Monitor is black

Ok, maybe I've missed it on here, but I haven't seen it. I don't know if this is virus related, but the other day I turned the monitor on and it was black - nothing, no pictures, nothing. (I have an LCD monitor) I noticed that I could very faintly see what was on the screen if I turned off all the lights, but that's it. Then it started to flicker a little bit, mostly on the right side of the screen, but allowed me to see the monitor well enough for a couple seconds at a time that I could run Norton AntiVirus -- it said that it found an infected file (bgve~1.exe - download.trojan) and it could not repair it. I was able to quarantine it, but I don't think this is what's causing the problem. When I turn off the computer and turn it back on, I can't even see where it says Dell or starting windows xp or anything. Nothing at all and it is even flickering less than it was before. I can't use the menu to change anything, because I can't see it. The computer is working fine otherwise, I guess. I'm using my laptop now just to write this. Could this be a problem that I need to get a new monitor or is there a way to hook up my laptop to the cpu and see if I can use the laptop's monitor?

 

You said the monitor flickered? how old is the monitor?

 

only a couple of years, and i've never had a problem with it

 

Did you ever leave it on for extended periods of time without a screensaver, or anything or a high frequency?

 

also, I was able to check the refresh rate, and it's set where it always has been at 75Hz, it won't go higher than that; but it's always been set there

 

I leave it on all the time, but I have it set to turn off after an hour of the computer being idle.

 

Then overheating isn't the problem.

 

So, you say that the refresh is set at 75Hz. That means that you could see that on the screen? If it displays the settings fine, that means it is your video card that is the problem. It could be something with the cord. Make sure everything is connected okay.

Also, my LCD is set at 60Hz because it works better that way. When I had a CRT, that was set at 85. LCD's redraw only when there is a change not like the CRT that redraws so many times a second, whether the picture changes or not. In other words, there is no flicker, so a lower refresh rate will improve perfomance of your video card.

 

I could see the refresh rate on the screen, but just barely. It took me 30 minutes of waiting and looking at flashes of the picture just to get to that point. Now, it is just so dark all the time and flashes less that I don't have a chance to get in there to do anything.

 

Next thing I'd try is to hook it up to another computer and see if it works. If that fails, then I would guess it is the monitor. Still under warranty I hope.