I have a Samsung 940bw monitor that was given to me by a friend. They never mentioned any problems with it. When I turn the monitor on the screen will come on, then it will go black. I can't seem to get the screen to stay visible for more than 2-3 seconds. Please help! I don't know what to try, or if the monitor is trash now. Thanks!

The best option would be to is have it repaired by a professional from Samsung. We may not be able to find the real source of the problems per se, but tinkering inside the monitor's components without ample knowledge with devices may do more hard than good.

Please check the cable on your monitor. Touch them and turn on your monitor to see what happen. Sometimes it is because of loose cable.

Firstly, as stated above, check the power and the video cable - these are common problems and reasonably easy to fix.

Failing that, test the monitor on another machine. If it works correctly, then you know there is a problem with the output of your graphics card - it could be sending an off signal when it shouldn't, for instance.

However, if you have the same symptoms when it is hooked up to another machine then the monitor has an internal fault that can only really be solved by an engineer. Take it from somebody that's tried it - opening a monitor without knowing what you are doing and/or an electrical engineering degree will seldom lead to a positive outcome.