How do you know if an lcd is dieing?

[nite_monkey]

Recently my secondary display (acer AL1916) has started messing up. If I leave it turned off, or in standby mode for longer than like 10 or 15 minutes than try to turn it on, it wont for a while. All that happens is the light blinks for about 1 to 2 minutes, and then the monitor turns on and displays what is on the screen. The monitor is new to me, but not brand new. It used to be in the kitchen (for almost a year I think, I'm not sure.) This is only my second LCD display (my first being my primary display, which still works perfectly), so I don't know what an lcd monitor does when it is going out. Am I fixing to loose my second monitor for a while until I can get a new one?

[Shades]

Seems that the power management from your monitor is on the fritz. After it is showing the expected signal, does it remain functioning ok?

[mouser]

If I leave it turned off, or in standby mode for longer than like 10 or 15 minutes than try to turn it on, it wont for a while. All that happens is the light blinks for about 1 to 2 minutes, and then the monitor turns on and displays what is on the screen...
Am I fixing to loose my second monitor ?

if you're experience is anything like mine, then *yes*.

i had exactly these symptoms on two samsung lcds.. eventually they progressed to worse stages, where they would never get very bright, and then eventually stopped turning on completely.

[nite_monkey]

Seems that the power management from your monitor is on the fritz. After it is showing the expected signal, does it remain functioning ok?

-Shades (March 03, 2009, 07:19 PM)

yes, after it finally manages to turn on, it works fine.

If I leave it turned off, or in standby mode for longer than like 10 or 15 minutes than try to turn it on, it wont for a while. All that happens is the light blinks for about 1 to 2 minutes, and then the monitor turns on and displays what is on the screen...
Am I fixing to loose my second monitor ?

if you're experience is anything like mine, then *yes*.

i had exactly these symptoms on two samsung lcds.. eventually they progressed to worse stages, where they would never get very bright, and then eventually stopped turning on completely.

-mouser (March 03, 2009, 07:46 PM)

well crap, mine is still at the beginning stage, I don't want to have to get a new one... I just got this one because my crt died on me.

[mouser]

here's another piece of data for you:  mine got so bad that i turned off all standby and screensaver functions so the monitor would never go dark.  that seemed to work for a while until a reboot, afterwhich one of the monitors never work up.

be prepared -- that monitor of yours *is* going to stop working pretty soon.

[nite_monkey]

that sucks. I guess I will end up haveing to use my tv until I can get a new monitor... oh well

[Shades]

Although the price of a new monitor is low, it can be (sometimes) easy enough to repair...I should say exchange parts. Recently I did that with two broken LG's of the same type/model. One had a lot of dead pixels (more like a black hole) and another that would not turn on anymore.

On a lost Sunday I took both apart, exchanged parts and now there is one functioning monitor again. That was actually (relatively) easy, since the LCD panel itself and the electronics were two separate parts that were connected with a flat cable that slides into a click-on connector and an earth/mass cable. It was harder to open the LCD panel (without damaging it) than exchanging the parts.

Of course, your mileage may vary.

[Crush]

The LCD of my old laptop loses each week a few lines that show up with random colors. It only serves as a DVD-player and HD-Recorder after that. A new LCD would cost about 400$ - for this money I could buy a new one for the same task.
My old tube monitor also turned black sometimes. I tested the electronics (be careful if you also do so!) and found a cold capillary joint that only had to be renewed. The pin had no perfect contact and was able to move around.

[f0dder]

My 17" Acer died some months ago, it would go black but the LED would still be green (ON mode, as opposed to orange STANDBY). Changing resolution or un+replugging the monitor would cause it to work for ~10 seconds, after which it would blank out again.

Any ideas what could be wrong? Ended up buying a new monitor, but if it's something that could be fixed cheaply, having a spare monitor would be nice

[OldElmerFudd]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but it covers one of the thoughts I've had for a while. I use CRT monitors because of the graphic work I do. Anybody using higher-end LCD monitors? I could use some recommendations about longevity and accuracy.

The kind of comments by mouser and nite_monkey reflect these concerns. At least it gives me some idea what to expect when a monitor starts to fail.

[Ramirez]

This seems like a bad-caps problem. Not sure, of course.

I had a 2-year-old Fujitsu LCD that started to come to life longer and longer. In the end, it took about 15 minutes (only green led blinking) for the picture to appear. Then, it was all fine as long as I kept it on. Then I found this:

http://www.instructa...r---How-to-do-it%3f/

And voila. I replaced all capacitors (there were about 25, worth about 3 dollars altogether), and although it was a messy job (I'm not that good at soldering), the LCD was all well when I switched it on. The only problem is that I couldn't put the back cover on due to the taller capacitors I could buy. At least it will not overheat (the problem seems to be bad-design: too little space and the main board overheats and the caps dry-out, so they say).

[Ramirez]

This seems like a bad-caps problem. Not sure, of course.

I had a 2-year-old Fujitsu LCD that started to come to life longer and longer. In the end, it took about 15 minutes (only green led blinking) for the picture to appear. Then, it was all fine as long as I kept it on. Then I found this:

http://www.instructa...r---How-to-do-it%3f/

And voila. I replaced all capacitors (there were about 25, worth about 3 dollars altogether), and although it was a messy job (I'm not that good at soldering), the LCD was all well when I switched it on. The only problem is that I couldn't put the back cover on due to the taller capacitors I could buy. At least it will not overheat (the problem seems to be bad-design: too little space and the main board overheats and the caps dry-out, so they say).

-Ramirez (March 06, 2009, 01:52 PM)

Mind you, when the monitor miraculously came back to life (and now, 6 months later it is still OK), it made me wonder how many Fujitsu LCD's have ended up on scrapheaps around the world, that could have been saved by mere $3 (or better design)...

[mouser]

I was really hoping someone would post some possible solutions!!  
That's how we like to do things here -- post a problem and someone always seems smart enough and nice enough to come share a solution.  
Thank you Ramirez.

Anyone else with a dead lcd care to try this and let us know how it goes?

[Ramirez]

Just to let you know, that I came into possession of another of these crap Fujitsu-Siemens LCD's (model S7, I think) with the exact same symptoms, replaced caps and now it has been working as my wife's monitor for over a year now, without any problems. (The first one still works, too.)

[iphigenie]

Interestingly enough yesterday R's LCD was looking a bit blurry on the fonts, then the next reboot it wouldnt come on. We just flicked back to the old spare for now, but the monitor in question is a fujitsu siemens so this thread popping up again is an odd coincidence. Will check if perhaps it is this problem  

edit: it is a fujitsu siemens screen