You may try setting system standby again, but try to leave hibernation truned off. I have never liked hibernation in a desktop computer because it almost always causes problems.
If the monitor sometimes doesn’t come on when you you boot up your computer then I might suggest trying different RAM, if you have any. More often than not bad RAM is responsible for a monitor not turning on during a bootup. If you are not familiar with how to change RAM or just simply scared to do so then by all means take to a local computer repair person and have them check it out for you. There may be other things that cause the monitor to not come on but 95% of the time it’s due to faulty, or bad RAM.
Just a note: RAM is a heck of a lot cheaper than a monitor. So, before you shell out big money on a monitor (if you think it’s dead) ask a friend or family member to borrow their monitor just for testing purposes. If the borrowed monitor works on your computer then the odds are your monitor is dead. On the other hand if it doesn’t work then you just saved yourself some money because the monitor was not the problem. (Of course, you’ll now have to spend that money on finding out exactly what IS wrong!)