What should I know about buying a used external monitor?
October 10, 2014 11:15 AM Subscribe
I want to get an external monitor, and found a Dell model I like (U2412M) on Craigslist. Is there anything I need to know, other than that it works when I plug it in? Do current monitors still get burned out pixels? Do they wear out after a certain amount of time? Is there any reason I should pay twice as much for a new monitor?
Best answer: It's LED backlit, and new enough that Dell still sells it, so you probably don't have to worry about the backlighting dimming. The powersupply could go hinkey, but that's not too likely.
I'd google for the make / model and 'broken' to see if there are common problems with the monitor you want to buy.
posted by wotsac at 12:17 PM on October 10, 2014
I'd google for the make / model and 'broken' to see if there are common problems with the monitor you want to buy.
posted by wotsac at 12:17 PM on October 10, 2014
Check that it comes on promptly. I have a great monitor with an almost dead capacitor that is really slow to warm up.
posted by sammyo at 1:10 PM on October 10, 2014
posted by sammyo at 1:10 PM on October 10, 2014
I have two of these monitors that I am using at this exact moment. There are another 3 dozen within 50 feet of me in active use. There is also an empty office with a boneyard of abandoned monitors that have been dumped in favor of 2412Ms. They are great monitors for doing work (programming etc) and seem to last forever.
posted by rockindata at 1:16 PM on October 10, 2014
posted by rockindata at 1:16 PM on October 10, 2014
Is there any reason I should pay twice as much for a new monitor?
No, i've never bought a new monitor in my entire life.
LED backlit monitors basically don't die. And i feel like it's a bathtub curve thing if they were going to anyways, where it would either fail in like a month or fail in like 10 years. The only dead one i've seen was from a firmware issue, and it was repairable with a weird utility.
CRT monitors, and CCFL backlit LCDs had lots of interesting failure modes.(there's a shelf of LCDs with dead inverters behind me right now). But even some of the very 1st gen samsung LED monitors are still going strong at my office.
posted by emptythought at 2:32 PM on October 10, 2014
No, i've never bought a new monitor in my entire life.
LED backlit monitors basically don't die. And i feel like it's a bathtub curve thing if they were going to anyways, where it would either fail in like a month or fail in like 10 years. The only dead one i've seen was from a firmware issue, and it was repairable with a weird utility.
CRT monitors, and CCFL backlit LCDs had lots of interesting failure modes.(there's a shelf of LCDs with dead inverters behind me right now). But even some of the very 1st gen samsung LED monitors are still going strong at my office.
posted by emptythought at 2:32 PM on October 10, 2014
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You'll need a solid white & solid black screen at minimum to check for pixel/subpixel defects.
You'll want to test that the digital input of your choice works, instead of whatever they have it hooked up to. I could see inputs getting fried from static electricity or something over time.
posted by TheAdamist at 11:43 AM on October 10, 2014