pc monitor backlight


  #1  
Old 10-16-08, 01:58 PM
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pc monitor backlight

After four years or so of continous my 17" flat screen LCD desktop pc monitor all of a sudden has "gone black". The LED light that indicates power flashes green off and on, when normally it will be steady green when power is on.
The monitor is out of warrantee, but the techs at the manufacturer said it sounds like the backlight went out, or maybe the "inverter." Apparently its not too uncommon for the backlight to go out on a monitor, and replacement backlights can be obtained relatively inexpensively from various pc part vendors.
There are few sources online that describe the procedure to replace the backlight, it's a "careful" DIY project that can be accomplished relatively easy.
Anybody out there had occasion to do this before? Any comments/advice/suggestions?
Thanks
 
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Old 10-16-08, 08:50 PM
T
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The only problem with replacing parts in something like that is first off, item availability, you may not even be able to buy the part seperately. Second, you may not know exactly which part it is, you may replace the backlight to find out it's the power inverter, a part which you may not be able to buy. Then you may do all that just have something else go wrong with it 3 months down the road. Something that was cause by a power surge that killed the power inverter in the first place.

All I'm saying is that with delicate little electronics like this, without knowing what you're looking for, you may be throwing you're money away. You can get a really decent size monitor for pretty cheap these days (saw a 22" Acer on Newegg.com today for $170).

I'm not saying don't do it, but I personally wouldn't waste precious time tracking down some faulty electronics in an old monitor.

This also goes along the same lines with faulty power supplies. You may have one that "just" has a locked up fan. And replacing the fan may make it work again, but you don't really know if that fan locking up caused other components to become overloaded, possibly causing it to fail shortly down the road taking other components such as your motherboard with it. It's usually better just to replace it (and recycle your old parts of course).
 
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Old 10-16-08, 09:21 PM
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Originally Posted by toofer
I'm not saying don't do it, but I personally wouldn't waste precious time tracking down some faulty electronics in an old monitor.
Okay then. Probably way too much trouble, as I would expect. Even though you're not saying don't do it, I won't do it.
 
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Old 10-18-08, 05:29 AM
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Geeks.com is a decent place to pick up reasonably priced electronics too. Good luck.
 
 

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