Dead monitor?

Phonesis · 8 Nov 2021 at 20:27

My trusty Samsung T240 SyncMaster, which I originally bought from OcUK in 2009, appears to have died. Was such a good monitor I never felt any urge to upgrade but luckily do have a second display I am now using as the primary.

Wondering if this sounds like a hardware fault... it hisses slightly when a signal goes into it via DV-I cable, picture comes on for second or 2, then all goes black.

Have tried:

-Unplugging power from monitor and retrying above
-Using cable I have for my secondary monitor (along with different GPU output slot)
-Switching cables between the two gpu slots.

Still get above each time.

It is now unplugged and I guess on the way to the tip tomorrow. Anyone got any other ideas? Be a shame to say goodbye as had it so long!

bremen1874 · 8 Nov 2021 at 20:30

The PSU is the most likely culprit.

Phonesis · 8 Nov 2021 at 22:03

Is it worth fixing? Considering age of monitor here. It is an internal PSU

bremen1874 · 8 Nov 2021 at 22:22

Probably not. If it is the PSU, the fix is likely to be replacing a load of failed capacitors which wouldn't be that difficult if you can work out which end of a soldering iron gets hot.

The fault could also be the backlight or the backlight drivers (assuming that it's old enough to have CCFL tubes rather than LEDs). Shine a torch into the screen when it goes black and see if there's still an image.

Phonesis · 9 Nov 2021 at 10:51

Hmm ok I will try it with a PS4 or something just to test HDMI. Got feeling it is done for though. It had a good life! 12 years and never once felt urge to change it.

Guess time to move into the 4k res world though.

Any recommendations for a 24-27ish size monitor that will work well with gaming/PC on GTX 960 which I will upgrade eventually along with plugging in my work Macbook Pro? Ideally therefore it needs usb c too.

EsaT · 9 Nov 2021 at 15:50

Phonesis said:
Guess time to move into the 4k res world though.

Expensive if you want more modern refresh rate for gaming than old 60Hz.
Also 27" really isn't ideal for it and needs shorter viewing distance to get that screen real estate benefit over 2560x1440.

bremen1874 said:
The fault could also be the backlight or the backlight drivers (assuming that it's old enough to have CCFL tubes rather than LEDs).

Also backlight's power supply is likely to fail sooner than CCFL tubes.
Especially all tubes failing simultaneously would be really unlikely.

Anyway wouldn't bother going through all the work for TN.
Though if use is only reading text then it would still go with 1920x1200 being far better resolution than cut down Full HD crap.

Phonesis · 10 Nov 2021 at 10:41

thanks I am now after a monitor to replace it with as my current one, although ok, only has a single dvd-d and rbg connection.

Want something with usb-c for macbook pro and display port. Ideally 24-28inch. Any ideas?