Gray Screen Of Death?

April 1, 2005 5:46 PM

Running WinXP, with Samsung 150s flat-panel monitor -- both about 2 1/2 years old -- never had any problem with either...but during the last week or so, after sitting idle for a short period of time (perhaps 10 minutes?), the monitor screen goes gray -- dark, charcoaly, gray.

Nothing else on the screen -- no screensaver, no icons, nothing -- just gray. Moving the mouse, clicking buttons, even alt-ctrl-del does nothing at all, so each of the four or five times this has happened, I've had to simply power down and then power up again. No other problems that I'm aware of -- everything else seems to be working just fine. Any ideas...?

posted by davidmsc to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

I have a 15-inch Sony flat panel that does the same thing. I gently squeeze/massage the left side of the enclosure and this gets the video back. I suspect the video cable is loose inside the enclosure, and squeezing reconnects it.
posted by AlexReynolds at 5:55 PM on April 1, 2005

No worries. You need Screen Cleaner Pro.
posted by 327.ca at 6:36 PM on April 1, 2005

Ah-ha -- hadn't considered something as simply elegant as that! I'll give it a shot -- thanks, AR! And 327.ca -- almost fooled me -- today, of all days!
posted by davidmsc at 6:38 PM on April 1, 2005

Do the monitor's own adjustment menus still work?
posted by cillit bang at 6:43 PM on April 1, 2005