SyncMaster 204 LCD monitor repair

[bandersen]

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.


I replaced them all with low ESR Nichicons. Viola! It works perfectly again


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