You may have heard me complain that the monitor I used on my Windows machine went kaput on me. After some trial and error I learned I could split the monitor case open and get to the electronics inside. Here I discovered three electrolytic capacitors “puffed out” and so I replaced them. There was definitely something wrong. For example, a 1000 uF cap was measured at about 240 uF, and a 740 cap was running somewhere around 350 uF. I was sure that I had found the culprit, and so I buttoned everything up and tried it. Easy peazy. Well, not so much. It continued to fail and so this was where I decided to quit, keeping to my motto, “You never want to give up, but you always need to know when to quit.” Some things are not as important as taking the preverbal high ground.
From my investigations on the BVARC site, I knew that there are plenty of these monitors around for little money cash. Last night I pulled the monitor apart one last time before unnecessarily commending its body to the sea; my garbage; one more DIY repair that did not work. There was simply no way that I was going to proceed without the bench space and time to work on it, or some idea of what might likely be the primary issue(s). This old monitor power supply was loaded with types of capacitors and MOSFET transistors, which I know can fail with time. “A man’s got to know his limitations.” I had given it my best. But wait. This was no failure. It was a learning experience. I would have held on to the thing if I had not carelessly scratched the plasma surface with a screwdriver. I ultimately learned that the plasma screen is where the real money is but the power supply is usually what fails. For grins, I searched for and easily found exact replacements for the power supply available all over the internet. You just punch in the model number and version of the board. What’s more, this same board is found in name brand and knock-offs of all sorts, meaning that probably the rest of the monitor was likely the same, and that the only difference might be the plastic case. What is more, you can do this same thing with all kinds of electronics boards. It is worth mentioning my belief that the cause of the failure was a power surges due to the many lightning storms and power outages we have had this year. (Global warming is not going to defeat me! No sir-ee! "My head is bloody, but not bowed.” Though, I did kind of bang my head while I was crawling under my desk.) If I had to do it again, I would buy a verified replacement power supply for around $30 delivered. This is not likely to happen though, since I will now run my computer and monitor through an APS. Mark N5PRD Comments listed above are not necessarily my own. Names might not have been changed to protect the guilty. ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
