<p>I was typing a message and all of a sudden contrast control came on and went to 0. Now you can’t see anything since the screen is black. The contrast controls on the monitor didn’t do anything and the keyboard shortcuts on the Microsoft website don’t do anything either. Anyone have any ideas? Rebooting did not help either. I can’t see anything on that computer. I hate to pay for a repair for something that stupid.</p>
<p>Could be any number of things: monitor, loose cables (doubtful), video card, or operating system.</p>
<p>First, jiggle and reattach the video cable to the computer and monitor. You might get lucky here.</p>
<p>Second step is to make sure the monitor works by swapping in another monitor. (If you are using a laptop, just plug a monitor into the VGA port on the laptop). You can verify monitor function by plugging the questionable monitor into another computer. (You can verify some monitor functionality by pressing the menu button, if present, on the monitor.)</p>
<p>If the monitor works, then check the video card. If your computer has two video ports, try to unused port. (If you are using a DVI or HDMI connection, you will need a VGA cable to connect the vga port on the computer to the vga port on the monitor.) Note that many computers with upgrade video cards do have a motherboard VGA port concealed by a plastic cover. If a working monitor won’t work the main or secondary video port, you probably have an operating system problem.</p>
<p>Troubleshooting the operating system is a big can of worms to open. If you have Norton internet security (or any decent security software), you can try to boot your computer off the Norton CD. If you made a “rescue disk” before things went south, boot from your rescue disk.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks, turned out to be the monitor. It was just weird that it went while I was typing. I have clumsy fingers so I thought I had hit some secret key combination :)</p>
<p>How were you able to read that great troubleshooting advice from MY2CENTS without a working screen?</p>
<p>I used my laptop :)</p>
<p>I’m glad your monitor is working. It’s worth keeping old monitors in the attic for these situations.</p>
<p>This would be a great time to back up your data and to make a rescue disk for both your desktop and laptop. (I nearly lost a ten years of digital photos in a recent computer crash.)</p>