CRT ghosting

Q

quantum112

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 20, 2010
Messages
392
I've picked up a 2003 Syncmaster 763MB from a friend for dirt cheap and it has some noticeable ghosting to the right of text and images, it's like a shadow. This happens on it's OSD menu when it says "no signal" as well so forget any issue with VGA-DVI cables and such. Tried changing power cord no luck either. Is there something I could tune on the interior or is the tube done for? Inb4 "dump it, those are lethal voltages you'll get killed" - I needed a CRT screen and this was the closest thing. I'd like to make use of it now that I paid for it. Also, when adjusting the magic bright, the whole picture tends to shift around the screen a few pixels in any direction, happens when I open the start menu or a window etc. as well. Like the entire screen shifts a bit to the side. Any advice? Focus is not the best either.
 
Picture sharpness is one of the issues that quite a few CRT monitors have, there is not much that you can do about it. If you want perfect sharpness, you will need an LCD with a digital connection.

Things you can try to somewhat make the screen sharper:

-Buy a quality BNC cable if your monitor supports BNC input
-Download this program and play around with your settings

Opening the monitor up will probably not help, and as you know, is dangerous.
 
I'd deal with the sharpness if I could get rid of the ghosting which, like I said, is visible on the monitor even when it's not plugged into the PC at all - which means no cable or settings are going to help.

And I already have an LCD. This is primarily for older games.
 
Hmm, I wish it had some, but this seems to have been a lower-end monitor, all I see in the menu is:

Position, Size, Zoom, Parallel/Rotation, Pincushion-Trapezoid, Pinbalance, Linearity, Color, Clear Moire, Degauss, Recall, Video Input Level, Display Timing, Menu Duration, Language, Menu Color.

I've pretty much tried all of those :/

BTW The focus seems to be a lot sharper on the sides than in the middle, I've always heard of cases where it was vice-versa but never this :S
 
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It's probably a poor quality unshielded VGA cable causing the ghosting. That's what it was for me
 
It's either poor signal input (cable picking up interference, or wrong impedance), or an alignment issue. Both can be fixed :)
 
[X]eltic;1035289407 said:
Picture sharpness is one of the issues that quite a few CRT monitors have, there is not much that you can do about it. If you want perfect sharpness, you will need an LCD with a digital connection.

Things you can try to somewhat make the screen sharper:

-Buy a quality BNC cable if your monitor supports BNC input
-Download this program and play around with your settings

Opening the monitor up will probably not help, and as you know, is dangerous.
Click to expand...

will you stop with this "digital connection is the messiah" stuff, please?


Elledan said:
It's either poor signal input (cable picking up interference, or wrong impedance), or an alignment issue. Both can be fixed :)
Click to expand...

+1 (elledan knows her stuff OP)

your new monitor wouldn't happen to have a removable VGA cable would it? (might require opening it to unplug the thing), and you wouldn't happen to have some monster hunkin VGA cable laying around?

oh, and do you have really dirty power at your location? (CRTs can and will be affected by that, also, the doi question: got magnets?)
 
Folks. The monitor ghosts even when it is NOT plugged into anything other than the power socket.
HOW could a VGA cable be the issue when even the box that says "Check Signal" is ghosted?
It's got nothing to do with the VGA cable (which isn't removable btw, tards who designed that) because it ghosts even when it isn't connected to the PC in any way, shape or form.

I'll try plugging it around various points in the house to see if the power is any cleaner.
If it's an alignment issue, how would I go about fixing that? The shadows are always to the right of text.

No magnets in the immediate area, like I said I'll try moving it around the house see if it gets any better somewhere else.
 
quantum112 said:
Folks. The monitor ghosts even when it is NOT plugged into anything other than the power socket.
HOW could a VGA cable be the issue when even the box that says "Check Signal" is ghosted?
It's got nothing to do with the VGA cable (which isn't removable btw, tards who designed that) because it ghosts even when it isn't connected to the PC in any way, shape or form.

I'll try plugging it around various points in the house to see if the power is any cleaner.
If it's an alignment issue, how would I go about fixing that? The shadows are always to the right of text.

No magnets in the immediate area, like I said I'll try moving it around the house see if it gets any better somewhere else.
Click to expand...

if the cable was poorly shielded and picking up interference (you'd be amazed how much "crap" is in the air around you) it could lead to problems, as Elledan said

just a random question, you hit degauss on this thing?
 
quantum112 said:
If it's an alignment issue, how would I go about fixing that? The shadows are always to the right of text.
Click to expand...

If even the OSD screens/boxes are ghosted then it's not from the VGA cable as this OSD menu and similar are generated internally. An alignment issue means that the electron guns and/or the alignment grid are out of alignment. The former is relatively common and generally results in colour shifts. The latter generally happens due to trauma, such as when the monitor is dropped. I'm not sure there is a way to fix this, but you can try googling around.
 
I guess I'm going to open it up tommorow and take a look around. Also, I have this sort of strange phenomenon on my screen that appears even when the monitor is turned off,
like, 1 inch of the screen from the left is really black (the entire way vertically), but everything from the right of that is slightly grayer, this is apparent even when the monitor isn't working, it's actually something on the screen, as if something on the inside, some sort of coating or something shifted, and left that part of the screen uncovered and more black than the rest. Almost looks like some sort of burn in but I doubt it could be this big.

BTW as I adjust the magicbright and open various windows the entire screen sort of shifts around and resizes. Not by much but its noticeable.
 
Its most probably an alignment or a focus problem. Alignment is not easy to fix for the unexperienced (and risky).

Most monitors have focus adjustment near the flyback you can try that first.
 
quantum112 said:
I guess I'm going to open it up tommorow and take a look around. Also, I have this sort of strange phenomenon on my screen that appears even when the monitor is turned off,
like, 1 inch of the screen from the left is really black (the entire way vertically), but everything from the right of that is slightly grayer, this is apparent even when the monitor isn't working, it's actually something on the screen, as if something on the inside, some sort of coating or something shifted, and left that part of the screen uncovered and more black than the rest. Almost looks like some sort of burn in but I doubt it could be this big.

BTW as I adjust the magicbright and open various windows the entire screen sort of shifts around and resizes. Not by much but its noticeable.
Click to expand...

I missed this post. Well it may be the flyback, so unless by dirt cheap you mean free, then you paid too much for the monitor.
 
Stoly said:
The shock itself can hardly kill you, but it can make you fall and injure yourself.
Click to expand...

The flyback in the average CRT generates around 15 kV. The shock of this can throw you across the room. With the shielding removed around the electronics, if the monitor is turned on, it will generate x-rays. Definitely don't stand anywhere which faces the opened monitor (only the front is safe), as the levels of x-rays are higher than you'd receive at, say, the dentist and could result in issues with sufficient exposure.

I have worked on CRT internals before (TVs, monitors) and I'm extremely careful while doing so. You have to know exactly WTH you're doing, as it's one of the more dangerous pieces of consumer electronics one could work on. It makes PSUs look like a joke :)
 
Elledan said:
The flyback in the average CRT generates around 15 kV. The shock of this can throw you across the room. With the shielding removed around the electronics, if the monitor is turned on, it will generate x-rays. Definitely don't stand anywhere which faces the opened monitor (only the front is safe), as the levels of x-rays are higher than you'd receive at, say, the dentist and could result in issues with sufficient exposure.

I have worked on CRT internals before (TVs, monitors) and I'm extremely careful while doing so. You have to know exactly WTH you're doing, as it's one of the more dangerous pieces of consumer electronics one could work on. It makes PSUs look like a joke :)
Click to expand...

Voltage doesn't mean that much, for example a taser gun can generate 50kv and it won't throw you across the room. Current is more important, in the case of Taser guns is IIRC less than .01 amp, while a flyback can go to about 4 amps. Now, in most cases you only recieve a fraction of the voltage and only for a very short time. So yes you'll take a knockout punch, but you'll live. Of course if yor are standing on the wet floor barefoot, you might as well buy the coffin right away.

I do agree with taking extreme precautions and you do have to know what you are doing.

BTW I recall a friend of mine having an electric shock in his testicles while testing a PSU naked (don't ask me how).
 
Screw it, it's not worth the risk to open it, it'll probably die in a few months anyway(I can hear a buzz from it when it's working, but it's pretty faint), and with the screen jumping around like that and the tube issue that I have no idea what it is, I'll just hand it over to the next friend (who's a bit dumb so he won't notice any of this stuff) for the same amount I bought it for and be done with it.
 
Stoly said:
Voltage doesn't mean that much, for example a taser gun can generate 50kv and it won't throw you across the room. Current is more important, in the case of Taser guns is IIRC less than .01 amp, while a flyback can go to about 4 amps. Now, in most cases you only recieve a fraction of the voltage and only for a very short time. So yes you'll take a knockout punch, but you'll live. Of course if yor are standing on the wet floor barefoot, you might as well buy the coffin right away.

I do agree with taking extreme precautions and you do have to know what you are doing.

BTW I recall a friend of mine having an electric shock in his testicles while testing a PSU naked (don't ask me how).
Click to expand...

Elledan said:
I'm not even sure I want to ask :p
Click to expand...

this thread went from ??? to WTH in no time flat :eek:

OP: sorry to hear you've got a borked monitor, happens with age

but hey, you could try this:
http://www.afrotechmods.com/reallycheap/Jacob/jacob.htm
 
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