old monitor... trying to fix it

[TerroH8er]

Ok.. this monitor is an old Compaq MV900 which I have on my secondary rig. It's got a bit of a story of it's own.

- One day my monitor kept getting darker and darker, so we took it into a place where they apparently fixed it for $20.
- It was pretty darn bright at first, then it kept getting darker and darker again.
- Then I figured out that the reason why it was darker was because I didn't have Windows set up to put the monitor into standby (thus overworking the monitor I guess)
- Now the monitor is like SUPER bright and the colors are really faded out.. the brightness is set all the way down to zero now and it's still really bright.
- I talked to my cousin about it (who is really into electronics and fixing televisions) and he said that on TVs there are knobs that you can turn (on the inside I guess?) to manually increase the brightness, now what I'm thinking is that since the brightness was at 100 when we gave it to the people who "fixed" our monitor the first time, they just went into the monitor and cranked up that knob or whatever. Now that it's fixed, it is up too high. My cousin also said that a sign of the "internal brightness" set too high is slanted horizontal lines, which I have attached pictures of:

http://www.gmpexpress.net/~kencap/IM000809.jpg
http://www.gmpexpress.net/~kencap/IM000810.jpg
http://www.gmpexpress.net/~kencap/IM000817.jpg
http://www.gmpexpress.net/~kencap/IM000818.jpg

If he is right about the "knob" of some sort, where would it be? Or is it just a dead monitor?

[Carnil]

If it exists, and it isn't on the outside, it would be on the inside. But be very careful when opening up a monitor. The voltages in a power supply can hurt you; the ones inside a monitor can easily kill you.

[Maximouse]

Originally posted by TerroH8er
Ok.. this monitor is an old Compaq MV900 which I have on my secondary rig. It's got a bit of a story of it's own.

- One day my monitor kept getting darker and darker, so we took it into a place where they apparently fixed it for $20.
- It was pretty darn bright at first, then it kept getting darker and darker again.
- Then I figured out that the reason why it was darker was because I didn't have Windows set up to put the monitor into standby (thus overworking the monitor I guess)
- Now the monitor is like SUPER bright and the colors are really faded out.. the brightness is set all the way down to zero now and it's still really bright.


Sounds like the phosphor is dying in the tube. They fixed it by increasing the voltages to the electron guns. Sometimes doing that will last awhile or only a short time depending on the tube. The contrast usually goes as well as the colour. Once the phosphor has reached the washout stage after a voltage increase the only fix is a new picture tube. Better to get a new monitor, it will probably be cheaper:)

Al

[TerroH8er]

Thanks guys.. I might go into the monitor and have a look, but it's my parent's computer (sort of) and it doesn't really bother them so I might just let it go.

[four4875]

i'd leave it be... its not worth losing fingers or even your life if you touch the flyback transformer.