Nothing Displays on Monitors

Hello,
I help some of the senior citizens here in Florida learn the basics of computers. Of course, I'm not very knowledgeable on problems realated to hardware so I hope someone could possibly answer this question.

I went to one woman's house yesterday as she said her monitor was black and her computer was on. I brought an old monitor of mine over to see if my monitor would work. Well, I hooked it up and it came on for a short time and then slowly went black too. I tried it again after I shut down everything and then it worked for a few minutes and then went black again. The lady said she thinks there was a power surge in our area yesterday and she did have her computer on.

Today another woman called me with a similar problem. When she turns on her computer, the monitor will come on with strange colors and then it will go off with just a line across the top. She did have another working monitor from her husband's computer so we tried his monitor and once again it came on just for a second and then faded away with just a little bit of writing (not distinguishable) and that remained there until we closed down.

My question is, is it the monitor or something in their Towers, such as a video card, etc.

We would like to know if they both need new monitors or if they will have to take the Tower to the repair shop. Both are elderly and don't want to lug them to the repair store unless necessary.

Thanks for your advice.

Jean

 

Hi, thanks for your prompt reply.

I will advise the ladies to take their computers to the repair shop and see if they can find out the problem.

Jean

P.S. At least we know it is not the monitors now.