I live in China, and I bought my Dell Dimension 8200 system about 2 years ago.  Here's some basic information regarding my computer:

Dell™ Dimension 8200
Dell™ P793 17" flat CRT display
Windows XP Professional SP1
Intel P4 2.0GHz
512MB Rambus - 800MHz
OEM nVIDIA GeForce 2 MX/MX 400 [Overclocked]
[the list goes on]
---------------------------

Back to the story.  I haven't experienced any problems with my computer until today.  I just received an HP 4600 flat-bed scanner from America.

I have my monitor set to 1024x768@100Hz with 32bit color.  My little brother was engaging in some healthy online Counter-Strike 1.6 action when I decided to set up my new scanner.  I plugged in the power to my transformer, watched the scanner boot up, and then I stuck in the USB cable.  At that precise point in time, the monitor went black.  The computer itself was still processing something - most likely the game.  The monitor's light was still on, but it wasn't displaying anything.  I turned off the monitor, and turned it on again.  As usual, the monitor de-gaussed.  The only thing on the screen was a crude box that read something along the lines of this:
"Power Save Mode"
"Reactivite with Computer"

I forced the computer to shutdown by holding the power button, and I turned off my power-board / power-strip.  I turned it back on again, and tried to use my monitor.  This time, the light didn't even light up.  There was only a faint, constant clicking noise like a timer.  I tried this process several times, but the monitor still refused to work.

Currently, I'm working downstairs on the old Pentium II 300MHz beast of a machine that Gateway made a few years back.  I don't know what caused the display to suddenly die.  I tried plugging in the monitor by itself, directly into the wall outlet but that did not cure the problem.  I have left the board off for around 15 minutes and tried again, but I still haven't had any luck.  Perhaps it was my trust old DX7-enabled nVIDIA GeForce 2 MX/MX 400 that suddenly died.  I doubt that the monitor's sudden termination had anything to do with the scanner.

Any ideas?  Help is appreciated.  My warranty has long-since expired.

Alex - yetieater

Message Edited by slash808 on 01-09-2004 08:34 AM