Dimension 2400 problems

[Tommy Boy]

My grandmother has a Dell Dimension 2400 with a celeron processor and 256mb ram.
The problem is, when you are using it the monitor will all of a sudden go into standby mode and the led on it is amber like it's getting no signal. When you move the mouse and press a key on the keyboard it doesn't come back on like it's in standby or whatever. The only way you can get out of it is to restart the pc by holding the power button till it turns off. The pc seems to be still on when this happens, it doesn't seem that the whole pc goes into standby mode, just the monitor. But the pc isn't frozen since you can actually restart it by holding the power button. This has just started recently as far as I know, I have no idea what the problem could be.

This happens when you are using it, not just when it is sitting.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Istonian]

So it doesn't happen when it's just sitting? Could be that the monitor is going bad. Try a different monitor. If that doesn't work see if it's overheating with use.

 

[Tommy Boy]

I think it does it when it's sitting also, no other monitors to try with it though. I thought about overheating, I downloaded HWmonitor and the only temp sensor in the pc is in the hard drive, and that is normal.

 

[Istonian]

Is it onboard video? That would stink if it were a monitor issue. Could you test the monitor on another computer?

 

[Tommy Boy]

it's onboard video yes. And I could test the monitor on my laptop. I have an extra video card, perhaps I could put that in the computer and test it out to see if it's the onboard video causing the problem.

 

[Istonian]

Yeah, try that and see what happens. That would determine that problem, well at least narrow it down.