Hardware failure at home.. :(

[joedowdle]

So my monitor is going/gone bad and I unintentionally made it work.  I narrowed it down to most likely be the inverter and found that I could buy a replacement for ~$50 shipped.  Not too bad considering it'd be nearly $200 to replace my 24" LCD with something comparable.  Now the worse... after unplugging the power cord from everything I unintentially shorted across a capacitor... there is a partially blown off trace, the fuse is bad, and who knows what else.  Now I can order a replacement power board as well for another ~$50 shipped - but now I'm not sure if the short could have damaged the main board where the DVI/HDMI/VGA comes in.

Ugh... now I'm just sitting here debating to just buy a new monitor or order the replacement parts... The monitor is at least 5-6 years old anyway... I hate when stuff goes bad and then I make it worse.

</rant>

[johnsold]

Sorry.

When you figure the value of your time, even at home, it probably now makes sense to replace.  Charge the cost to: Expensive Lessons Learned.

Lynn

[jcarmody]

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@joedowdle wrote:

So my monitor is going/gone bad and I unintentionally made it work.  [...]

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I correctly read the first sentence and thought "Cool!" and didn't finish reading, so Lynn's response didn't make sense to me.  I re-read the OP and started thinking about the IBM ThinkPad I have at home that appears to have a bad inverter.  I better make a backup before attempting to fix it.  😛

[joedowdle]

If only the typo had more truth to it, haha.  My brother has an extra monitor that he doesn't use at the moment.  It's only a 17" one, but at least I'll have something for the time being.

[Wayne.C]

joedowdle,

:Software hat off, hardware hat on:

Given that you blew a trace of the board with it unplugged from the wall, I'll assume that you dumped a fairly large capacitor.  Usually when you dump that much energy other components are damaged.  Many times semiconductor devices are damaged/compromised yet appear to function normaly.  Only to fail a couple of weeks down the road.  I would would buy the new monitor, a case of your favorite cold beverage and enjoy the new view.

:Hardware hat off, software hat on:

[pallen]

I used to fix monitors (and other consumer electronics) back when they were still CRTs.

Typically the power circuitry is well isolated from everything else.  However if you've shorted one of the main filter caps to a low voltage line, it's hard to guess from here what might have taken the hit. 

If you could just jump-wire the broken trace and replace the blown parts with scavenged ones then the repair would probably be worth while.  But if you have to spend a quarter of the replacement cost for only one damaged component when there could be others...well unless you really like the smell of solder I would consider replacing the entire unit. 

[altenbach]

We've tossed numerous LCD monitors from various manufacturers in the past that had failed power supply circuits due to the famous capacitor plague.

The first thing I do is typically looking for bulged electrolytic capacitors.

(Well, they were relatively low resolution and dated, so it was time to replace them anyway.)

[GregFreeman]

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@altenbach wrote:

We've tossed numerous LCD monitors from various manufacturers in the past that had failed power supply circuits due to the famous capacitor plague.

The first thing I do is typically looking for bulged electrolytic capacitors.

(Well, they were relatively low resolution and dated, so it was time to replace them anyway.)

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It's funny you say this. I recently had an LCD monitor on my desk and I started to smell something similar to burning plastic. I looked up and the thing was SMOKING out of the top! I smelled burning plastic due to the fact that plastic actually was burning...I guess that makes sense.

Another one of my coworkers had recently had a monitor go due to capacitor plague, so I didn't bother looking into it, I just marked it off as the same thing. He, being more ambitious than I, fixed his own by simply replacing the cap. I, on the other hand, went straight into the storage closet to look for another to use until I was able to buy a new one.

[joedowdle]

Wow, that is pretty good... smoking LCD.  Can't say I've seen that before.  I haven't had to buy an LCD for several years and I'm the type that sits there and finds the "perfect" unit for me (regardless of what I'm buying).  I probably over research nearly everything before I purchase it, haha.

[GregFreeman]

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@joedowdle wrote:

Wow, that is pretty good... smoking LCD.  Can't say I've seen that before.  I haven't had to buy an LCD for several years and I'm the type that sits there and finds the "perfect" unit for me (regardless of what I'm buying).  I probably over research nearly everything before I purchase it, haha.

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Be careful, the technology will be out of date by the time you make a decision .