NEC PA series - Need Help - standby/sensor problem

Okay, it seems I have a bit of a weird problem with the monitor I just bought. It's a NEC LCD 2190Uxp.

It works great except for one annoying problem. It appears to go into standby mode, depending on light levels (or randomness). What I have seen so far:

Twice when trying to turn it on I get a blinking amber light. That means it's in standby mode or not getting a signal. I tried 2 different computers, and 2 different cables, so it's extremely unlikely it's a signal issue from the computer.

I tried turning it on today, and just got a blinking amber light. No button pressing made a difference. I turned the monitor so the window shined on it, and then the image displayed and remained on.

If I lower brightness real low, below 10% or so, the screen goes off, and the amber light blinks again. It then returns to normal after I turn the monitor on and off.

I contacted NEC (great customer service, by the way) and spoke to an agent. He was sort of baffled, but feels it's a problem with the IPM. I do of course have IPM turned off too. And autobrightness off. Only thing he could recommend was a factory reset (which didn't help) or send it in for repair. I got this off of eBay rather cheap (<$100), so paying for a repair doesn't make sense. After checking the hours used (7100 or so, assuming I read that info correctly), I am starting to wonder if the low usage has to do with this problem, as a 5 year old monitor probably should have more hours on it.

Anyway... any ideas as to what I can try to fix this? Anyone else with a similar series monitor seen this type of problem before? Even if things don't work perfectly, I'm hoping I can find a workaround for this issue.

Does it make any sort of noise? Buzzing or similar? Does it flicker when you first turn it on? Could be a LCD inverter problem.

No flicker and no buzzing noise. Well, if I stick my ear right up to the back of the monitor, I hear a very slight hum sound ... but assume that is normal.

I have a 2090, and aside from IPM and Auto Brightness, I don't believe that there are other settings could cause the effects you're experiencing. I have Auto Brightness Off and IPM set to Standard and 50%.

I've never seen a blinking amber LED. According to the manual:

If the front LED is blinking amber, check the status of the IPM mode (see page 11).

Page 11:

IPM
The Intelligent Power Manager allows the monitor to enter into a power saving mode after a period of inactivity.
The IPM has three settings.
OFF: Monitor does not go into power save mode when the input signal is lost.
STANDARD: Monitor enters power save mode automatically when the input signal is lost.
OPTION: Monitor enters power save mode automatically when the amount of surrounding light goes below the level
that is determined by the user. The level can be adjusted in Tag 7 of the Advanced OSM Control menu.
When in power save mode, the LED on the front of the monitor blinks amber. While in power save mode, push any of
the front buttons, except for POWER and SELECT to return to normal.
When the amount of surrounding light returns to normal levels, the monitor will automatically return to normal mode.

Click to expand...

It sounds like there's some sort of glitch with the IPM. A couple of things I would try:

1. log into the advanced OSD and make sure that, under Tab 7, the IPM is set to Off. Turning the setting to Off doesn't appear to change the IPM setting % setting below; I would try to see if moving the slider up to 100% or down to 0% changes things at all.

2. I haven't noticed anything odd with the IPM on standard and set at 50%. I run the cable straight from my video card to the monitor, dual link DVI. You may want to try turning it on.

3. You may be having an input issue, where the monitor isn't detecting the signal properly. You tried 2 different systems and 2 different cables -- did you try the two different DVI connections on the back of the monitor? Did you try vga?

4. Do you have a receiver or anything else in between the video card and the monitor? These monitors are not HDCP compliant, and it's at least possible that, if you're using HDMI-DVI cables run through a receiver, the receiver is not passing the signal consistently.

Thanks for the suggestions.

IPM is set to OFF in my advanced OSD. The problem occurred at 50%, and also when I lowered it down to 5%. My thinking was that if perhaps the IPM is broken and always on, (regardless of setting) if I set it super low, it should be fine, as it'd be rare for light to go down that low. But... not sure if it makes a difference in my case.

As for cables, I tried DVI from main. DVI + VGA from main. Then tried hooking up a laptop via VGA. All of the above didn't make any difference. I can't try two DVIs at the same time though, as I only own one DVI cable.

There is a mini-hdmi cable adapter thingy between the DVI and computer. Do you think that could be a cause?

But if so, why would VGA right from a laptop not solve the issue? It's possible the light thing is a red herring, but I also don't get why if I lower brightness below 10% or so, the display turns off and the amber light starts blinking. Although in that case, if I simply restart the monitor, all is good again.

The super annoying thing is when I can't even get the display to start up when starting my computer.

I noticed a couple of other things the past day or so:

I am thinking the light sensor may indeed be a red herring. I have no idea why the monitor goes into standby when brightness is lowered < 10%, but I am thinking it's just a coincidence otherwise as to light levels/display not turning on.

If the monitor has been turned off for a while, several hours or more, then it usually starts up in standby. If I have been using it for hours, turn it off, then back on, it works normal. I have noticed the problem each morning when I go to turn on my PC, and when I initially received it. No idea why it being turned off for a while would cause the standby/amber lights though. Any ideas there?

IPM mode does seem broken, as if turned off, it should never go into standby regardless. I also tried standard at 50%, and option, but it doesn't seem to matter.

One thing which may be a coincidence, but I'll test it again when it occurs... when the problem happened earlier today I held the power button and reset button for several seconds, then the monitor displayed normally. However... the monitor had been on a while and perhaps 'warmed up', so am not sure if it was a coincidence or I actually did something.

Any other ideas of things to try, or what could be wrong, appreciated. It's a great monitor otherwise, and after a tiny bit of eyeball calibration, it completely kills the Diamondtron CRT I was previously using. Blacks are the only thing worse than the CRT, but it's a ton better w/ blacks than other LCDs I've seen.

A little bump, hoping someone out there has any other ideas.

The problem has gotten worse, if anything. Quite often when pressing 'on', I will get either an image flashing very briefly, a black screen, or the image for 5-6 seconds, then blackness. Then the yellow light blinks.

If I press on/off enough, like an insane number of times (up to 30-40+ min straight), the monitor seems to display the image a bit longer. And eventually then it just stays on.

After getting it started, if I then turn it off, it will start up normally. But if I wait for a while, let's say 1-2 hrs, then the problem re-occurs all over again. So basically I need to leave my monitor and computer running all the time (no sleep mode either) to use the monitor normally.

Perhaps it is an inverter board problem? If there are any ideas of things to try, I'd appreciate any advice.

I've been in contact with the eBay reseller about this issue too. He has no ideas what to do to fix it, but states it worked when he had it. And I just found out that if I want a replacement, I think he wants me to pay for return shipping out of my own pocket ... which sort of stinks, since shipping is probably 1/3rd the cost of this thing. And I don't exactly have 100% confidence the replacement he'll send will work either. He has good reseller ratings though, so still hoping we can work something out.

And by an odd coincidence there is different reseller on eBay selling a large batch of these same monitors (for parts) with a start-up/flashing amber light problem, which is exactly what my problem is. I have a feeling they may have all gotten their batches from the same place. Or for all I know, they are the same company.

Hi Namelessme,

Is there any pattern to the blinking, e.g. short blink, short blink, long blink?

These are diagnostic codes that we can look up to see what the problem is.

-- Art

The light starts blue, backlight starts, image flashes (sometimes), backlight/image off, then the amber light starts.

It's sort of like three really quick amber blinks, a short pause, then three blinks again. And that pattern just repeats on and on.

Appreciate any help. Thanks.

Unfortunately that's a bad panel. NEC service can repair it for you. If you're interested, PM me and I'll get more information for you.

-- Art

I've got 1 stuck on green pixel in the center of my screen & 1 dead pixel in the top left of my screen. Is this a sign of more bad things to come ? Or is it just 1 of those "acceptable" failure type things ? I mean for the price I'm not happy about it but I'm not sure what to do or if it's even covered under the warranty. I'm actually surprised that's all that appears to be wrong with this monitor since the styrofoam packing in the NEC box was smashed on the top left corner. Any way what would you do if it was yours?

Dantrax, you should try a program like this for a few hours
http://udpix.free.fr/

Stuck pixels can be unstuck sometimes

Jonte said:

Dantrax, you should try a program like this for a few hours
http://udpix.free.fr/

Stuck pixels can be unstuck sometimes

Click to expand...

Sorry Namelessme for the hijack, meant to start a new post. Jonte, Thanks for the tip. I had 3 dark pixels in top left corner of the screen & a stuck on green & blue pixel right next to one another in the middle of the screen. I tried ud pixel on them & the 3 dark pixels are now working & the blue pixel now works. Just the green one won't turn off. Thanks again. I might keep the monitor now. Or I might be "STUCK" with it.

I would assume NEC would exchange it for you (or wherever you purchased it would), if it's within 30 days. Although since you fixed most of them, I'm not sure what their policy is.

But 3+ stuck/dead pixels is usually enough for a replacement. Ideally there would be a dead/stuck pixel guarantee... but again, not sure what NEC's policy is there.

Namelessme said:

I would assume NEC would exchange it for you (or wherever you purchased it would), if it's within 30 days. Although since you fixed most of them, I'm not sure what their policy is.

But 3+ stuck/dead pixels is usually enough for a replacement. Ideally there would be a dead/stuck pixel guarantee... but again, not sure what NEC's policy is there.

Click to expand...

I'm going to call them Mon. but their warranty for class 2 monitors says 5 pixels stuck or dead. Unless this is class 1 which is zero pixels. Maybe I shouldn't of fixed it. I'll see what they say. Also I can't play back TV from my cable box hooked straight into this monitor with an HDMI to DVI cable. It says in flashing red that "interlaced signals are not supported". I only get 1080i from Cablevision. I can watch TV for the 180 second count-down & then the screen goes blank. But my ATI TV card lets me watch through Windows Media Center.

Wah...

My second NEC 2190 that was sent me (to replace my first broken one) has started displaying that same yellow blinking light problem (along with it's dead pixel issue).

It's not as bad yet as my first one, as I can still get it to start up after a couple of on/off tries. But that's how the problem started with my first one too. Plus side is the reseller refunded my money (I wonder now how many of the ones he sold has this issue, and if he was just cutting his losses). But the problem is I actually sorta really need at least one of these to work, as the only other working LCD I have is a small TN panel seemingly designed to destroy my eyesight.

I find this so weird. I wonder if this particular revision was prone to this type of problem. I wish I could just meld my two broken LCDs into one working one.