View Full Version : CRT lifespan?
Vertical_Zer0
05-22-05, 09:14 PM
This might be a tough question to answer, but what is the expected lifespan of a CRT monitor?
I'm hoping for mine to die rather soon so I can get a nice new LCD screen (the GF won't let me buy one now because I don't "need" it).
BrutalDrew
05-22-05, 09:20 PM
monitors last a really long time. I find it funny you want your monitor to break though..lol
Vertical_Zer0
05-22-05, 09:23 PM
Yes, and this is likely the only possible situation in which I would actively hope for something to break.
Cyrix_2k
05-22-05, 09:55 PM
Yes, and this is likely the only possible situation in which I would actively hope for something to break.
Why don't you "accidentally" break it? *shifty eyes* "Honestly! I don't know how that taser got near the VGA plug..."
9mmCensor
05-22-05, 10:01 PM
Good ones last a long time. Cheap ones seem to degrade in quality over time.
jopapa1267
05-22-05, 10:33 PM
short circuit it lol and hope it doesnt blow up on u.
short circuit it lol and hope it doesnt blow up on u.
haha....
why dont you just let it run all night and whenever youre not using it on highest brightness and highest contrast settings
SavageBasher
05-22-05, 10:52 PM
turn it on and off many many times, degause it as much as you can, put a giant electromagnet under it....
...throw old hard drives at it...
ju5tin99
05-22-05, 10:56 PM
Just put a magnet up against the screen. Haven't you ever seen how TV's turn purple when they have a magnet on them? Leave it there long enough and I believe you will get a huge purple spot that just "spontaneously developed".
Cyrix_2k
05-22-05, 10:58 PM
Just put a magnet up against the screen. Haven't you ever seen how TV's turn purple when they have a magnet on them? Leave it there long enough and I believe you will get a huge purple spot that just "spontaneously developed".
sadly, deguassing will fix that.
tom10167
05-22-05, 10:59 PM
Sell it on Ebay or give it away.
ju5tin99
05-22-05, 11:01 PM
sadly, deguassing will fix that.
Wow. Didnt' know that. What exactly is degaussing? (I know how to push the button but I'm looking for specifics.)
Yea it seems a shame to waste a monitor. Find out if a friend/family member needs a monitor and just say you wanna help them out.
And if it's your girlfriend, you can do what you want with your own money. If it was your wife I would understand.
Don't break something that some people can't even afford.
rebelwarlock
05-23-05, 12:12 AM
...throw old hard drives at it...
ROFL!
i actually have an old dead hard drive right here...
*eyes monitor evily*
diggingforgold
05-23-05, 12:20 AM
Wow. Didnt' know that. What exactly is degaussing? (I know how to push the button but I'm looking for specifics.)
It just de-magnifies the metal components inside the CRT (or adjusts the metal for any changes in the magnetic field around the monitor). Magnatized CRT's can cause distortion and an overall poor image.
Anyway- CRT's can last 10-15 years. Most cheap ones die before that tho.
ghettocomp
05-23-05, 01:52 AM
Monitors will last a really long time when you want it to die...
I have an old EGA monitor that still works! and good too.
It was a good thing I got another dead monitor that looked like it :rolleyes:
Binman_UK
05-23-05, 05:44 AM
My 19" Belinea 106030 croaked yesterday - the screen just went black and it stayed that way. Lasted 4 years, which sux really, coz now I'm gonna have to shell out £400 for a Dell 2005fpw.
Binny.
Vertical_Zer0
05-23-05, 07:24 AM
Yeah, I wasn't planning on actually sabotaging it :)
I've been looking for someone to sell/give to locally because shipping over the internet would be a bit of a pain.
I have a CRT that my family bought in 1987... It still works, even though it has a slight yellow tint to it.
nealric
05-23-05, 03:28 PM
a quality crt will have a lifespan slightly longer than cretacious period and slightly shorter than the age of the earth.
:D
I have seen plenty of 386 era crts still running fine to this day.
For that matter, my old hs, when I left, still had a few apple IIe computers with the original crt working fine.
Cyrix_2k
05-23-05, 03:31 PM
a quality crt will have a lifespan slightly longer than cretacious period and slightly shorter than the age of the earth.
:D
I have seen plenty of 386 era crts still running fine to this day.
For that matter, my old hs, when I left, still had a few apple IIe computers with the original crt working fine.
I have an Apple ][c monitor that still works fine :)
Oklahoma Wolf
05-23-05, 04:57 PM
The CRT itself should last about 15-30,000 hours of on time before it reaches half its initial brightness level. Some last longer, while some cheap ones go early. The life of the electronics can vary as well depending how well designed the monitor is.
Usually I find myself replacing them after 6 years or so if they're well built enough to last that long. My refurb Dell P991 (Sony rebadge) is going on 2.5 years now with 9 hour days at full brightness, however I do turn down the contrast a bit when I buy these to lengthen tube life.
shellshock
05-23-05, 05:07 PM
ya, my old school had old Ibm's with win 95 on them, it was for some learning program called CCC. The montors on those things were blurry cause they had been on for so much.
They got rid of that this year (my bro goes to that school now) and replaced them with new lcd's
So i guess montors do go out
I have a KDS VS-21e (21") CRT. I have had it since my sophomore year of college (I think 2001). I paid $452 shipped for it, and the thing still works fine. I think the only thing wrong with it is that once in a while I get a really weird affect with it... the viewable screen narrows a VERY tiny bit, and I see these very dimm, horizontal lines. They are not black or white lines, but I don't know how to explain it. It's hard to see them, though.
I think MAYBE it's my KVM switch that's causing the problem, but I'm not sure.
Anyways, if you want to kill your monitor I think it's fairly easy. Get RefreshLock (google it) and manually raise the refresh rates beyond your specs. I know someone that blew up his monitor like that.
I'm actually thinking of trying this on a cheap monitor. That would be very fun!
Cyrix_2k
05-23-05, 05:32 PM
I have a KDS VS-21e (21") CRT. I have had it since my sophomore year of college (I think 2001). I paid $452 shipped for it, and the thing still works fine. I think the only thing wrong with it is that once in a while I get a really weird affect with it... the viewable screen narrows a VERY tiny bit, and I see these very dimm, horizontal lines. They are not black or white lines, but I don't know how to explain it. It's hard to see them, though.
I think MAYBE it's my KVM switch that's causing the problem, but I'm not sure.
Anyways, if you want to kill your monitor I think it's fairly easy. Get RefreshLock (google it) and manually raise the refresh rates beyond your specs. I know someone that blew up his monitor like that.
I'm actually thinking of trying this on a cheap monitor. That would be very fun!
I think I might have to try that refreshlock thing with the POS 14" KDS in my basement. It won't even do 1024x768 @ 75hz.
::edit:: all it does is go in to protect mode :(
!!Be careful!! I know some people that had their monitors go on fire! DO NOT BURN DOWN YOUR HOUSE!
Vertical_Zer0
05-24-05, 10:20 AM
I have only had one CRT die on me... it came with an eMachines system (BIG mistake by the way) my parents bought about 6 years ago... after 1 year the monitor gave out. My sister came running upstairs and woke me up at 1:30 AM telling me that the monitor blew up and green smoke was spewing everywhere. I reluctantly dragged myself downstairs, but the gas had stopped escaping. I turned on the exhaust fan (colored gases are always poisonous), shut down the computer, and went back to bed. The next day I hooked up a small 14 inch viewsonic, but a few days later the computer's hard drive died so my parents went out and bought a new Compaq... this was years before I ever built my own :)
WOW! How poisonous is the gas? That's very dangerous... shoulda called up someone to b*tch at, like the makers of that monitor.
Btw, I hate compaq. We had some reallllly old apple computer of some sort at my house about 15 years ago, but then I got my first REAL personal PC in 1996. It was a Compaq Presario with a 133mhz pentium, and 16mb ram. The thing was awesome at first (I was only like 14 or 15 at the time), but eventually it became a NIGHTMARE! Ever since then I've been a Compaq hater!
By the way, I had a dream last night about my 21" monitor getting all screwed up, and I was going to buy the HYUNDAI L90D+, lol. I don't need a new monitor, but I think all this talk made me have that dream.
wpmegee
05-24-05, 12:00 PM
I'd say about 5 years for most CRTs. Cheaper ones will either get dimmer and dimmer over time, or will lose sharpness.
I'm surprised that mine's still alive. I mean I've been gaming on it since day 1. And let me just tell you... I had a serious gaming problem for about 2 years in college, so you can only IMAGINE how many hours of serious refreshing that my monitor had to do.
Archer36
05-26-05, 03:40 PM
!!Be careful!! I know some people that had their monitors go on fire! DO NOT BURN DOWN YOUR HOUSE!Ahh that was me! At our cottage once, got in its like what is that smell? I knew it had that electronic smell, looked at the monitor saw the blue smoke and guess when the smoke was gone the monitor no longer worked (a crappy emachine one). I did get a nice new Samsung one though.
Vertical_Zer0
05-26-05, 04:38 PM
So both of our emachine monitors blew up! How interesting... we should sue :D
Cyrix_2k
05-26-05, 04:39 PM
So both of our emachine monitors blew up! How interesting... we should sue :D
lol. Were they emachine brand monitors? The one that came with my emachines was a KDS, which is the one I tried to kill, but just complains it's out of scan range.
Vertical_Zer0
05-26-05, 04:44 PM
Hmm as far as I can recall it was branded as emachine.
Archer36
05-26-05, 04:59 PM
Hmm as far as I can recall it was branded as emachine.Yep mine was too.
ghettocomp
05-28-05, 09:20 PM
ROFL!! eMachines..... I had one, everything blew up. Only thing that still works now is the mouse. I guess they were bad, [D-word] OEM comps, I have never had any last long.
comps AND monitors
2 compaq monitors & server machines- burned, bad psu and monitors went next day.
5-6 Dell - same thing- BURNED
1 Gateway - BUrned :shrug: this was not that bad of a rig... monitor died 1 month earlier.
4 Acer - lets not even discuss those POS!
Even had an old 386 fry on me. but I think that was the fault of the electric company. Only good news on that one is they did buy me a new P-166 rig (top of the line then)
I haven't had anything blow up on me yet < knock on wood >.
I have only killed my ti4600 (dunno how). That's pretty much it. < knock on wood more >
xTrEmEoVrClOcKr
05-28-05, 09:32 PM
Your GF probably wont spend a lot of money on a LCD (By you saying "Nice", im thinking 19" or 21" LCD with a 8-12ms rate, here comes 500 or 600 or even 700 bucks worth of an LCD, GL with that) :rolleyes:
Cyrix_2k
05-28-05, 09:40 PM
ROFL!! eMachines..... I had one, everything blew up. Only thing that still works now is the mouse. I guess they were bad, [D-word] OEM comps, I have never had any last long.
comps AND monitors
2 compaq monitors & server machines- burned, bad psu and monitors went next day.
5-6 Dell - same thing- BURNED
1 Gateway - BUrned :shrug: this was not that bad of a rig... monitor died 1 month earlier.
4 Acer - lets not even discuss those POS!
Even had an old 386 fry on me. but I think that was the fault of the electric company. Only good news on that one is they did buy me a new P-166 rig (top of the line then)
We had 2 emachines- one died about 3 years after we had it (Celly 466). The other (Cyrix MKII) STILL works. I switched the Cyrix out for a PII 266 a while back, then put a pelt on it. My dad turned the computer off about a week after the pelt install and since the pelt was on a second PSU and the HSF was on the computer PSU, the entire thing got really F'ing hot and melted the plastic tabs off the CPU socket. Amazingly it still works with the HSF superglued to CPU.
I have 3 gateway monitors that all work. The one is a 15" CRT that was built in 1995, the next is a 19" CRT built in '97, and the last is the 15" LCD built in 2000 I'm using right now.
Downstairs we have 2 HP's for my dad to use. The first one has worked fine since day one. The next came DOA and was RMA'd; it's replacement also came DOA, but I fixed it. It had wires stuck in the HSF so the processor (AXP 2200+ :)) was overheating.
As far as comcrap goes- don't get me started :rolleyes:
firebat45
05-28-05, 10:00 PM
haha, im going on 12 years with my secondary monitor, and 10 years with my main. Im too cheap to buy something that doesnt affect the performance of my comp, id rather buy more ram or a new mobo and cpu than a LCD monitor....
I've only heard BAD THINGS about emachines.
sunrunner20
05-28-05, 10:40 PM
sadly, deguassing will fix that.
Actually, a hdd magnet at point blank will permanently distort the image..... I didn't know that when I did it to this monitor.... now one spot is darker no matter how many times I degaussed it. Though I've gotten used to it now, I don't remember where it was, I didn't have it there very long. Just a demo, I imagine it would work wonders if held there for a while. And, this monitor is 10 years now, and we have older... much older, like 15+ :drool: they don't have good res but were obviously built to last, wish that was the same today. Btw, I have some of those magnets sitting around....
All the monitors i've bought I bought because I wanted something better. I've never had one fail on me. I had one get this strange line that would move up and down the screen, but it was hardly noticable.
Actually, a hdd magnet at point blank will permanently distort the image..... I didn't know that when I did it to this monitor.... now one spot is darker no matter how many times I degaussed it. Though I've gotten used to it now, I don't remember where it was, I didn't have it there very long. Just a demo, I imagine it would work wonders if held there for a while. And, this monitor is 10 years now, and we have older... much older, like 15+ :drool: they don't have good res but were obviously built to last, wish that was the same today. Btw, I have some of those magnets sitting around....
Awww... you must have been ****ED when you realized what you did. I know I would be ****ed. :bang head
Cyrix_2k
05-29-05, 12:12 AM
Actually, a hdd magnet at point blank will permanently distort the image..... I didn't know that when I did it to this monitor.... now one spot is darker no matter how many times I degaussed it. Though I've gotten used to it now, I don't remember where it was, I didn't have it there very long. Just a demo, I imagine it would work wonders if held there for a while. And, this monitor is 10 years now, and we have older... much older, like 15+ :drool: they don't have good res but were obviously built to last, wish that was the same today. Btw, I have some of those magnets sitting around....
Yes, it is possible to permaently distort the image by actaully moving the shadow mask with a strong magnet. I guess that's what you did.
Deguassing coil fixes that. Usually.
Cyrix_2k
05-29-05, 06:39 PM
Deguassing coil fixes that. Usually.
If he actually moved the entire shadow mask, the degaussing coil won't help :(
Vertical_Zer0
05-29-05, 07:24 PM
Well, I ordered a 19" Samsung 930B from Best Buy (they had a GREAT deal - about $300 after the $80 rebate online). However, I ordered store pickup and they told me it would be ready in 1 hour. It wasn't - in fact, they had screwed up my entire order. I cancelled it and am now patiently waiting for Newegg to start selling the 930B monitor.
Well, I know they had the Hyundai L90D+ on sale for like 349 free ship... dunno if it's that same deal, but I'm sure it's close. :)
nookuwn
05-31-05, 03:33 PM
i had 3 monitor died on me, one just reacently, they all lasted about 4 yrs, wonders if its because they all no names.
the first one started to die over couple of weeks with the image on screen slowly shrunks...lol
the second one died when i bought a new computer, probably cuz of refresh rate...i know nothing then
the recent one started to black out at 60hz refresh rate, though it works at 85hz, then after a week or so, it just doesnt show anything on screen. It made this ticking like its about explode...haha
now im using an lcd thats missing a power adapter, so i have to use the PSU to feed power, heh
I have about 10,000 power cables, lol. You can have one from me for free. I have SO many.
**EDIT**
This is in reference to straight cable wiring, NO ac adapter.
RJARRRPCGP
05-31-05, 04:49 PM
I have only had one CRT die on me... it came with an eMachines system (BIG mistake by the way) my parents bought about 6 years ago... after 1 year the monitor gave out. My sister came running upstairs and woke me up at 1:30 AM telling me that the monitor blew up and green smoke was spewing everywhere.
The cause was likely a cap failure. I dunno, because what if the caps were put on backwards.
http://badcaps.net
Foxie3a
05-31-05, 06:13 PM
With the old Apple IIC or whatever they're called, they could be dying, and you'd never know. How many of you would be able to tell if it's dying based on a few characters in lime green, again a full black background? :p (joke)
Now to be serious. My Envision flat CRT has lasted maybe 2-3 years already. Max brightness, and it's been at 120hz for a while, maybe a year. My other monitor is maybe 5 years old, never looked too great, but it hasn't degraded.
I also have a monitor from a Zenith Pentium 1, the monitor is actually Zenith also. Very bright and chrisp, better than the one I have from 5 years ago, even though that one is from like 10 years ago. Can't do higher than 640x480 though unfortunately.
So it looks like they last for a very long time.
What I would do, if put the magnet by it, so it distorts the image. Tell her, and show her how it is dying. Then you can buy a new one. Since it's not completely dead, maybe keep it in a closet for backup. I wouldn't destroy it if it's working good. You can give it to me if you want. :)
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