I recently bought a Pentium 3 500Mhz system with no monitor, because I assumed I would be able to connect the system to the monitor I had from an old computer of mine. The connection socket thing looks exactly the same on my old system as the new one, but when i turn the monitor on the light that says AUX tries to start, then dies, and I get a noise from the monitor that sounds like it's turning off, even though the power light remains on. The monitor still works fine with my old system and I really can't see what the problem is. I would REALLY appreciate it if anyone could help because I can't really afford to have bought a useless computer. Thankyou.

Does the computer boot up completely? Is the monitor working? It could be dead, as they have internal switch which only lasts so long (my mate just had his internal switch die on him and it's a 17 inch IBM, several years old only!).

The computer seems to boot up properly. The monitor's power light is on, but a light with the word AUX underneath it (auxiliary?) comes on for a moment, then goes off and the monitor makes a crackly noise as though powering down. My parent's monitor (only 1 or 2 yrs old if that) fails to work either. Thanks for replyin.

Are you using onboard graphics or a video card in this computer?

Oddly enough, I've been having the same problem on a refurbed PIII 500mhz from techsmart. I can't tell if the machine is booting or not, since either the monitor doesn't respond and stays in standby mode, or it switches on for about 5 seconds (not long enough to warm up)and then reverts to standby. I have had the system up and running,and have loaded windows98se plus a bunch of peripherals, but have had this problem off and on every time I need to reboot. Now it seems permanent. I noticed some problems with the real-time clock as I've been working on the computer, so I've been wondering if the CMOS battery is dead/dying and if somehow that has affected BIOS, and the computer is having probs with the plug and play monitor on power saver mode... Yours in misery, Jim

Hmmm... I don't know what CMOS and BIOS are but appreciate the response. Wouldn't it be nice if just once, just ONCE, a computer did what you wanted first time. I would like to own a computer that did not require swearing at.

Ok, I don't think its the monitor now. As I said, it works on my old computer, and I've just discovered that it works on my parent's computer - almost idenical to the one I've just bought. However, the computer I've just got worked fine on the monitor that the guy I bought it off used, so I'm now genuinely confused - can pc monitors just not be compatible with some pc's? If so, why? Also, are there adapters available to alleviate the problem? The scoket the monitor connector goes into is identical to the ones on the other computers... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!