What is causing the yellow tint on my computer monitor?

June 27, 2004 9:32 AM

YellowColoredMonitorFilter: Something in my PC broke, and now everything's a yucky yellow tint. Anyone have this experience, and if so, how did you solve it? Google turns up one search that blames it on the monitor, but I'm praying it's the video card, or a short in a cord. File this also under ICan'tAffordAWholeNewFreakinMonitorFilter.

A few things that might be of relevance:

1) My optical mouse has stopped working lately. It'll just stop moving entirely (and the inside lights will go dim, the way it does when the computer's booting) until I either unplug/replug it or reboot.

2) I just reinstalled XP, and am in the process of reinstalling all of my programs.

3) My video card is dusty (I checked.)

I thought it could be an overheating problem, so I took the cover off and turned a fan on it.

posted by precocious to computers & internet (10 answers total)

I think I know what the problem is, I have seen this before: your VGA cable is probably loose (the one that goes from the monitor to the PC). Try jiggling it, see if anything on the screen changes, and make sure it is in securely.
peez
posted by ac at 9:55 AM on June 27, 2004

Bent pin in the monitor cable?
posted by adampsyche at 9:57 AM on June 27, 2004

Red + green = yellow. Thus, your monitor is not producing blue. This is sometimes the fault of the monitor, but more frequently, as others have indicated, a cable problem. It is probably not the fault of the video card itself -- it technically could be, but it's the last thing to check.
posted by kindall at 10:00 AM on June 27, 2004

*sob* I love you guys.

I jiggled the cord around some more (I actually did try that at first to no effect) and the color came back temporarily! While I can't afford a new monitor or even a card, a new cable I can do.

AskMe came through again. Thankyouthankyou.
posted by precocious at 10:14 AM on June 27, 2004

Some monitors show a test screen when you pull turn them on with out the vga cable pluged in. It's always useful just to make certain it's not the tube that's producing the wrong colors.
posted by phyrewerx at 10:37 AM on June 27, 2004

Tw-thirds of all techincal support is jiggling the cable.
posted by crunchland at 12:21 PM on June 27, 2004

For your mouse: check Power Management. Right-click My Computer, click Properties. Click Hardware. Click Device Manager. Double-click Mice and other pointing devices. Right-click your mouse. Click Properties. Click Power Management. Un-check 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.' Check the same thing for all your USB stuff in Device Manager, too.
posted by littlegreenlights at 1:51 PM on June 27, 2004

Color guns in monitors can fail. /crossfingers it is just the cable.
posted by rudyfink at 1:28 AM on June 28, 2004

I once had a monitor that would sometimes have a reddish tint. A swift karate chop to both side of the monitor often got rid of it. Of course, it would be irresponsible for me to recommend that course of action for you.

Perhaps my blow was actually just jiggling the cable.
posted by alidarbac at 4:25 AM on June 28, 2004

If you fixed it by hitting it, it was probably a bad/cracked solder joint.
posted by smackfu at 7:13 AM on June 28, 2004