SyncMaster 204 LCD monitor repair
 

OK, it's hardly vintage, but I thought someone might find this useful.

I picked up a pair of 20" LCD monitor about 5 years ago. A year ago one of them started taking longer and longer to light up - as much as 5 minutes! I assumed it was the CFL backlight, decided it wasn't worth repairing and retired it from service. Luckily, I did hang onto it.

Recently, the second one developed the same problem. This time I asked around and was directed to this website with repair instructions.

I grabbed some tools and dug into one of them. The back was really hard to get off. One I did, I found two bulging, oozing caps.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4110/...11b25e9b_z.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4083/...f44f1309_z.jpg

I replaced them all with low ESR Nichicons. Viola! It works perfectly again :D
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/...bef4265b_z.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4106/...1311e24b_z.jpg

So it wasn't bad CLFs at all - just bad caps!
One down, one to go.

Bad electrolytics in LCD Monitors-TVs and Plasma Sets are keeping a lot of TV shops in business. One local guy says 75% of the time he can fix the set with only caps being replaced - and he does it in the customer's home!
Samsung sets and monitors are about 50% of the repairs he performs, and yet only 10% or so of the market. The local Service Dealers association has a Samsung warranty guy as a member - he confirms that Samsung and LG sets are "all about bad caps" and that heat is the real issue.

Funny how this has all come full circle - old electronics, recap it to get it going. New Electronics? The same.....

Cheers,

Glad you got it going again. I'm still loving the free 21" Samsung I got because it had the same problem.

-J

Yeah, these are some sweet 1600x1200 20" screens :D
I was looking around Micro Center a few days ago and noticed that all but two of the monitors were using 1080p TV panels. That's only 1080 vertical resolution - not so hot for a computer. The two that had 1200 vertical cost considerably more. I guess the TV / computer convergence is alive and well.

According to one vender I talked to it costs less to make a wide screen LCD then a square one because of the way the glass is made.

-J

Same thing happened to me a little while back. Before that it was a Philips/Maggy TV with similar problem.

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=248471