Turn the monitor on 7 minutes before you want to use it. (This is what I did when I had the same symptom.)

Do your research now so that you can quickly buy another monitor when this one stops working altogether. (I actually replaced the monitor. Then I tried the old one with a laptop and it did not work at all. I was annoyed that the monitor had failed in less than 1 1/2 years, but patted myself on the back for perfect timing on the replacement. )

You haven't given a bundle of information; I am assuming that after the monitor warms up there is no problem if you do a Restart.

 

dell 4550 XP sp3

Assuming your "computer specifications" information is correct, the Dell Dimension 4550 desktop is over 10 years old, so the monitor it's using is probably just as old.

A 17" - 19" non-widescreen LCD monitor would be a good replacement.

Here are a few Dell-branded ones that you can browse through.

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this started all of a sudden it's perfect once it comes on, just takes long to come on

 

Assuming it's the same computer, here is the support site for the Dell Dimension 4550 desktop.
You might want to add and save in your browser favorites/bookmarks list so you can readily refer to it when needed.

Right-click MY COMPUTER, then click Properties - Hardware - Device Manager.
Click the + in Display Adapters.
Advise what the description of the graphics device is.
Double-click that device to open its properties window, then click the Driver tab.
Advise what the driver version and driver date is.

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I'm not a computer tech but i think this is what you want. NVIDIA GeForced MX 420 10/6/03
5.2.1.6 i HAVE THE cd's for this CP. NO yellow ? marks by any device. and no updates and i have the best there is. also the monitor light blinks on & off while i wait for it to come on

 

NVIDIA GeForced MX 420 10/6/03
5.2.1.6

I'm going to assume it's the NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420

Go here, then click the "Download Now" button, then download and save the 93.71_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.exe file.

After it's been downloaded and saved, close all open windows.

Double-click it to start the install process.

If all goes well, it'll update the current graphics driver from 6.14.10.5216 to 6.14.10.9371 and hopefully resolve the monitor issue.

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Monitor was no good ,had to install a new one works fine now.

 

Monitor was no good ,had to install a new one works fine now.

I suspected that, but it didn't hurt anything to update the graphics driver.

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I thank you for your help

 

Did you get a standard screen or a wide screen monitor, and is the computer's NVIDIA graphics providing its native resolution?

Does everything on the screen look normal, or does it look "stretched" and "fat"?

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went to best buy who ck.my old one there. and picked the cheepest one there an AOC 60S/60P WIDE SCREEN But i am not useing it that way i turned the size downlooks a little larger than i had before.
It come on even before i installed the CD so it lookes fine, don't know what you mean. i did not use wide screen only for a couple of min. yes it did looked streched out and fat

 

As I suspected, your Dell Dimension 4550 doesn't provide widescreen resolutions because of the age of its NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 graphics.

That's why I suggested in post #3 that you buy a non-widescreen monitor.

As long as you're using a widescreen monitor with a non-widescreen resolution, everything is going to look stretched horizontally and "fat".

You have 2 options:

Buy a non-widescreen monitor.

Install a video card that supports widescreen resolutions.

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i don't know why the store did not suggest that to me But like i said i'm not useing it as a wide screen.
there is a switch on it to ajust size it's now about 17" and it lookes just right. my cp being old i may
keep it for latter use if i have to get another cp

 

If that new monitor has an adjustment that makes everything look okay to you, that's good.

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