+ Got my pc/monitor fixed!
+ It was fast and free!
+ Happy it's all fixed!
- It was stupidly easy to fix.
- Thought I killed my 10$ monitor I thrifted back before Christmas, 8 days into the new year.
- Had to sit around for 3 days without my computer, using my phone to grab whatever game dailies I could.
...
It's a bit of a long story.
So the thing is, this thrifted monitor is a 2005 Hyundai Image Quest. I love the little thing, it's like my best friend now. (I got a bit of flack due to its age, from the Best Buy I went to get it fixed at...)
I mean, I'd take an old compact 10$ monitor over the placeholder buzzy, broken necked long as heck tv I was using as a monitor. Hated that thing.
Basically, my "new" monitor wouldn't boot right. I'd turn it on, and my cursor would be there, but nothing else. Just black. Somehow, I figured out that if I turned it back off and held shift when booting it back up, it would make everything appear. So I used this for a week or so but didn't like the idea of turning my computer off and on so much.
So I discovered I was booting it into something called safe mode. I decided that if I could just have it boot into safe mode, I wouldn't have to strain it so much with the powering off and on bit. I set it up, restarted the computer and...I couldn't see anything on my screen at all. I mean, even the buttons on the Image Quest weren't working. I thought I killed my best friend. I love this little thing, so to think I inadvertently killed it already was pretty sad.
I just wanted to turn safe mode off, but I couldn't see anything, not even my cursor! I was totally blind visually. I can't drive so 3 days later my bro drove me out I took my PC and monitor to Best Buy's geek squad, after I tried everything I could think of to try and fix it.
First thing I got asked by the lady upfront was "Is that for recycle?"
"No, it's my monitor!"
And the geek squad guy (who later left for lunch so someone else had to get to me) saw it and immediately went "THAT'S ancient."
Like...C'mon man, I know it looks out of place alongside the Victus PC I have. But it's better than what I had. I really wasn't sure if he was poking fun or just being a jerk.
I'm always assuming that people just put others down to feel better, so I get pretty defensive towards backhanded comments like that.
But anyways, the nice lady behind the Geek Squad counter didn't judge, she could tell my monitor meant a lot to me. Turns out all I had to do to fix it was to plug the HDMI cord into the unmarked mystery port in the dead middle of my Victus PC. I didn't know what that port was for, it was unmarked.
This would plug it straight into the graphics card, giving me a more stable experience all together. I must've hit a volume unknown to man the moment my log-in screen appeared. I had to log in behind the counter of course, and it took me a second to retrace my steps to turn off safe mode.
But it was fixed! It was fixed! Oh, I was so happy I hugged the lady, thanking her profusely. I liked the way she put it: "Looks like you're back in the game!" Oh, it was easily one of the best days I've had this year.
...
I'm honestly just glad everything's fixed. And weirdly my Image Quest works like a charm now! No boot problems at all! I wonder if by "breaking it" I inadvertently fixed it. I "bixed" it.
My siblings all moved their HDMI cords into the graphics card port too!
Something like that…
