I have a 1996 Acer monitor, and for a while now it dies and goes to half-power. (No, I don’t have Win95 set for “power conservation”.) It comes back if you wiggle the cord that connects the monitor to the power strip, and I’ve tried a different cord, and it still does it, so obviously there’s a short somewhere in the monitor’s plug-in place.
Is this fixable? I don’t really have 200 bucks for a new monitor. Is there something I can spray into the plug-in place that will improve contact? Does the plug-in place need cleaning, or just an “adjustment” with a pair of pliers? Are there any secret chicken-sacrificing rituals that would help?
Give it a little whack when you are using it, does the screen flicker? Then its a loose solder joint. I see them with loose joints all the time. You can open it & resolder all the joints, about 200 or more.
A 1996 monitor is plenty old enough to start dyingg of old age (I’ve had more monitors croak than any other hardware). I’d be inclined to shop for a new one.
But, I’ll mention that some monitor repair shops where I live have a standard (~$65) flat fee for fixing’em - you might look into that in your area. Be damn careful about crackin’ the thing open yourself.
Thanks for the input, folks. I pause here only to mention that the dang thing quit completely about lunchtime–now it won’t even let me wiggle the plug to coax it into going green. So I’ve got the old monitor plugged in (the one that goes with the other computer, the one that’s so old it has Windows 3.1 installed on it), which has no speakers, so we are silent but online.
A “monitor repair shop”? It is to laugh. “Ha ha,” she laughed bitterly. We have no such thing as a “monitor repair shop” in the medium-size Rust Belt town where I live. It’s assumed that the few sissy white-collar “com-PYOO-ter fellas” who live here must be motivated enough to drive to Champaign-Urbana or Springfield to get their “com-PYOO-ters” fixed.
And no way am I ambitious (or foolhardy) enough to crack it open and have a go at resoldering 200 connections. I’m doing well to be able to use a screwdriver to put the kitchen drawer fronts back on when they fall off.
No, I will probably make do with this one and be grateful for small mercies. (namely, that we kept the old computer when we got the new one–little did we suspect, back in 1996, that Bill Gates was not the Messiah, and Windows 95 was not the new Holy Writ.)
I wouldn’t advise anyone to open up a monitor without having some idea of what they’re doing. I used to be a tech and had to open up monitors to replace components. The first task after getting the cover off was to discharge the voltage still held by the flyback transformer. I won’t mention here how this is done, as I wouldn’t want someone to out and try it without proper instruction. Discharging the monitor usually resulted in a quite audible release of electricity. Other components, such as the power supply board can still contain large amounts of juice even after the monitor had been properly discharged, and so substantial care still must be taken when working on the components. Once, while working on a monitor, I had a screwdriver blown out of my hand even though the monitor had been properly discharged. Insulation of tools is critical. Working on some components, the practice is to work with one of your hands in your pocket so as to not inadvertently complete a circuit using your body as the closing link.
In regards to the OP, I would start watching the classifieds. Older computer stuff goes up for sale regularly, and since components tend to depreciate quite quickly, an older, but serviceable, monitor can usually be found for quite cheap.
Hmm… I have an Apple 13" RGB monitor (Sony Trinitron) plugged into my linux server. It’s been in pretty much continuous use since about 1988 when I bought it. It’s working fine. I have another 19" Sony monitor I bought around 1994. I recalibrate it occasionally to see if it has any color drift over time. It hasn’t changed a bit since I bought it.
A monitor that is only 4 years old should NOT be “dying of old age.” If you buy cheap crap like Acer, you are buying an inferior product that will die before it is supposed to. Next time, buy a quality product, like something based on a Sony Trinitron or a Mitsubishi Diamondtron tube. It will cost a bit more, but it will last 3 or 4 times longer. Your monitor will still be usable long after your PC is obsolete.
To address your specific problem, it sounds like a power supply problem. I admonish you, do NOT open up a monitor and service it on your own. Take it to a repair facility. A certified technician knows how to drain the massive high voltages in the CRT without risk, if you don’t do this, you are likely to be killed if you poke around in a monitor with tools. I used to be a certified tech at an Apple dealer, I know the procedures, but I absolutely refused to work inside monitors. I got the other techs to do those repairs.
The Seiko CM-1430 (license-built trinitron) I bought in 1989 is still going, but I’ve had two other trinitrons (Gateway Vivitron) die at age five while another didn’t quite make it to age two (that one was fortunately replaced under warranty). My Nanao Flexscan (frankly, I don’t remember what is was besides very pricey in its day) lasted six years. And I had three trinitrons, in a row, no less, arrive from the factory in unuseable condition. My (stress the my) experience has been monitors die more often than anything else.
My last five purchases have been Viewsonics (once again trinitrons - I do like the color) and I hope they’ve got long legs. Whoops, I forgot the one I’m looking at now which is an approximately 18 month old no-name; for what I paid for it I won’t be crying if it croaks in another 6 months or so (I won’t exactly be happy, either).
Thank you once again to everybody offering advice. I promise on my mother’s mouse mat not to try to open it up and fix it myself. I have now officially handed it over to the Better Half, whose DNA has kicked in, persuading him that Real Men Know How To Fix Monitors. So far, all he has done is, he has hooked it up to the Old Computer in the living room, and while watching X-Men with Bonzo, has been tinkering with the plug-in place with a pair of needle-nose pliers. He says it’s fixed. Hmm.
Me, I plan on making do for a while with this Old Monitor and watching the newspaper and Best Buy ads. Monitor prices can only come down, right?
FYI I open a lot of monitors. It’s pretty easy, unscrew them & the back comes off. Then I can easily see in the back the focus button & the screen brightness thingy. Like a garbage disposal, one should do this preferable when the unit is off.
Handy, I have to repeat what others have said: DON’T assume that your monitor is safe just because the power is off and it’s unplugged. The tube in your monitor can store enough juice to knock you on your ass, and can hold that charge sometimes for months after the thing is unplugged.
When you discharge a monitor, you can hear an audible SNAP, and sometimes the current arc will burn a divot in your screwdriver.
If you’re not an electronics tech, don’t open up a monitor. A monitor recovered from a garbage and opened without plugging it in can still kill you, or at least give you a nasty electrical burn.
No, it is preferable to do this while you are heavily insured, and have paramedics standing by. Turning the set off has NOTHING TO DO with draining the stored voltage from the tube. If you don’t believe me, just touch the side of the tube itself, right where the wires come out. It will probably kill you, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
A CRT can store tens of thousands of volts, and can retain the charge for YEARS. The only safe monitor to work on is one that has the charge drained out of it. I’m trained in this procedure and even I won’t do it, I still think it’s too dangerous. Have you ever been hit with 35,000 volts? I have, it is no fun. Fortunately this was a low-amperage experiment in a laboratory, so I wasn’t killed. You are tempting fate to work on monitors the way you describe.
