Dell Desktop showing black screen

[ckfulk]

Please help! Ok my computer worked fine lastnight...got up this morning and turned it on. Lights came on sounded like it was running except monitor was showing blank. Thought is was monitor went out and bought a new one....same thing happening. Any ideas? It's a Dell Dimension C521.

[Allan]

Do the lights on the display indicate it is receiving a signal from the computer? Do you have a spare video card you can try? Did anything unusual happen before you shut down the system last night?

[ckfulk]

No nothing happened. It did this 2 weeks ago and I unhooked everything and just let it sit because I didn't have time to mess with it...when I plugged everything back in it worked fine..then shut it off and got up and it was blank again. All lights are on computer, and the monitor goes on safe mode after 5 minutes. I don't have a extra video card. But I wanted to see if that was the problem before I ran out and bought one. Are they hard to put in?

[Allan]

No, it's not difficult at all. Make sure you can return the card in case that's not the problem.

[ckfulk]

Ok thank you so much!

[Allan]

sure

[truenorth]

ckfulk,Had exactly this same problem today. If you have more than one ram stick try removing all of them then reinstall them one at a time. Obviously if the 1st one you reinstall still doesn't change anything don't leave it in.truenorth