I was sitting here a few minutes ago and all of the sudden the monitor color got lighter(the brightness). I went into the controls for it but nothing had changed. It's not a serious problem but it bugs me because I'm wondering how it could have happened. Everything else seems to be working fine.

:confused:

someone else could have unplugged something in the house that was taking up electricity, that happens with lighted things all the time.

someone else could have unplugged something in the house that was taking up electricity, that happens with lighted things all the time.

I didn't think about that... whatever happened it seems to be back to normal now.

I should also mention that the cable internet modem went out at the same time(lights went off, but the power stayed on) and it took about 5 minutes to reset.

Is your computer still under warranty? If so, you'd have to call tech support and they can send you a new monitor. But, they'll want you to send your non-working monitor back to them. It depends on the company, but it's usually Dell and Gateway that wants non-working stuff returned in exchange for replacements.

Is your computer still under warranty? If so, you'd have to call tech support and they can send you a new monitor. But, they'll want you to send your non-working monitor back to them. It depends on the company, but it's usually Dell and Gateway that wants non-working stuff returned in exchange for replacements.

The monitor works just fine, the brightness just messed up for a few minutes. Seems normal now.

The computer is 2 1/2 years old.

Maybe the voltage went down a bit. It happens sometimes, the lamp dims down and the fan blows air like a hurricane .

you should think about investing in an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) - you can get cheap ones for under $50, if the voltage change made your monitor do that, imagine what it could've done to your computer...

read about them here:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?guideID=1043363098868&categoryRep=cat01000&type=page&cmp=&id=cat12077

It wasn't that... about 10 minutes ago the monitor just shut off without anyone doing anything. It took about 5 minutes and an unplugging completely to fix it.

I think it's going out...

Robyrob, I have a surge protector(is that what your talking about?).

check the cables (make sure they aren't kinked and are plugged in securely) and try plug it in to a different outlet - this could also be a monitor problem, a cable problem or a driver problem. Do you have another computer you could swap monitors with, or extra cables just to see where the problem is?

a UPS is different from a surge supressor in that it actually has a battery in there that you actually run off of that is shielded from the voltage fluctuations on your standard power lines - you can even run off the battery for a short period of time in the event of a power outage.