Black screen when starting

[sigra42]

Problem:
Sometime starting PC screen continue black; monitor LED
yellow - OFF, pressing RESTART button = the same; using
system floppy = the same, changing video card = the same.
After disconnecting PC, cleaning BIOS (pins 1-2, 2-3, 1-2)
and/or disconnecting and replacing memory chips screen
will working but another day ones again off. Some day
after pressing a lot of times RESTART working again but
not ever.
PC details:
Own build year 2000
OS Windows 98 SE
Generic Athlon motherboard
Processor AMD MMX Athlon 600MHz (3x200)
Chipset 750-Irongate
Memory 2x 128MB SDRAM
Video card ATI Rage 128 Expert, ATI All In Wonder 128
Sound card SoundBlaster AWE 64 Gold
Monitor Gateway EV500
(With other OS the same problem)

[Travis Swift]

The problem is probably with the monitor. It could have a
faulty power or VGA cable. Also, but I doubt it, could be
your power saving features. Win98 supports ACPI, and this
allows the PC to send the monitor into standby mode (no
picture, yellow LED).

Also, when the VGA cable comes loose or is damaged, the
monitor won't get a signal, and will go into power saving
mode automatically (ie no pic, yellow LED).

If the cable IS broken, you COULD repair it yourself
(which is what I did) but unless you find soldering 15
little wires to a new cable fun, you're much better off
upgrading to a newer and better (bigger) monitor.