When LCD monitors go bad.

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tdowning

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So I have an old Sony TFT LCD monitor. It's 10 years old, (I still have the receipt with the manual.) My parents were using it with their computer, a Dell Optiplex 745, with a low-profile Radeon X1300/X1500 card (according to device manager) via DVI.

They have been complaining of it briefly and seemingly randomly going blank/black. I had a spare Dell monitor, that I put on their computer. now several days later, they haven't seen the same issue with the new monitor. On the other hand, the Sony is now attached as a secondary monitor to my home-built gaming PC, (Radeon HD5770 FWIW) and I haven't seen this problem either. (I did see it happen once while connected to the Dell)

I've dealt with failed laptop displays before, and the culprit was usually pretty obvious, either cracked, no video signal, no backlight, or odd missing rows/columns, (like every 1st gen gameboy seemed to eventually get)

so, my questions for the hive-mind are as follows:

1. Have you ever had a desktop LCD monitor for 10+ years

2. Is it still in use

2a. If yes how old is it now.

2b. if no, was it retired still in working condition, or had it failed, and how did it fail?

Unless I see similar glitching I would have to assume that the issue has to do with one of the following:

1. the incoming electrical power from the battery back-up, (although I'm using the exact same model on my computer) or the power cable itself, (I have seen one bad power cable, although that computer's symptom was a complete refusal to power up at all, e.g. open conductor)

2. The DVI cable, and/or the splitter cable coming off of the video card. (card has one connector, same size as DVI but 4 rows of pins, has two standard DVI-I ports on the other end) and maybe it's bent a little differently now, so the flaky conductor in the cable isn't acting up.

3. Some amount of aging/wear in the power supply has caused the monitor to need a better/stronger video or timing signal to stay locked on, which my HD5770 can provide.

4. The computer is sending some kind of reset signal to the monitor, that the new monitor is ignoring

do you have any other theories?

Thanks for your help,

Tim D.
 
Not to be facetious. But you're on [H]ard. And keeping the same LCD screen for 10 years is just softcore....

I'm assuming the colours temperature will shift with age and the max luminance will decrease. Power supply shouldn't be an issue, either it works or it doesn't. Maybe it buzzes, but that's about it.
 
My first suspicion with a 10 year old monitor would be failing electrolytic capacitors on the monitor's power supply board, an easy fix.

And I would take issue with the first reply, keeping aged hardware in service is indeed [H]ard in its own way.
 
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tdowning said:
1. Have you ever had a desktop LCD monitor for 10+ years
Click to expand...

I passed down a pair of 17" Dell Ultrasharps (SXGA) to my mom and sister. They're turning 10 y.o. and still work. And I still have a pair of 20" Dell Ultras (WSXGA) that are turning 8 y.o. next year. One's docked to a laptop, the other to a LaserDisc player. One's fine, the other's showing power supply issues. (random on/off, similar to what you're reporting)

I've seen *much* older LCD panels at work, and most still work fine. They're not as bright that's for sure- but they're still usable.
 
Used a samsung syncmaster 226bw for 8+ years (which was on most the day) that started to take time displaying... was 2 min then 10 min.... screen would strobe but eventually took to long and i gave up and got another one. Could change 5-7 caps on the board to get it up again.... (i was lucky i didn't get the first year caps problem like some people ,a samsung syncmaster 226bw)
 
maboblivion said:
Used a samsung syncmaster 226bw for 8+ years (which was on most the day) that started to take time displaying... was 2 min then 10 min.... screen would strobe but eventually took to long and i gave up and got another one. Could change 5-7 caps on the board to get it up again.... (i was lucky i didn't get the first year caps problem like some people ,a samsung syncmaster 226bw)
Click to expand...

I'm using a 226BW right now for this, bought it in 2007. The display itself is surprisingly doing just as well as when I bought it. Haven't touched the brightness in years, but my calibrator says it is right on target. The power button has been glitching the last two years; sometimes when I press it, it activates one of the other buttons instead. :confused:

I have a 10 year old Samsung 17" that I use for my rack servers and Pentium II, it's crap for quality compared to anything else I have, but aside from stiffening plastic buttons, it works on a wide variety of systems, though it has occasionally had problems detecting a DVI signal (have to pound on the input selector a few times to get it to try again), generally a sign of the parts wearing out. Always gets a VGA signal though, did you try to use the VGA input with it?
 
I have an old Dell 2005FPW that is 9 years old and still working. The only issue its had so far is the bezel on one side cracked on its own many years ago.
 
I have a Dell 20" Ultrasharp that was past down to my wife 4 years ago and is at least 8 years old that I had to retire recently from every day use. I use it now on my server and as a "new build" monitor as anytime it's awake it produces a high pitch squeal that was driving her crazy. I only hear this squeal intermittently (killed my hearing many years ago mixing sound board for a band) and the colors are still great so it works for these applications as it is asleep most of the time.
 
Re: Caps: yeah, that was what I was figuring, as it's about the only solid-state component that "ages" in any significant way.

Re: VGA Haven't tried that yet, as it's still rock solid on my gaming computer with DVI.

Mom and dad seem happy with their current monitor, (My former spare Dell 22") so my inclination is to use the Sony for the time being with my Windows 10 preview machine, until I can get another off-lease Dell like the one they're using now.

FWIW, my current monitor is a Dell 2408WFP, and is about 6 years old, and still painfully bright at anything above 5 of 100. (when I got it I couldn't stand anything above 0 of 100. I do have sensory issues and one of the worst is having bright lights shining in my face.)

When I got my current one, I paid top dollar for 1920x1200 in an IPS display to replace a 21" Dell (Rebadged Sony era) that was 10 years old and was a $1000 upgrade with a Pentium II machine. it lasted about 10 years, and I expect this LCD will last at least that long
 
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