Tale of the bung VDU

I have been out of action with the computer I use for blogging (and gaming [gulp]) for about 24 hr because the widescreen monitor crapped out on us and it took about that long to get replacement in place. Needless to say, no retailer selling faulty merchandise stood much of a chance against the 'Lead Negotiator'.

It's a minorly interesting tale in itself, that of the bung vdu.

I had finally managed to have about three hours free with no likelihood of interuption on sunday evening. I sat down and got onto hyperlobby before chosing my poison. The screen seemed to ratchet up in brightness. I didn't think anything of it. Then it did it again. About a minute later it went blank. Not good.

Like the well trained geek-illiterati--but-knows-it that I am, I checked all the connections, checked with other users of the machine whether they'd changed settings or had any anomalies. They hadn't, and all the connections were okay. Puzzled I switched screen off, then on again. Clear picture - no problems. My eyes no doubt gleamed with the light of hope.

Alas! About two minutes later, the brighten, brighten, blank out phenomena repeated itself. This time I go to our older computer, access the manual etc on the disk that came with the vdu. No answers there. I check forums online. No luck there. I'm not impressed.

I switch the monitor off and on again. Again, the screen goes active for a couple minutes. Goes blank. Hope begins to sink. I idly sit there switching things off and on again, booting and rebooting, disconnecting and connecting, until all hope is dead.

Now is time to see whether problem is with screen or computer. Maybe it's the legendary 'driver' that all geeks refer to when things break down. I put the suspect vdu onto our older computer. The screen goes blank. It is definitely the screen which is the cause of my sadness.

Now we have had it replaced. The resident geek where I work (like, manage computer systems of hundreds of users across the state type geek) was highly puzzled. As were those at the store where we bought the screen (some 'computer wharehouse/recycle store' near corner Payneham Rd and Steven Tce, if you know Adelaide). To their credit, they replaced it with another. I note that this screen, while having same model number, had different but similar packaging, user booklet, chords. Wonder why?

Anyway, I'm happier now.