[Nevandal]

I just got a sweet monitor in the mail yesterday...and as I was taking it out of the box and plastic wrap....I used a knife

As I was cutting the plastic wrap...I sawwed into the permenantely attached VGA cable. The monitor is a FE991SB-BK NEC Mitsubishi.


It still works (im using it right now).

I can see some of the copper inside the wire where I cut it though.. Sometimes when the copper is touching the monitor doesn't show anything and goes into a power down state (like when you turn the pc off). When they aren't touching it works fine (in fact i'm using it now).

I can see a few copper shreds..and then a small black covered wire was cut also...


I just blew 279 bucks on this thing...and I'm pretty mad at myself.

I was wondering, if anyone knew how much it would cost to replace the perma-attached VGA cable on this monitor. If possible even...

I'm taking it to a computer shop tomorrow though... I hope someone here can answer my question

[diggingforgold]

If your risky, you can fix it yourself.

Cut away the outer insulation (about 1 inch from the right, and 1 inch from the left of the accidental cut).

Then simply cut away the insulation from the wire (or wires) beneath that where the copper is showing.

Twist the wire together that you accidentally cut to insure a good connection. Then electrical tape the bear copper.

Go out to a hardware store and buy some of that heat-tube/ shrink-tube, and slide a good 5 inch piece past the plug and all the way to the spot where you cut it. Then shrink it, and it should look ok.

You might want to get a long enough piece of tube that will cover the whole distance of the cable. That might be expensive, but it will also look better.

If you take it to a monitor repair place, they will probably charge you a lot. If you do take it, tell them all you want is a repaired or replaced cable, and "to repair something like that shouldn't be that much... right?". Let the repairman know that its a simple job and hint to him that your not as stupid as the average Joe.

If I were you, I would risk doing it yourself first. Then if you ever mess up, you can always call up the repair shop and have them fix it.

Whichever way you decide, I hope it works out. But I wouldn't risk letting that thing short all the time like it is. It may damage your new monitor in the long run.

~JeFF

[CrashOveride]

thats nto too big of an oops... its fixable.. i though you were gonna say you scratched the screen lol

[Stedeman]

/\ what diggingforgold said, just take your time (your original problem) /\

[Nevandal]

How much do you think this is gonna cost?



And anohter question: On the inside of the monitor casing is there a way that this cable unplugs or something? Why the heck do they make permenantly attached cables anyway??? I hate perma-cables :/

[BaldHeadedDork]

It shouldn't cost more than a few bucks to do a cheap fix. The most I think you could spend would be $20, and that would be for fully cutting the wires, soldering them and doing the heat sleeves for the wiring and the cord. Since the monitor has signal problems when the cord is moved, you should go this route anyway.

I seriously doubt if getting inside the monitor case would reveal an easier fix. Chances are the cord is either soldered to the PCI board or attaches to it with a proprietary plug arrangement. Why do they do this? I don't know.




BHD

[Nevandal]

Hmm...I meant how much do you think it would cost if I had it done at a repair place?

[JDXNC]

Its not hard!!! I did 2 myself. I got 2 17" monitors from work free because they got robboed and the thiefs cut all the wires... so i bought an 8ft KVM monitor cable(because it has 2 ends on it), cut it in half and used one piece for each monitor. *Most* of those cables are not permanatly attached, once you open up the casing they plug into a circuit board inside. But the trouble is that not all are made the same. So I say your best bet is to do what diggingforgold said. Its really not that hard, all the wires are color coded. I was in a much worse scenario because the new cables and the stubs left on the monitors didn't match cause they were different brands, but with a multi meter I was able to repair both in about an hour. They both work great to this day. You have a pretty easy task there... you can do it!

[ToledoSteel]

Yeah, just repair the cable yourself. It shouldn't be that bad. Sounds like you only nicked 1 or 2 cables. They are probably touching which is why it is powering down.

btw: Why don't they have a connector on those just like the back of the vid card? My sony has a second input with a connector like that. Why don't they do the same with the primary?

[Nevandal]

Okay I will try to do it myself....I'll just use the same cable...all I need to do is twist the wires together?

I'm not going to solder anything So if twisting them together isn't gonna be good enough let me know..

Also I need to find a computer monitor repair place...anyone got any suggestions?

[Nevandal]

Well....it DOES work fine right now..

So If I am able to tape it so the wires never touch...it should work fine.

Will this be okay to do that? All that Is cut it lookslike a small black wire, and some mesh shielding stuff...other wires have their covering cut but mostly still intact. Everything else is okay though.

Would there be anything wrong with my monitor if I let it run like this?

[Nevandal]

Okay I ended up taking it in to a local computer shop. Cost: 40 bucks.

I took it in Monday....I called them today (thursday) and they said they cannot replace it, they'd have to solder the wires together. So they charged me another 40 bucks. Damn what a rip huh? I'm really ****ed off.

I'll never be this stupid in cutting my monitor cable again... /sigh

I guess you just gotta pay for your mistakes




EDIT: And I just want to add I did not have access to a soldering gun or the patience / skill to solder so many wires in such a small space

[n17ikh]

Too bad... I have a monitor almost just like that and I love it... the FE990-BK... My first ever 19 inch.... I really think that they should not make the cable permanently attached, as whenever I move the monitor I always accidentally set it down on the cord and I'm afraid I'll damage it as the monitor weighs 51 pounds according to the datasheet...

[Excelsior]

Thing is production costs to make it detachable would probably only raise each monitor's price by about 4 dollars but noo tahts too much for the manufacturers

[hawk072]

I've noticed that most of the older monitors I've owned or used have detachable cables. Now all the new monitors no matter how expensive have permanent cables attached.

I'm using a Sony G420S now and it has a permanent cable. It also has dual inputs which would help alot in this situation. I could always buy a new cable and hook it up to the second input if something happened to the original cable.

[Excelsior]

http://www.oc-ware.com/reviews/Monitor%20Repair%201.php

i wrote up an article on how to repair your monitor cables JUST for you