[Coco] An interesting computer repair story

[gene heskett]

On Wednesday, May 02, 2012 10:08:10 PM Robert Gault did opine:

> This is slightly off topic, but I do much of my Coco programming on a PC
> these days.
> 
> My Samsung SyncMaster 204B LCD monitor recently started flickering at
> turn-on and did not get up to selected brightness for about a minute.
> Things got worse with it taking 1-2 minutes to turn-on and 3-4 minutes
> to reach full brightness.
> 
> After proving to myself that the monitor was at fault rather than the
> video card or PC power supply, I took the monitor apart and examined
> anything I could see inside.
> The back-light was not exposed, but two circuit boards were visible.
> Examination of the power supply board showed two electrolytic caps with
> swollen tops; 820uF 25v. My local parts store did not have any 820uF
> but did have 1000uF caps. It did not seem to be a tuned circuit so +20%
> seemed close enough.
> 
> I put in two new 1000 uF caps, reassembled the monitor, and turned it on
> with fingers crossed. Eureka, it worked like new!!
> 
> After doing this on my own, I then thought to do a Google search on the
> 204B and found many hits in connection with capacitors. Hmmm, seems
> that this failure was well documented and known for 4-5 years. Samsung
> switched cap suppliers and settled for a cheaper version with poor
> quality control. There are even U-Tube movies showing how to open the
> monitor and replace the caps.

Those 2 caps have also go to pasture in the 205bw sitting in front of me 
right now.  It is a common problem with LCD monitors that use a CCFL 
backlight.  There are no brands immune to that. 
> 
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Cheers, Gene
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