LCD Brokensystem

January 25, 2009 3:22 PM

My LCD monitor (19" F-419 AG Neovo, five years old) is broken/breaking. It probably isn't the backlight. What's up with it?

The failure mode is the image breaking up and fading to black in an odd pixelated way, leaving a dark screen that seems black, but actually has faint vertical lines that appear to be related to the image that should be appearing. The problem isn't with the graphics card, because the 'No image' graphic is affected in the same way. More recently, power-cycling the monitor often doesn't restore the image - it just starts off black. The image is definitely corrupt, and not merely dim - the backlight appears to be working normally, given by the how bright the screen looks in the dark.

The interval between failures appears almost completely random to me, although possibly the fault appears more when the screen is brighter.

Is it completely hosed?

posted by topynate to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Well... It could be the inverter or some other board, and you could possibly find a replacement part for cheap on eBay... but that's sort of an oddball brand. In fact it only looks as though there are replacement power supplies there now. You could create a search and keep watch for a broken "parts only" monitor, but what are the chances you'll come across one? If you wanted to get technical, you could crack it open and see what manufacturer made the panel... that might give you another avenue for replacement parts.

Fact is though that 19" LCD monitors are very inexpensive now and you could even look at it like an upgrade opportunity and go for a 22" or 24" widescreen. Newegg has this well liked 19" widescreen monitor for $129 and this sweet 24" 1080P panel for $229. (By contrast I paid $630 for my Dell 24" LCD two years ago.)
posted by wfrgms at 3:48 PM on January 25

As wfrgms said, it will cost more to fix your existing monitor than it will to buy a better-quality brand new monitor.
posted by mrbill at 6:37 PM on January 25

I guess five years is a good run, considering it's been on for perhaps 50% of that time. Thanks!
posted by topynate at 8:14 PM on January 25