can a computer person help me?

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My roommate moved out and I came home to find my computer disconnected and on the floor. I got it all together and working -- at least the lights turn on when I turn it on -- but the monitor totally won't work.

Any idea what I could try?

It's a HP Pavilion and a HP flatscreen monitor. I tried unplugging and replugging the connecting cable and it still won't turn on and I don't know what to try now.

THe side panel was off the computer tower but it doesn't look like anything inside was messed with or unplugged.

Thanks, if anyone can help me or suggest something for me to try. I'm one of those apies with a very low levle of computer knowledge, unfortunately.

Borrow someone else's monitor and plug it in to your computer. If it works, you know you have a problem with your monitor. If it doesn't work,you can start looking at the computer.

You mention one cable to your monitor. There should be two. One to the tower of your computer, and one to the wall. The one to the wall can come loose at the back of your flat screen - try pushing it in more. You mention the side of your case being open... did your computer have a graphics card? If so - is it still in there? Maybe they swapped it out with a dead one?

I am not too techy - but I have done my fair share of revamping my tired old PC. Good luck!

There should be a cable with 2 blue ends connecting the monitor to the computer. Make sure the cable connected to the second port nearest to the bottom.

I've got the blue cable with the little side screws connected firmly. I don't even see wher eI could plug the monitor in to the wall. After I sleep, I'll look more closely and then scour the place trying to see if I can find a cord that's supposed to connect the monitor to the wall.

And if it still doesn't work after that, I'll see if my friend is willing to bring her monitor over to test it on my computer. And if it doesn't work, I'll pay my other friend who does computer work to see if I have a proper graphics card.

Thanks, everybody! You've all been very helpful!

As already suggested, two obvious simple failure points here are the power cable to the monitor (I'm assume this is the one you have unpluged and re-plugged in). The other is a failure in the cable between the monitor and the PC, connecting the two together, the cable with the blue ends you've mentioned. Most monitors (I think all) have had a seperate power cable for the monitor.

When you turn the power onto to the monitor is there a light or similar that suggests the monitor is working or are the lights just on the PC? If there are no lights on the monitor it is possible the power cable to the monitor has failed - this could be as simple as a fuse failing in the plug (assuming plugs have fuses where you are).

Before you try another monitor...

Do you have an alternate power cable you can try (if this seems to be a problem), or an alternate monitor connection cable you can try, or a friend who can lend you these to try?

Obviously if this does not help you'll need to try an alternative monitor.

Yay! It's working!! Thank you!! !! !

(Now to figure out where this line from the modem goes, and I'm all set!)

If you haven't worked this one out yet yourself...

Probably the modem will have two cables - one that goes to something that looks like either a telephone or network socket on the PC and one that goes to the telephone socket or similar on your wall.

Modem is likely to have seperate power cable too.

Not sure which country you're in so don't know for sure what this will look like. Whether you are using dial-up or ADSL or something else can change a bit what the sockets look like too.

In the UK if you use ADSL there can be a filter that plugs into the wall, this will probably look a bit like some kind telephone extension plug or double plug.

Good luck...good to hear it's working.

Glad it is working

My computer is my world.. I would be panicking in your shoes lol

Thanks, the only reason I'm not panicking is because I have my netbook. And the wireless is working, so I have internet. Of course I'm missing all the stuff on my desktop computer and skyping with my boyfriend this morning on the netbook was weird because the sound quality is terrible. He asked if I wanted to leave the skype video on and talk on the telephone but the sound and sensations of the telephone are much worse for me so we stuck with it on th netbook.

But the desktop computer doesn't do wireless like my netbook and my kindle so I have to figure out what to plug in to my desktop. There's a short yellow cord coming off the modem and a long blue one. I'm pretty sure the long blue one is mine because it was even stretched way out to the place where my desktop computer used to be when there was a desk under it. (That's how I eventually found the monitor power cord was looking over there.)

I know I sound really stupid about all this, but I used to take care of all my own computer stuff because I sarted using computers in 1985 so for a long time only some of the guys I knew (always the guys I met through BBSing, of course!) knew anything about computers. Now most guys know about computers and I ended up being with guys who wanted to take over things and not even *LET* me do anything (I have an unfortunate pattern where guys teat me like a child even though I'm middle-aged now!) so I haven't done any of my own computer stuff in about 20 years and a LOT has changed with computers since 1992 and I've forgotten a LOT (like that a monitor has it's own power cord! LOL) over 20 years of hardly even being alloed to touch anything on my own computer beyond the keyboard and mouse.

I mean I haven't even *picked out* my own computer in 20 years -- guys I was with just told me what I was going to buy. And, looking back, I went with it because the first guy who started doing this for/to me really busted my self-confidence. The last computer I bought, I got just a few weeks before the bottom fell out of the RAM market. So a couple weeks after I got it, the exact same system cost about HALF what I paid for it. On my own, I would have said, "wow, what a stroke of bad luck." But with an emotionall abusive guy in the picture? It got twisted into me not knowing anything about computers and not to fret my pretty little head because he was here to save me from myself. And *THAT* is what makes me feel most stupid -- not that I don't really know what I'm doing today, trying to get my computer back working -- but that I allowed other people to undermine my confidence in my abilities ans that I was willing to just "go to sleep" and surrender so much to someone else (out of fear of being unloved and alone.)

Thing is, I used to be a real whiz. I used to put stuff together on my own. I used to solder together little accessories (simple stuff, like a line noise suppressor, back when we were all at 300 baud and actually needed something like that) and hook them up to my system. I set up my first BBS by myself and ended up on Boardwatch Magazine's list of top 100 BBSes in the country. I used to be good with this stuff (which suggests I will be good again, if I don't let someone else come along and "carry" me again but insist on doing and knowing for myself.)

Anyway, enough ranting. The last guy who thought it was cute to keep me ignorant is gone. I've got a new boyfriend and I won't let that pattern continue and he is so totally different from the kinds of guys I've been with before that I don't think I'll have a problem with him letting me stand on my own feet.

So I've just got to figure out now where this blue cable goes. There are five places on the back of the PC that look like of like phone jacks. Problem is, the phone jack looking thingy on the end of the blue cable doesn't seem to fit into any of them and I"m afraid to force it. Now that it's light out again, I'm going to have another look and see what (if anything) is written next to those jack looking thingies.

I'll get this figured out somehow. Thank you to all of you for your wonderful help. I feel REALLY stupid that it was a power cord, but in my defense (besides not having done this for myself in two decades) the place on the monitor was recessed and not visible and the cord was behind a bunch of furniture and under a lot of junk.

I've babbled on long enough. Time to go figure that out. And clean this awful mess that my roommate left for me up.

Sparrow

No worries Sparrow - not once did it appear to me that you are stupid. I am notorious to look for something and not see it... for weeks on end and one day I look again, and there it sits... exactly where I knew to look in the first place! Dang thing was there a ll along... did I see it? Nope.

So... please do not be too hard on yourself, I am just glad you are back up and running

I enjoyed reading your "rant" too

I skype every day with my boyfriend as well... he is different than all my past boyfriends too

I wouldn't know anything about fixing a minor combustion engine either... that doesn't make a person stupid. Your knowledge just lies elsewhere!

Figured out the blue cord!! I have internet on the main computer again! Yay!

And BlueMax: funny you should say that because I'm so proud that I figured out how to open the hood of my car and put power steering fluid in. LOL That's a major car victory for me. I am so un-car-ish. I'm totally like Penny when it comes to cars, "oh, don't worry about that Service Engine light. It's always on." hahahaha