Sony CRT dying, any ideas?

oldmanbal

oldmanbal

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 27, 2010
Messages
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Been using my backup E540 for competitive gaming lately and it seems to be on its last legs. The screen turns on, but seconds later it flashes either red with wavy lines through it, or to a white screen with bands on the sides of the screen, then I must turn it off or it will power down. When the issue arose if i turned it on and off once or twice it would just work, and I could use it for hours (or days) without it shutting off, once it was 'on and working', there were no problems at all. This issue slowly increased the number of times I had to turn it on and off until it stayed on, until it was taking dozens of attempts of off and on until it stayed. Now it looks like I can't get it to stay on despite patiently switching it off and on for about an hour today. Does anyone have any experience with these or advice?

Secondly, the closest CRT professional repair dude I can find is a few hours away and prolly 100$ round trip just for shipping with a local courrier service. He said he could fix my fw-900 as well, so I'd probably just send that down since it's really my favorite gaming monitor all time.

Is there anything I can do to service the E540 that still sorta works but is on its last legs myself? Would like to get another week or two out of it as I really don't like the LCD I have for gaming.

Third, anyone recently moved from a decent CRT gamer to an LED/LCD/OLED that they are really satisfied with? I know many people are gaming at 144hz on led's/lcd's to mimic the normal smoothness of a CRT. Any recommendations for a top tier gaming monitor for 2019 would be appreciated. As an aside - I use both Nvidia and AMD cards so it doesn't matter the type of sync. Would prolly have to focus on something at 1080 or 1440 to get enough fps for a smooth experience. (Am using 2080ti or R VII)

Thanks in advance!
 
I have one of these: https://www.samsung.com/us/computin...ming-monitor-with-quantum-dot-lc24fg73fqnxza/

Pros:
+ Good motion clarity, especially when ULMB is on
+ Decent motion clarity even with it off
+ SRGB mode is accurate
+ Decent contrast with 2.2 gamma

Cons:
- Cannot adjust backlight in ULMB mode. It's way too bright. Lowering Contrast lowers the peak white but you get crushed contrast as a result. Still of note that even when Contrast is reduced so that the monitor isn't too bright, I still measured about 1300:1 contrast, which is still better than most IPS displays. But in my mind this brings it too close to IPS while having the draw backs of VA
- Contrast isn't really that great for a VA. It's under 3000:1. I have a Viewsonic that's rated at 3000:1 static contrast, and it bests its rating. I measured 3200:1.

I was looking at getting one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/AOC-C24G1-Frameless-DisplayPort-Adjustable/dp/B07GD7H18F

This monitor doesn't have quite the accurate SRGB mode that the Samsung has, but it does allow you to adjust the backlight duty in ULMB mode. Meaning, you can adjust the light output of ULMB mode.

So yes, you do have options. I'm still using my Sony GDM-C520K daily. :)
 
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l88bastard said:
wait for oled
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Keep waiting then.

VA gaming panels are here now, and they're more than adequate. Even with my Samsung's fatal flaw, I still liked every other aspect of the monitor good enough to consider giving the AOC panel a shot.

I say this as I type this answer out on an Artisan, and have owned a GDM-F520 and a pristine GDM-FW900. No, they're not as good as CRT, but they're close enough to be worthy of consideration.
 
DanNeely said:
That was an option when oldmanbal's CRT was still in good health. With it appearing to be circling the drain now he needs a currently available monitor; not a OLED that we've been waiting for for years and which still doesn't have an ETA.
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OLED PC Monitors are always just a "few years away". :)
 
yeah i'm still debating on dropping a pile of money on a serviceable lcd, or just spending a few hundred on the fw-900. Might end up doing both, since I just can't give up on the CRT feel.
 
oldmanbal said:
yeah i'm still debating on dropping a pile of money on a serviceable lcd, or just spending a few hundred on the fw-900. Might end up doing both, since I just can't give up on the CRT feel.
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The AOC panel I linked you to is only $200 from Amazon. Surely that's worth a try?
 
Sounds like degraded electrolytic capacitors. They're an easy fix for under $20. Could also be some broken solder joints if you're getting odd colors flashing -- another easy fix that requires just a soldering iron.

Also, no digital display is as fast as a CRT, since the CRT has zero (actually <1µs) input latency and response time. Gaming on anything else requires an adjustment period for your reflexes to adapt. Even some high end 144Hz 1ms response time monitors have a 10ms or more input latency due to image processing.
 
w1retap said:
Sounds like degraded electrolytic capacitors. They're an easy fix for under $20. Could also be some broken solder joints if you're getting odd colors flashing -- another easy fix that requires just a soldering iron.

Also, no digital display is as fast as a CRT, since the CRT has zero (actually <1µs) input latency and response time. Gaming on anything else requires an adjustment period for your reflexes to adapt. Even some high end 144Hz 1ms response time monitors have a 10ms or more input latency due to image processing.
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Yeah, if OP's feeling up to it, he can recap some boards.
 
w1retap said:
Sounds like degraded electrolytic capacitors. They're an easy fix for under $20. Could also be some broken solder joints if you're getting odd colors flashing -- another easy fix that requires just a soldering iron.

Also, no digital display is as fast as a CRT, since the CRT has zero (actually <1µs) input latency and response time. Gaming on anything else requires an adjustment period for your reflexes to adapt. Even some high end 144Hz 1ms response time monitors have a 10ms or more input latency due to image processing.
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I have played on high end lcd panels, first enjoying the rich tones of ips, before sacrificing visual fidelity for a fast response, but ended up selling them off and going back to crt. For some reason I always imagine the tech will have just sorted things out when I get back to it, but I've been checking every 3 years since around 2006 and deal with the same sad facts everytime. I'll send you a pm when i get some pictures of my monitors and maybe you can lend an eye. Or if anyone knows a good crt repair forum i can lurk on till I'm up to speed.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
The AOC panel I linked you to is only $200 from Amazon. Surely that's worth a try?
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I bought a 24" aoc once several years ago when I was testing lcd panels and unfortunately it was one of the worst panels I had ever seen. There was severe light bleed on three of the four edges along the panel bezel, color banding through different regions, including patches of light and darkness that were uneven across the 4 zones. The 'center' of the color tuning (where you would have best neutral view of a TN panel) was almost impossible to sit in front of steadily and any straying off that line/level immediately created off tones of yellows/reds/and greens. It wasn't a 'cheap' panel at the time so I was turned off pretty severely. I remember when I brought it back to return it, They took it out of the box, plugged it in, and asked me, 'why are you returning this it works'. XD

However I wouldn't mind checking AOC out again, I know companies can change, and often get their panels from the next best up. I have some friends that game on them for cs go and the like. Thank you for the suggestion.
 
oldmanbal said:
I have played on high end lcd panels, first enjoying the rich tones of ips, before sacrificing visual fidelity for a fast response, but ended up selling them off and going back to crt. For some reason I always imagine the tech will have just sorted things out when I get back to it, but I've been checking every 3 years since around 2006 and deal with the same sad facts everytime. I'll send you a pm when i get some pictures of my monitors and maybe you can lend an eye. Or if anyone knows a good crt repair forum i can lurk on till I'm up to speed.
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An excellent resource for CRT repair is "The CRT Collective" on Facebook. Some of those people on there are like savants and can diagnose a problem just by a vague description: https://www.facebook.com/groups/444560212348840/
 
i have seen some very usefull facebook groups regarding some various topics, so you may create an account and try to join. you may create an specific account for that (i just joined there and there are recent post by people selling fw900s that might interest you for example)

also i would like to ask you, since you say you use a RTX 2080 TI which is known to have only digital video outputs and you use CRT monitors, what DAC adapter are you using for this? what resolutions you use and are you having any specifics issues with this?

you may also ask in the official fw900 thread, there or link this thread there, there are users that post there who seem to have strong knowledge on CRT electronics that may not know about this thread. in fact, i just recenly discovered it by accident even though it was created past wednesday
 
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w1retap said:
Sounds like degraded electrolytic capacitors. They're an easy fix for under $20. Could also be some broken solder joints if you're getting odd colors flashing -- another easy fix that requires just a soldering iron.

Also, no digital display is as fast as a CRT, since the CRT has zero (actually <1µs) input latency and response time. Gaming on anything else requires an adjustment period for your reflexes to adapt. Even some high end 144Hz 1ms response time monitors have a 10ms or more input latency due to image processing.
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Most TN or IPS 144 Hz monitors have an input latency of 3-5 ms. The hold time of a single frame at 144 Hz is about 6.94 ms.
 
Yeah, I don't remember what the reviews state, but my Samsung (CFG-73) had very low latency too. Mind you, I'm no professional gamer. But I couldn't perceive the lag difference between it and my CRT. And to remind, I still use my CRT on a daily basis. :)
 
Armenius said:
Most TN or IPS 144 Hz monitors have an input latency of 3-5 ms. The hold time of a single frame at 144 Hz is about 6.94 ms.
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Hence why I said "some" from the tests I've seen on blurbusters and rtings, it varies by model, manufacturer, from 3ms-15ms input latency.. then of course you have to add on top of that the gsync scanout time of 6.94ms for 144Hz, which is a function of the graphics card to the monitor for maximum smoothness of frame hold time. It still doesn't invalidate that a CRT is inconceivably faster, since it is in fact orders of magnitude faster at displaying frames.
 
Just to update this thread, I picked up a XF270HU for my primary fps gaming action. I'm pretty satisfied with it as far as compared to other LCD/LED monitors I've used in the last 10 years. No it's not on par with a crt, but it's not as painful to game on as so many other flat panels I've tried.

I'm still looking to get my 2 Sonys the E540 and FW-900 repaired, but the only guy I can find in my state is about 2 1/2 hours away and I don't even want to fathom a guess at what it's going to cost me to get them both done. $50 dollars each monitor just to review, then the repair costs. I know the E540 should be a very cheap fix, something i might even be able to do myself if I want to spend a weekend researching it, but the FW-900 had a more serious fatal error and will require some substantial TLC / and replacement parts.
 
oldmanbal said:
Just to update this thread, I picked up a XF270HU for my primary fps gaming action. I'm pretty satisfied with it as far as compared to other LCD/LED monitors I've used in the last 10 years. No it's not on par with a crt, but it's not as painful to game on as so many other flat panels I've tried.

I'm still looking to get my 2 Sonys the E540 and FW-900 repaired, but the only guy I can find in my state is about 2 1/2 hours away and I don't even want to fathom a guess at what it's going to cost me to get them both done. $50 dollars each monitor just to review, then the repair costs. I know the E540 should be a very cheap fix, something i might even be able to do myself if I want to spend a weekend researching it, but the FW-900 had a more serious fatal error and will require some substantial TLC / and replacement parts.
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Out of curiosity what makes you think it's a cheap fix? Do you know what the problem is?
 
Yeah I have an old Sony G500 21 inch CRT from back in the day that stopped working years ago, I am pretty sure the flyback went out in it. I was never able to find someone close to check it out and fix it though, so I just kept it around in case I ever did.
 
Starfalcon said:
Yeah I have an old Sony G500 21 inch CRT from back in the day that stopped working years ago, I am pretty sure the flyback went out in it. I was never able to find someone close to check it out and fix it though, so I just kept it around in case I ever did.
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I think the odds of you fixing this are getting slimmer by the day. Unfortunately. In theory at least, they should be fixable since you can build your own flyback transformer. But of course, it's dangerous. Sorry man. From an avid CRT fan.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
I think the odds of you fixing this are getting slimmer by the day. Unfortunately. In theory at least, they should be fixable since you can build your own flyback transformer. But of course, it's dangerous. Sorry man. From an avid CRT fan.
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Yeah I was sad when it died years ago, but I did end up replacing it with a sony FW900.So it did lead me to an upgrade.
 
5150Joker said:
Benq xl2746s would have been the ideal replacement for your crt.
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For straight-up gaming sure. But image quality would be a step back. But we've argued this before. I'm still confident that I'll eventually have an OLED or Micro LED monitor.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Out of curiosity what makes you think it's a cheap fix? Do you know what the problem is?
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They it still works once powered on, as intended, but it can take me a dozen or more power cycles to get it to stick on. The op outlined it in more detail, but that's essentially it. I have it parked next to my fw-900 now in the electronics mosoleum under my stairs, along with a pair of 15" hp crts and another 15" dell crt. Also have a cool Lenovo commercial LCD, i think 17" viewable 4:3 res, it's almost as heavy as a crt XD, that used to be an IBM office monitor for silicon design.
 
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