It definitely sounds like a hardware problem but it's possible that it's not
the monitor but the video card or even something else. Perhaps the video
card is not seated firmly.

When hardware is failing, you often get random problems at boot time. If
the problem is with the software, then you will generally have the same
problem with each boot because if you don't make any changes, the same files
load in the same order each time and should produce the same behavior.

Monitors generally do just fine with generic Windows drivers. You may have
actually had two problems at first if the cable connection was bad on the
old monitor.

Does it make a difference if the computer is warm or cold? There may be a
crack in a circuit board that makes connection when it warms up. Will it
boot consistently into Safe mode?

PattyL


"Mav" wrote in message
...
Hi All,

I have a friend's Gateway PC dumped on me. It had died, and he asked me to
fix it. It turns out, the machine hasn't died, but the monitor had.

I plugged in a new monitor and halfway thru booting, I get an error
message "Protection error. You need to restart your machine".

Occassionally it would boot to Windows 98, but then I would get three or
four BSODs on the trot, then it would just crash.

I fixed the old monitor, and plugged it in - no problem. Started up, shut
down, started up again.

I tried the new monitor again and got exactly the same problems as before.

I have never come across a monitor having such a detrimental effect on
Windows - has anyone else come across this problem, and if so, any
suggestions?

Thanks very much.

Mav