Expert: Mike Rigsby - 10/28/2009

Question
I recently purchased a used monitor [sony SDM-HS75P color monitor] to replace my old large monitor. My CPU is a dell dimension 2400, graphic card is a integrated intel 3D agp graphics card, operating system is windows xp. The monitor works, but goes into a sleep like mode after a few mintues. I've checked to see that it isn't set to do this. All the lights stay on, but it won't "wake up".
I'm wondering if I need to change my graphics or video card. [How do I check to see if they are compatable?]
I would appreciate any help you can give me, thanks.

Answer
If the little light on the power button of the monitor stays Green but you have no picture then chances are that monitor is no good. If this is true then it sounds like there is a failing component inside the monitor that is going bad and causing the monitor to overheat and shut the screen down.

If the light is an Amber/Orange color, then the monitor is not receiving a video signal and I would say your video card is going bad. This, however, would have happened with your old monitor also if this was the case. So you would have likely noticed this problem before this new monitor.