RUN TO BEST BUY!!! Other than that just talk to it nicely and see what happens. Thats the reason I paid so damn much for my protection plan on mine.
Is it the old school TV looking monitor, heavy tube like monitor. Or the new flat screen LCD or plasma TV looking monitor. If it is the old school type you might be able to adjust the color, contrast etc to make it better. If it is the new flat ones then you are probably Fu**ed. Those things are a bit touchy.
I have punched my computer screen a few times and it made the color off for a while. I turned it off and when I used it later it worked right again. If she doesn't know its broke don't tell her, let her "discover" its broke. If all else fails, don't use the computer for a couple days, wait for the wife to use it and THEN mess with the contrast settings then say "I don't know what's wrong, it worked the other day".
There are lots of soldered wires and boards in computer products. They can short out because of dust or if they get too hot. I would let it set turned off for at least a few hours then try it again. If it is not better you gotta get a new one.
That's all I got, good luck!
Cathode Ray Tube = CRT
Liquid Crystal Display = LCD
Plasma screen = PDP
picture element = pixels
the simple explanation is as follows:
CRT works by a scanning electron beam exciting a phosphor coating on on the back side of a vacuum tube. The phosphor coating emits light and with varying voltages, wavelengths, etc you get the screen you see.
LCD an electrically modulated optical device in other words, a back lite screen with a multitude of small cells filled with liquid crystals (colored in modern times) that when excited by the electrical charge, glow and create the image.
PDP a pile of cells similar to lcd but filled with inert noble gases that when electrically charged turn into plasma which excit's a phosphor coating and gives you your screen.
All of them have horizontal and vertical pixels arranged in a 2 dimensional array. How the image is put on the screen is different.
I suspect you have either an LCD or CRT. Given your response I am leaning towards a crt. If your screen looks like it's got a bunch of cracks in it, it's an LCD, if it looks like everything is off center or slanted but no crack appearance you have a crt.
Assuming a CRT, there should be some Horizontal and vertical adjustment knobs as well as centering and aspect ratio knobs.
On a CRT the image can be moved up and down and left and right to properly center the electon stream.
the H and V adjustment will also adjust if it's lopsided etc.
Thats the only real fix you can cost effectively effect. If it's something more than that, your better off just getting a new monitor as it will be cheaper than fixing a CRT, and if it's an LCD there is no fixing it when you crack it.
THANK YOU! It revived itself some how, but I thank you for the explaination.
WOW! I think I learned more about computer screens in the past 2 minutes than I ever knew. But for future reference that could be helpfull. Thanks ahead of time.