Not sure if this falls under "Old Hardware" since its a computer monitor, but it was made in 2007 if that makes any difference.

I recently visited one of the last remaining mom and pops computer store, they have been around since 1987... i bought a Dell 17" LCD(1708fpt) from 2007 that has both vga and dvi ports, it included the soundbar, power cord and vga cable, like new condition.

I bought it specifically so when i put together older systems, depending on the videocard, i can test both vga and dvi outputs, the only issue was, i got a white screen every single time at bootup, it happend with both the vga and dvi inputs on the monitor, but with either the vga or dvi cable disconnected from the videocard but still to the monitor, the normal black screen with the test color box would float around the screen like it normaly does.

I connected the monitor to three different older self built desktops and one 2010 toshiba laptop, all gave the same white screen issue on bootup and would not go away as if something was wrong with the monitor itself, it was never tested before i bought it, but i did take it back a few days later, the counter guy hooked the monitor up to his working desktop at the counter running windows 7 by the looks of it, and the screen shown perfectly, no idea of the specs, so i was basically stumped.

I took it back home, and for the rest of the week, played around with it, even tried diffent 14pin/15pin vga cables, but i had only one dvi cable, and no matter what i did, it still had the same white screen issue on bootup, so i just returned it earlier today, 30day return, not sold as is. What i have been using in the past to test all my videocards placed in different computers, i bought used off craigslist 15yrs ago, a MAG 17'' lcd(LT782s), vga only with built in speakers that was built in 2004, it has been working flawlessly since the day i bought it and too this day, no matter what computer i've hooked it up to, it just plain worked, every single time.

So my question is this..... could this have been a compatability issue?

Thanks