I've had my comp for 5 years the oonly thing i've had to change were my memory card and my hard drive. Last night i came home and to my dismay the monitor was on the fritz. I spent 2 hrs finding out what was wrong and came up blank. This morning I rembered something some one once told my about television screens "they constantly refresh" how do ii draw similiarities between the two? Simple the use the same technology: Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). you may be interested to know these points: 1) Turning up the brightness and or contrast too high on your monitor shortens it's life span. 50/40 is high enough. 2)The monitor's refresh rate should be as low as possiable 60 hrtz is good. Keep the monitor ventaliated (Unless u r filthy rich then you can afford to buy one every two yrs)