Gateway's FPD2185W: a 21in widescreen 2005fpw killer!

I picked up this one at BB when there were 30% back to school discount coupons around. Up until 2 1/2 months I've had no problems whatsoever until one day I saw a quarter inch doughnut shaped that looked like a burn mark on my monitor. My first reaction was "fxxx me!" because now I have to contact Gateway for warranty service, and it will take a long time. Then about half an hour later, that circle disappeared and never came back so far.
Has someone experienced this issue?
 
Link said:
I picked up this one at BB when there were 30% back to school discount coupons around. Up until 2 1/2 months I've had no problems whatsoever until one day I saw a quarter inch doughnut shaped that looked like a burn mark on my monitor. My first reaction was "fxxx me!" because now I have to contact Gateway for warranty service, and it will take a long time. Then about half an hour later, that circle disappeared and never came back so far.
Has someone experienced this issue?
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nope. I had mine for 6 months with only dvi issues once in a blue moon when I disconnected to move it to school. usually I just have to open up the case, reseat the graphics card and everything is back to perfect.
 
I have a question for 2185W owners:
What do you see if you set your computer to output 1920x1080 over VGA and DVI?

Has anyone tested a HDCP connection, for example from a newer HDTV tuner or from a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player?
 
The native res of this monitor is 1680 x 1050. I would NOT run it at 1920 x 1080.
 
I just purchased this monitor a few days ago...no dead pixels and everything seems to be working flawlessly :D I upgraded my 6 year old 17 inch crt... I Love this monitor!!
 
Smpsn said:
I just purchased this monitor a few days ago...no dead pixels and everything seems to be working flawlessly :D I upgraded my 6 year old 17 inch crt... I Love this monitor!!
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Do you hear a buzzing sounds?
 
Had a FPD2185W for about a month when the buzzing started. It would buzz when turned on regardless of whether or not anything was attached. Contacted Gateway and they overnighted a replacement. Just hooked it up and same thing.

Checked the brightness setting and it was at 80. Tried lowering it and the buzzing got worse. Moved it to 100 and it practically went away. This issue is strictly a monitor issue as it makes the buzzing sound even if not attached to any device. Really strange. Going to forward my findings to GW...don't know if it will help or not.

Other than that I absolutely love the monitor. Fantastic color and WOW is great in widescreen mode.
 
rjenk said:
Had a FPD2185W for about a month when the buzzing started. It would buzz when turned on regardless of whether or not anything was attached. Contacted Gateway and they overnighted a replacement. Just hooked it up and same thing.

Checked the brightness setting and it was at 80. Tried lowering it and the buzzing got worse. Moved it to 100 and it practically went away. This issue is strictly a monitor issue as it makes the buzzing sound even if not attached to any device. Really strange. Going to forward my findings to GW...don't know if it will help or not.

Other than that I absolutely love the monitor. Fantastic color and WOW is great in widescreen mode.
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Thats an issue on all these panels, it seems. Mine does the same thing, and there's countless examples in this thread. My buzzing seems to go away around ~85 or so.
 
Wait...the buzzing goes away?

I've had the monitor for around 8 months now, and I just gave up on it, figured it had to be lived with. I didn't notice initially because I first hooked up the monitor in my dorm room, so I couldn't hear it.

Brought it home...was like what the fuck is this!?!. Figure I'll just live with it still, or do you think Gateway will still hook me up with a replacement, or is part of the design? (since most electronic devices do buzz when applying some type of voltage or current control: fan controller, dimmer switch, etc. I thought it was just a law of physics.)

Side question: Anyone else note the backlight bleeding at the corners of the screen when black? I thought I calibrated the 2185 properly with my Spyder...
 
Sorry for double post, but bumping up the brightness by only damned 5 got rid of the buzzing entirely.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.
 
Ive noticed if I set a game at 16x12 this monitor seems to scale it 1680x1050..Is this true/normal/good??The info screen shows 1680x105 and it doesnt do this at other rezzes..Thanx
 
STEvil said:
never noticed that.

sure it isnt your video card scaling the output?
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Hmmm...That may be it,,If thats the case then I dont need to worry about a game supporting WS rez if I can scale it thru the GPU..I guess..Will look into that..
 
TheRapture said:
Exactly. Anything higher than 1680x1050 is not an option.
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Actually it takes 1920x1080P from the XBOX 360 just fine. It produces an excellent picture after scaling it down to it's native resolution. It does accept 1920x1080P over the VGA input. I haven't tried the DVI input at that resolution. i was pleasantly surprised since the manual implies that 1680x1050P is the max that you can input over VGA.
The info screen shows 1920x1080P 60Hz from the Xbox360.
I've had my Gateway for almost a year now. i'm thinking about upgrading to the 24" version. Hopefully that will be an excellent performer as well.
 
aaronwt said:
Actually it takes 1920x1080P from the XBOX 360 just fine. It produces an excellent picture after scaling it down to it's native resolution. It does accept 1920x1080P over the VGA input. I haven't tried the DVI input at that resolution. i was pleasantly surprised since the manual implies that 1680x1050P is the max that you can input over VGA.
The info screen shows 1920x1080P 60Hz from the Xbox360.
I've had my Gateway for almost a year now. i'm thinking about upgrading to the 24" version. Hopefully that will be an excellent performer as well.
Click to expand...



Like you said, it down scales to 1680x1050....the display is not capable of the actual 1920x1080. I love mine as well, I was considering getting another and having matching displays. I really don't need bigger than a 21" wide screen......
 
just found out another friend of mine has had one of these for a while.

So we've got 3.. all of them are over 8 months old and none whine or anything and all work great.


I think maybe i'll chop mine up and build a laptop around it.... :eek: :p
 
I've had mine over a year now, no whining or any other problems at all, I wish the price would drop on them so I could get another and run dual displays. Pooldoc
 
Hi,

I am wondering if anyone else notice that whenever I use the monitor with PS2 using a component cable, the FPD2185W keeps going back to DVI mode and I had to press the Input button back to component mode.

The monitor does this everytime I restarted my PS2. Anyone else has this problem? Any option to make it not to automatically switch to DVI mode?
 
I found one of these at Computer Stop in Bellevue, WA sitting on a shelf for.. get this.. $199. The reason why it was low was because it was a refurb and had 2 tiny tiny scratches on the screen. When I bring my ear close to it, I can hear a buzz. This panel's image quality is amazing.. I'm coming from a 22" Acer TN panel.

I have my Wii hooked up via component, PC via DVI, and 360 via VGA. I'm using an audio coupler which then connects to my line in in my sound card. It's a pain in the ass switching the cables around though for when I'm switching off between the wii and 360. I'm amazed with the 1080i, for some reason the fps seem the same as 720p.. and a lot sharper graphics too. Isn't 1080 interlaced supposed to operate at 30fps? NBA Homecourt seems to be the only game that lags at 1080i.
 
My 2185 just died and seeing how it’s out of warranty I decided to take a look inside and found that most of the capacitors on the power supply are bulging. I did a search on the type of caps used (Samxon GF) and found out that the GF series is their old series of low ESR caps that has what seems to be a high failure rate. I plan on ordering some new Rubycon caps sometime next week and will report back if this fixes the problem.

The symptoms that lead up to its demise were a more audible buzzing (I used to only hear this with my ear close to the bottom left side) and an occasional lockup when coming out of standby. Now when I plug it in (no buttons work) the power button is lit up and occasionally the screen will turn on and display the gateway logo for a spit second and then go back off.

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4116
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4356
 
After changing the caps my 2185 is back in action! :)

The only bad caps were the 470uF 25v ones but since they were all the same poor performing GF series I decided to play it safe and replace them all. In time these bad caps will undoubtedly take down many of these monitors.

These are the capacitors I used and the quantity required.
http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=38M3261 - x8
http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=38M3273 - x2
http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=38M6828 - x1
http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=38M3195 - x1
 
XionStorm, I have the same problem. It went dead after 13 months. Mine did not make any noise. So glad you got it to work AND posted the solution.

How did you take the cover off? I took off the stand then removed the 3 screws on the bottom but it does not come off. I do not want to damage it unless I have too.

Eagerly awaiting your reply,
Robert
 
I wrote down the steps for you and anyone else who may need to take this monitor apart.



Opening the Gateway FPD2185W


Step 1: Lay the monitor down face first on something soft that won’t scratch the screen and remove the four screws holding the monitor to the stand. After the stand has been removed unscrew the three black screws at the bottom of the monitor.


Step 2: Flip the monitor over so the front is facing you and reach around the bottom right corner (the side with the menu buttons) and find the separation between the back and front plastic bezels and gently but firmly pull out and up at the same time and the front right side should pop up. The rest is just working your fingers around in the gap to pop it up.


Step 3: Disconnect the front power button (simple connector that just pulls out) and remove the four screws holding the LCD panel in place.


Step 4: Tilt the panel up from the bottom and disconnect all four connectors on the right side (push in tab and grab edges to pull out but don’t pull on the wires). Peel back the piece of metal tape that is holding the sheathed LCD connecting wires (the bunch of wires on the left side of the monitor) to the top of the metal case so that the panel can have more freedom to move. Try not to put any strain on the LCD connecting wires.


Step 5: Lift the LCD panel up slightly and turn counter-clockwise 90 degrees and tilt what was the bottom of the panel up and let it sit next to the monitor (you may need to hold it or support it with something). You should now see a big metal case. Remove all the screws from the top and bottom edges of the case (some are under metal tape). You don’t need to remove the screws on the left or right they just hold the entire metal case into the plastic bezel. Now lift off the top section of the case enough to rotate it out of the way. Be careful not to damage the LCD connecting wires on the very sharp opening when lifting and rotating the case top.


Step 6: Remove all connections from the power supply (the upside down board on the right if looking from the front of the monitor) and unscrew the four screws that hold the power supply board in place. After the power supply board is unscrewed lift it up and unscrew the ground wire. Now use a large flathead screwdriver to pry (from inside the metal case not outside the monitor) underneath the plastic power connector (the one you plug the power cord into) until it slides out of its channel.


Step 7: There is no step seven and you now have the power supply out and can replace the bad caps. Good luck :)



Note: If you’re a noob to capacitors the black half circle on the board needs to match up with the white line on the capacitor for correct polarity. Else, Boom.

LCD Panel Problems: If after you replace the caps and the monitor is working again but the screen is green with lines, looks odd or just doesn’t work (except the backlight) then you probably pulled the LCD connecting wires and the connector to the panel from the mainboard is partially disconnected. To fix this just open the monitor back up and push the connector down firmly until evenly seated.
 
Just got back from golf.

All I can say is....well, WOW!!!!!

Will do this tomorrow and report back as stopped into the 19th hole.:)

Thank you,
Robert
 
Man, that was not easy but got the board out. First time doing this. Indeed, some of the caps are bulging.

One last question. How do you get the caps out? From the looks of it they are soldered onto the board. If they are soldered to the board then maybe I will take the board/PSU in and have a monitor tech replace all the caps unless the procedure is somewhat easy.

Another thing is that your last 2 links has 2 different types of caps (25YXG47M5X11 and 50YXA10M5X11). But on the board the 2 looks to be identical. Which one goes where? Or does it not matter? These are for the 2 largest caps right?

Thanks so much,
Robert
 
You will need to desolder the old caps and replace them with the new ones. If you don’t think you can do it then definitely take it somewhere.

Capacitor Locations

2185PowerBoard.gif


Note: Drawn from memory so make sure you read the side of all the caps you replace to make sure they are in the correct location.
The Caps: I prefer Rubycon but you can use any caps with the same specs.
 
Sorry was looking at the wrong one's (large black one's). Thanks for the schematics.

Obviously you know what you are doing so I ordered from the same place as you did and it was shipped on Wednesday.

I already called a monitor tech and he will do it for for $65.

I will report back when I have the new caps in and I put the monitor back together.

Thank you XionStorm for all your assistance. I believe that down the road other owners of this monitor will find your explanations and solutions invaluable when their caps go bad!

Very appreciative,
Robert

P.S. The 50V 10uF and 25V 47uF are opposite on my board/PSU. Good memory though!:)
 
Put everything back and still the blue power light just stays on with the screen being black. I cannot turn it off without disconnecting the power cord.

Any suggestions XionStorm?

Will strip the entire thing again but does not look good.:(

Thanks,
Robert
 
That’s unfortunate :(

I find it hard to believe that with such similar symptoms my monitor is working great while yours is still acting the same and the only explanation I can give is that either your monitor has a completely different problem (duh) or something didn’t go quite right with the cap replacement.

I would check around the newly replaced caps for solder bridging on the board traces (use a magnifying glass), correct polarity on all replaced caps, bad solder joints around the leads of all replaced caps and correct placement of all replaced caps. I’m still fairly confident that your problem is a broken power supply that is not outputting enough power to run most of the monitor which results in a complete lockup.
 
Thanks for the quick response, XionStorm. Took it apart 5 times to look at everything. I will check as you suggested but I will NOT spend another cent on this monitor!!!

I am leaving it on overnight just to see what happens.

I tell you something; I will never get nor suggest to anyone to ever purchase anything from Gateway. I build my own PC's so that's not a problem and there are many other manufacturers as far as monitors/laptops goes.

That said, I do thank you for ALL your help and at least giving me hope that I could get this monitor running again.

Aloha,
Robert

P.S. At the very least, I know more about the schematics of a monitor.:)
 
np, sorry that this did not work for you. I agree with you fully about Gateway and will never buy another one of their products.
 
I've had mine for ~2 years now (I think), warranty's way gone, and I'm on my 4th (backlight bleeds, buzzing, component inputs dying). I noticed that some people have done capacitor replacements...what for? Dead CCFLs?

Because, mine buzzes annoyingly if you dip below 90 Brightness (and it's way too bright at night :( ). sometimes make me regret going LCD at all when I look at my 21" Trinitron. Anyone have some home-made remedies for buzzing? Probably caps or inductors from my expierience (I've got dimmer switches in the house that whine too, must be the common element of current control that generates it).
 
Nice to aboard here again today. Well noted Samxon GF failed inside many LCD monitors. Now, I am willing to send the replacements(capacitors) for anyone which affect bad caps(Samxon GF inside LCD monitors) free of charge, although i am NOT sell Samxon GF caps.

Please contact me via PM or e-mail.:)
 
Nice to aboard here again today. Well noted Samxon GF failed inside many LCD monitors. Now, I am willing to send the replacements(capacitors) for anyone which affect bad caps(Samxon GF inside LCD monitors) free of charge, although i am NOT sell Samxon GF caps.

Please contact me via PM or e-mail.:)
 
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