IMac monitor goes dark; 2nd monitor ok

I have a dual monitor setup on my iMac (2009) running Snow Leopard (10.6.8). The iMac monitor had been working great, but now it goes to a black screen. I am able to access it briefly (for about a second) by lightly pressing the power button on the back. The iMac monitor flashes on briefly when I do this and I'm able to quickly click on user. I used this same method to open Settings and drag it over to the 2nd monitor to change the display setting to Mirror mode, so I'd have access to the dock on the 2nd monitor (Dell 2007WFP).
I have tried the following so far:
     checked cables
     restarted by powering off, pressing on/off button for 5 seconds, unplugging for 15 seconds.
     booted in Safe Mode
     reset PRAM (I believe this was reset, but I don't know for sure because I couldn't see anything on the monitors.)
Other information:
     2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
     8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
     NVIDIA GeForce 9400
Thank you in advance for help with this issue!

Replacing FBDIMMs would be today inexpensive and worth doing.
No one knows if heat is an issue without your using thermal sensor monitor. Probably want to up the default fan speeds while at it.
And because you don't have Lion+ then even more reason to setup a small maintenace volume on another drive with OS X basic system for repairs. In fact you should always have a bootable backup or two you can rely on.
Restarting may work, or it may be you have now new issue with corrupt fies or directory that a safe boot even is no guarantee of fixing.
When in doubt, try a clean new OS install on another drive.
And FBDIMMs: $25 for a 2x2GB set on Amazon.com
You want to get the most out of what you have, a small investment in RAM, maybe recycle those drives for 2-4TB units. And an SSD will have system responding better and perform better.
My guess, the 5870 wasn't needed and was overkill and a 5770 for almost half would have been more than adequate.

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Replacing FBDIMMs would be today inexpensive and worth doing.
No one knows if heat is an issue without your using thermal sensor monitor. Probably want to up the default fan speeds while at it.
And because you don't have Lion+ then even more reason to setup a small maintenace volume on another drive with OS X basic system for repairs. In fact you should always have a bootable backup or two you can rely on.
Restarting may work, or it may be you have now new issue with corrupt fies or directory that a safe boot even is no guarantee of fixing.
When in doubt, try a clean new OS install on another drive.
And FBDIMMs: $25 for a 2x2GB set on Amazon.com
You want to get the most out of what you have, a small investment in RAM, maybe recycle those drives for 2-4TB units. And an SSD will have system responding better and perform better.
My guess, the 5870 wasn't needed and was overkill and a 5770 for almost half would have been more than adequate.

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https://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?resultTypes=&dateRange=all&peopleEnabl ed=true&q=monitor+blanking+mac+mini&containerType=&container=&containerName=&use rname=&rankBy=date&numResults=15
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http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/
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http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatpro/
Forget trying o Upgrade for now... or maybe forever.

MOVED: Adding a Flat Screen Monitor as a 2nd Monitor to an Integrated Motherboard/Video

This topic has been moved to AMD64 boards.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=162308.0

onboard unless its a very new skew wont use 2 monitor outs only one so like XFM sead you need a dedicated GPU (graphics card) that supports 2 screens out or greater!
most graphics cards from 2005 onwards support multi-monitor outputs. i always recomend a dedicated card over intigrated anyday, as they have more processing power and better features then the basic stuff on a cpu or intigrated GPU!

Adding a Flat Screen Monitor as a 2nd Monitor to an Integrated Motherboard/Video

Hi,
I am using a GeForce 6150SE nforce 430. It is integrated into an MSI motherboard (K9N6PGM2 v2) using an AMD CPU. The motherboard only has one VGA plug. What are my alternatives for adding a DVI plug for a flat screen monitor to run at the same time as my VGA monitor?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

onboard unless its a very new skew wont use 2 monitor outs only one so like XFM sead you need a dedicated GPU (graphics card) that supports 2 screens out or greater!
most graphics cards from 2005 onwards support multi-monitor outputs. i always recomend a dedicated card over intigrated anyday, as they have more processing power and better features then the basic stuff on a cpu or intigrated GPU!

IMac monitor goes dark; 2nd monitor ok

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