I went on vacation. Came home. LCD monitor was very dim. I could turn off, then turn on the monitor to get a second of normal viewing before it went dim again. I thought this may be some sort of recent problem (hoping my monitor hadn't crapped out), so I tried a system restore, having to switch the monitor on and off frequently to see what I was doing. Anyway, after the restore I had gotten to the login page (with the different user accounts) and stepped away for a few moments. When I came back the screen was still dark, so I turned off the computer and switched out to an old CRT monitor I have. When I tried starting up, the computer went through everything normal, but after the little blue thing scrolled across the bottom a few times on the splash screen, my comp would restart--going back to the motherboard screen and into a continuous loop of this until I shut it down. I tried a repair with the XP cd I have, but came up with BSOD-- BAD_POOL_CALLER 0x000000c2 (0x00000043, 0xc55D0000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000). I then tried installing XP onto an old hard drive that I installed into the comp, setting the original as a slave. This allowed me to at least see most of my stuff on the original drive, but I can't get into some of my files as they are under a password protected account (I keep getting access denied). Some of these files are irreplaceable and would at the VERY least like to be able to access these files so I can back them up and do a fresh install. Ideally I would like to be able to fix the original install so I can get back up to normal running order. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Solved the problem. I took ownership of the files that were protected through safe mode, backed up and did a fresh install. Monitor is still screwy though.
Anyone know the average life expectancy for an LCD? I'm just wondering if maybe mine was past it's prime -- about 2 1/2 years old. I may just get it repaired or save up and upgrade. The CRT will work for now in a pinch.

Glad you got the 1st problem sorted out Dropmurphy :thumbs:

As for the LCD monitor.... I can't remember the exact name of it but there is a separate power regulator for the backlight on an LCD monitor. It sound as if yours could be on it's way out. Depending on the make of the monitor, it could cost an awful lot to repair. I had the same problem on a laptop last year and the insurance company told me it was going to cost over £350 to repair :?

I'm not sure if this is relevent to the life of an LCD but Sony offer 5 year guarantees on theirs, 3 on site 2 off at no extra cost.

Originally Posted by Vidster

Glad you got the 1st problem sorted out Dropmurphy :thumbs:

As for the LCD monitor.... I can't remember the exact name of it but there is a separate power regulator for the backlight on an LCD monitor. It sound as if yours could be on it's way out. Depending on the make of the monitor, it could cost an awful lot to repair. I had the same problem on a laptop last year and the insurance company told me it was going to cost over £350 to repair :?

Ugh, at that price it would be cheaper to buy a new (and at this point, better) monitor. I've got a Samsung SyncMaster 153T. It was much less than that to start, so I would imagine the cost would be lower. Possibly the fact that your problem was in a laptop would increase the cost as well. Still going to look into it, but there's not much hope on this end for the old one. Oh, well....

I had one go on me last year on an old laptop. The repair would have been almost £400. Luckily i was insured.
There is a chance it can be repaired though Dropmurphy. That would be a lot less money