[CNBarnes]

I am the sysadmin for a department on our campus. I support (among other things) an office staff of around 10 users, who all have identical computers - Dell Optiplex 755 w/ a 2408 monitor. Running Vista Enterprise (32 bit).

I have something weird happening on just 1 of these: at random times (meaning I cannot duplicate the problem at will) the monitor will go completely black ... except for the cursor. I can move the cursor around the screen just fine. The hard disk does not seem to be doing anything abnormal (meaning I don't think there is anything running amok in the background).

The power settings are set to "maximum performance". Sleep mode and "Turn monitor off" are both set to "never".

Hitting alt-cntl-delete does not bring up Task manager (or maybe it does - I just can see it).
Powering the monitor off then back on doesn't do anything.

After messing with a bunch of things, unplugging the monitor from the back of the computer brings the picture back - but at the lowest possible resolution (the user normally runs at maximum resolution).


Ideas?

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More info.

I was able to force it to go black - by hitting alt-cntl-del (like I would do if I was going to lock the workstation). I tried it on a different computer and the screen goes black for a second, then displays a menu. On this machine, the menu never gets displayed.

Unplugging the vga cable and plugging it back in brought the picture back again (but again, at a really odd resolution).

[CNBarnes]

More info.

I was able to force it to go black - by hitting alt-cntl-del (like I would do if I was going to lock the workstation). I tried it on a different computer and the screen goes black for a second, then displays a menu. On this machine, the menu never gets displayed.

Unplugging the vga cable and plugging it back in brought the picture back again (but again, at a really odd resolution).