Flat Screen Monitors

Thread Starter

Duane P Wetick

Joined Apr 23, 2009
440
What's the usual problem when these monitors stop working?
I now have one, my boss has two and most probably everyone will have one or more that have stopped working. Is it worth it to try to fix them...or cheaper to just go out and buy new? (Walmart 21" HD monitor now $159.00).

Cheers, DPW [ Everything has limitations...and I hate limitations.]
 

JDT

Joined Feb 12, 2009
657
Once you have checked the obvious like checking the cables - by substituting a known good monitor - then it's not worth wasting the time!
 

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,764
I use to bring monitors for repair to an EE who has specialized in few things but basically monitors of any kind. He is so good and productive that the only thing he demands is you to call him on the very same day for the diagnostic/quotation and to go and collect them the day after he has them ready to ensure the space he needs for the next ones.

Once I brought him on board of a vessel (I was Supercargo there) to repair one and he managed to fix another two from different marine equipments that were already considered scrap.

He does that for a living. It works for him and us, customers.
 

paulktreg

Joined Jun 2, 2008
833
Backlight and/or invertor failures are common. You think there's no picture but if you look very carefully it's there but very dark. Got any like that?
 

Thread Starter

Duane P Wetick

Joined Apr 23, 2009
440
Is it a commercially available chip that generates the raster? Give some IC data (if you can) that could be useful for guys like me that want to repair rather than buy new. It seems like it is a very common problem, and there will soon be millions of monitors (if not already) then very soon with the same problem.

Cheers, DPW [ Everyone's knowledge is in-complete...Albert Einstein]
 

wiskey six

Joined Sep 18, 2011
3
What's the usual problem when these monitors stop working?
I now have one, my boss has two and most probably everyone will have one or more that have stopped working. Is it worth it to try to fix them...or cheaper to just go out and buy new? (Walmart 21" HD monitor now $159.00).

Cheers, DPW [ Everything has limitations...and I hate limitations.]

Most common problem is under rated caps in the power supply. If this is the problem it is an easy fix. Anything more than that the boards get expensive.
 

electronis whiz

Joined Jul 29, 2010
512
flat panels seem to usily have capproblems due to cheap cap brands. florecent inverters are probly also prety comon. bulbs could burnout i test bulbs using an old inverter from a ccfl bulb from a scaner. this tests the bulbs.
 

2N3055

Joined Oct 18, 2011
7
I have repaired a number of these and found that replacing all the electrolytic caps on the main (power supply) board usually restores the unit to normal. The main input storage cap. is often still ok and can probably be left. The life of electro's is not that great and using 105C temperature types here is important. Maybe turning the monitor off when not in use would also help as these generate quite a lot of heat and thus reduce the lifetime of electro's.
 

Adjuster

Joined Dec 26, 2010
2,148
I wonder how much the reliability / life expectancy of these things varies between brands. Possibly the very cheapest (Walmart?) types may not be the most cost-effective if they are unreliable.

It may be interesting to see what happens to reliability if LED back-light finally displaces CFLs. At least the voltages will be lower, but I suppose with sufficiently cr@ppy cost-reduced design anything can be made to fail.

My eperience with these things has not been too bad so far, but that may just be luck. I wish the same could be said about laptops.
 
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