computer problem
 

OK, my grandmother's computer monitor, a Dell flat-panel, keeps going completely white on her. The hard-drive is a Dell, also. I think she's only had it a little over a year. We have changed the surge protector and it still goes white on her. All you see is a white screen. It does it randomly and you never know when it's going to do it. She asked me what's wrong with it and my only thought was that it's "lightbulb" was going out or the connector/power cord that's physically attached to the monitor is bad.

What do ya'll think?

Does it stay that way for a long time, or does it just flash white and then go back to normal?

Depending on which service agreement she purchased, it may still be under warranty, in which case they are pretty good about replacing bad hardware. If you go to their support web site
you have to register to login, but you put the service tag number in there (usually on a sticker on the back of the PC) for the computer and look up the warranty info. Then get on the phone with their customer support and they will walk you through any possible trouble shooting steps to help determine what is wrong. If it's a known problem with those monitors, they won't have you jump through too many hoops before they just send a new one (with a shipping label to return the old one in the same box).

Dee

It turns on completely white and never went to the regular screen stuff. She called the Dell people and they're sending her a brand new monitor free of charge. She had talked with the guy on the phone and he tried to fix it with her. He told her not to hook it up to the back of the hard drive, just to the surge protector. It didn't fix. Well, just a few minutes ago we hooked it up to the computer and it works fine now. Well, she's getting a new monitor without having to send this one back. They just told her to take it to the landfill.

if you want, i can give you the address of a good landfill near me. :p

dell is really good with customer support and fixing problems. i have had nothing but good experiences with them. i'm glad your grandma got her problem fixed so easily!

CSUSigEp, you don't like Dell huh? lol. ;)

My parents have always had very good service out of the Dell technicians, etc. She got her new monitor from Dell today and is sending the old one back. They sent a note saying they want it back to look at it so no landfill for the old one.