Black Computer Screen – Lesson Learned
As a continuation of the week we had upon our return to South Florida, I am writing now.
As a habit and as a form of protection against Bank of America and the low lives perpetrating identity theft, the first thing I do when my eyes are open, is to turn on my computer to check our bank balances. To my surprise, one morning I found a $289 charge for golf clubs. We don’t play golf. On numerous occasions, I had woken up to find charges to my account that were mysteriously debited between 3:00 am and 7:00 am, causing one or more overdraft fees. To clarify, yes, sometimes my balance is dangerously close to zero, which in no way justifies the early morning practices of Bank of America. I do find that if I can catch the debit while it’s still pending I stand half a chance of having it reversed with a little less aggravation.
Back to my story. My eyes opened and I turned on my computer, well I thought I turned on my computer. I pushed the button, walked away and came back to a black screen. Even though it did sound like it was running, I did exactly what you’re not supposed to do and held the button until it shut down. I figured it was a glitch which happens sometimes. Why expect a $1500 piece of equipment to work all the time? I pushed the button again totally assuming that this time the screen would light up and I’d be up and running. No such luck! When I pushed the button it would say, “no connection” and then go black for good. I called my dad who fixes other people’s computers and he informed me that without an error message there was little he could help me with, but suggested I change the power supply. Late for work, I intended to pick one up on my way home. In all honesty, my thought process was that my computer just needed time to rest and it would be fine when I got home. With this thinking in mind, I decided against buying the power supply. My intention was to go home, fire up my computer, which by the way contains all my financial records, and then pay a couple bills. I hurried home, pushed the button, nothing!!! I guessed I’d buy a power supply and assumed that would resolve my problem.
Excitedly, I purchased the power supply from Office Max and slowly went through the matrix of wires to install it. I never saw so many connectors attached to nothing, so I maticulously disconnected one of the old and connected one of the new one by one. Then, I sat back, lit a cigarette and took a breath and waited five whole minutes before hitting the button. I pushed the button, took another deep breath, and looked at the black screen. Okay, now panic started to set in. I am very thorough with my finances yet like an idiot backed up everything to my desktop. Why? Because, I didn’t want to take the time to reach to my left and get the disc that my previous save from three months ago was on. Just stupid!
At this point and in desperation, I did what any computer savvy person would do, I turned on my lap top to search the forums for possible solutions. After a while, I found a possible solution and as far as I was concerned any possible solution was worth trying. Replace the video card. I returned the power supply to Office Max and purchased a video card and hurried home. Installation of the video card was really simple. I turned on the computer and my monitor lit up, what a wonderful feeling. I needed now to install the software and as I did it said something wasn’t compatible, but honestly I didn’t care. I continued the installation and everything worked fine. Mind you the first thing I did after that was to take the 1 TB backup I had bought months ago and I backed up everything. That little black box is now one of my most valuable possessions.
In conclusion, if you turn on your computer and it sounds like it’s running, fans and all, and it says “no connection” and then the screen goes black, it very well might be your video card. A $59.99 solution that was well worth it!!
