How does one tell how old a monitor is??

[garhkal]

Today, after 3 weeks since my desktop (an 8+ year old Win 7 clunker) finally bit the dust, i bought a new pc, an ASUS.  BUT my OLD as heck, Microtek C783 monitor doesn't seem to recognize it, OTHER than during the initial boot up (bios area).  PAST that nothing.  The new desktop DOES support HDMI, so i am wondering, if maybe the VGA output, is too 'new tech' for my old monitor to recognize/compatible with.

So how does one go about finding out how old a monitor is?  IIRC i bought this one, when i was stationed in Downtown london, WAYYY back in 2002-03 neck of the woods..  So is that TOO old, for newer pcs??

I wonder, because when i bought it at the store (Best buy), i had it boot up IN THE STORE and do the updates, while hooked up to one of their monitors, USING the HDMI port.. 

[punpusher]

Depends on the manufacturer, but they'll often stamp the manufacture date, along with other info like the model number and all the safety/certification markings, on a sticker on the back of your monitor.

Newegg claims the C783 is from at the latest 2005, and the fact that it's VGA-only seems to corroborate that. That said, monitors are usually plug-and-play, so an HDMI-VGA adapter off Amazon (<$10 here in the States) ought to be enough. It's possible, though, that the Microtek isn't plug-and-play and so requires display drivers that new computers can't recognize.

[VanVelding]

Most peripherals need drivers, software that tells your system how to talk to them. My understanding is that in most cases, modern peripherals have the drivers stored on them or are compatible with Window's built-in, default drivers.

Usually, a manufacturer will have drivers on their website or someone else will dutifully store older drivers on their website at their own expense. I don't see that for yours, but feel free to check.

I say it's probably a driver issue because it works when it's talking to your BIOS, but not your Windows OS. That means it works, but Windows doesn't know how to talk to it. I'd say try to update your Windows. That's easier said than done without a monitor though; if you had a second monitor to do that with, you probably wouldn't need to make this monitor work.

Are you using your old hard drive in your new PC by any chance?

[garhkal]

Nope.  Just got home from the store with a new Asus monitor, plugged it up and i am good to go.  On one of the other sites i asked the question, someone suggested that newer pcs, even if they may have vga connectors, may be pushing out too MUCH of a resolution for my old monitor to have recognized..

[Prospernia]

I would have suggested just going to Goodwill and getting a used-monitor in the mean-time.

[garhkal]

Well, the new monitor works.  BUT for some screwed up reason, NOW My Wi-fi keeps telling me "Connected; no internet", AND Even directly connecting the Lan jack to my regular router, the LAPTOP is working (as i'd not be here typing otherwise), BUT the new desktop is NOT recognizing it is being connected..  ITS getting so frustrating, i am seriously just thinking taking the bloody thing back to the store for a full damn refund.
AND I STILL have no idea even AFTER doing a hard reset on my wi-fi router (got a linksys 21812 external wifi router), that ITS Now for some reason buggering up.  Even moved it a good 3 feet away from the new monitor/desktop, just to ensure there wasn't any issues with THOSE things, causing any interference...

[VanVelding]

I know I sound like I'm repeating myself, but it might be the drivers for the wifi adapter in the new desktop. You can try connecting directly to the router with ethernet cables and checking for updates for the system and wifi driver specifically. You can also search for the wifi adapter's drivers with your laptop and then using a USB to transfer the driver to the new desktop.

I have seen some wifi adapters in one brand which refused to connect with wireless access points. Never figured out why; we just assigned them to commands too small to have WAPs after we learned that replacing the wifi adapters kept them from booting.

[guardiandashi]

I know I sound like I'm repeating myself, but it might be the drivers for the wifi adapter in the new desktop. You can try connecting directly to the router with ethernet cables and checking for updates for the system and wifi driver specifically. You can also search for the wifi adapter's drivers with your laptop and then using a USB to transfer the driver to the new desktop.

I have seen some wifi adapters in one brand which refused to connect with wireless access points. Never figured out why; we just assigned them to commands too small to have WAPs after we learned that replacing the wifi adapters kept them from booting.

it should have been resolved a LONG time ago, but stupid question what are the brands of the wifi devices?

I had a linksys, and netgear wifi routers, and a linksys usb wifi device back in the day.  the linksys router and wifi dongle would consistently work perfectly together.

the issue was the netgear and the linksys dongle would connect but as soon as the encryption key "rotated" (default was 1500 seconds I think) the connection would drop and would not reconnect until I rebooted the router then it would work for ~1500 second and then drop.

as far as I could tell it was an issue with how the different manufacturers incremented the encryption
the white paper said that you were supposed to add 1 to the encryption key.  what seemed to be happening was one manufacturer was adding 1 (counting in binary) so they would get 00000000, 00000001, 00000010, 00000011 etc
the other vender was adding 1 in binary so you got 00000000, 00000001, 00000011, 00000111 etc so 0, and 1 were the same, but after that they would not be using the same numbers

[garhkal]

It was neither.  For some reason, my router being 'set up' right next to the new monitor, was causing some sort of interference..  I moved it barely 2 feet away, and now not only is my Wifi good, but my desktop is recognizing its physical connection to the router.

SO i spent almost 3 hrs, downloading every program i need/want, and copying over all the docs and music/pics, from my laptop to the desktop...
And now its Good to go.!!  Yippiee..