Monitor suddenly goes black with alternating horizonal lines, some thin some wide. Shut off for a while and now the picture is very washed out.

Pls post a snap of the issue

Your plasma screen is made up of 1080 verticle lines and now a few of these lines are not working. This is the screen itself and needs replacing.

Hi,
The black vertical line is caused by a leaking capacitor, Check and replace poped capacitor with a new won and it will work fine again. No worries.
Thanks for using fixya.

It is my guess that you have some intermitent solder connections in the Vertical output circuit.
Hope this helps,
Skyassoc

I have a black vertical line about 3/4" wide with thin border pink, green and blue lines. My cursor runs behind this line but I am unable to find a way to make it just go away?

RAM problem. Fix the RAM properly in the RAM slot.

Sounds like an inverter problem. If the power supply is internal replace the capacitors coming out of the voltage regulators. These are usually 1000mf and/or 470mf. If that doesn't do the trick look up the numbers on the 8-pin chips that drive the secondary transformers on the inverter to see if they are getting the right voltages.
Good Luck!

what is the solution for this? my husband just turned his pc on when we got home and there are line blue lines running up n down in the black

I noticed a bright horizonal line about 1/4 in.wide centered in the middle running from side to side. Audio is fine. This just all of a sudden happened it was not gradual. it is due to vertical section failure. please minimise bright to protect crt. solution. solution 1 check supply to vertical section. 2 check for ic failure in vertical section 3 check vertical output section parts. Is it fixable or dumpable?? Please HELP!!!! yes it is fixable it is common problem not major one. good luck.

your problem is in red video circuit. please get it done with skilled tech.