Monitor suddenly turned black...

[Ikith]

I'm having a very bad morning. My monitor just turned black and won't come back on no matter where I plug it in. I assume its toast is there any way to fix it? :'(

[Shuemue]

Changed the fuse?

[Purrrfect]

Had the same thing happen to a monitor of mine a couple years ago? It's an lcd monitor right? Time to go shopping I think.

[Spekkio]

dead backlight probably. can be fixed for about 10 bucks if you know how to solder iirc.

[mootsfox]

dead backlight probably. can be fixed for about 10 bucks if you know how to solder iirc.

You don't even need to know how to solder, just buy new CCFLs for it.

You'll have to take apart the monitor, but since it's a desktop model you won't have to dissemble the actual LCD panel.

[Spekkio]

You don't even need to know how to solder, just buy new CCFLs for it.

You'll have to take apart the monitor, but since it's a desktop model you won't have to dissemble the actual LCD panel.

thought most of the backlights were soldered in. we're not talking careful soldering, but just soldering the wires to huge contacts on either end. i actually have an old samsung 17 inch that i need to do this to, so i'm curious if i was under the wrong impression of how to do it.

[mootsfox]

thought most of the backlights were soldered in. we're not talking careful soldering, but just soldering the wires to huge contacts on either end. i actually have an old samsung 17 inch that i need to do this to, so i'm curious if i was under the wrong impression of how to do it.

There are different types of CCFLs, but in general you have x number of tubes, connected to an inverter board. It connects via a simple 2 wire plug. Once you get the new tubes, you'll pull the old ones out, unplug them and replace with the new ones. It should be fairly quick and painless.

I shouldn't have said that you won't have to take apart the panel, because that can be the case sometimes. If you do have to take part the panel, you'll have two CCFL's to replace, one at the top and the other at the bottom of the screen. This requires taking apart the actual display and can be difficult/you can further ruin your display.

But no, there shouldn't be any soldering unless you bought the wrong CCFL's

If you decide to fix it yourself, and it comes to that, post again and I'll write up a short walkthrough or find one online.

Oh, and if you just wanna say "fuck it" and buy a new panel, hit me up with a PM with the model of the screen and how much you want for it.

[Spekkio]

Inventgeek.com - LCD Backlight Fix - Overview
this is the tutorial i was going off of and it directly mentions having to resolder the bulb to replace the old one. perhaps the design has changed in more recent years to be more modular and repair friendly. do you have a suggested source for bulbs? i actually have at my office an old 17 inch viewsonic that i was told the bulb ate itself on too. one of these days i'll get around to replacing both and setting up a purdy desktop for myself.

[mootsfox]

Inventgeek.com - LCD Backlight Fix - Overview
this is the tutorial i was going off of and it directly mentions having to resolder the bulb to replace the old one. perhaps the design has changed in more recent years to be more modular and repair friendly. do you have a suggested source for bulbs? i actually have at my office an old 17 inch viewsonic that i was told the bulb ate itself on too. one of these days i'll get around to replacing both and setting up a purdy desktop for myself.

You can find most of this stuff on ebay, your guide uses regular CCFL bulbs, which if you used, you'd have to solder.

[Ikith]

Is there any way to tell if its definitely the back lights or if its the whole panel?

[Skeelo]

ok well almost same thing happend to me this morning. and its realllly pissing me off. i was playing on it just fine last night. i scheduled a error check over night. it was on when i got up this morning. packed it up to bring it to work and i plug it in at work open it up and its a white/gray screen and wont do anything. the backlight is on and it turns on fine. just a white/grey screen and wont respond to anything. If i hit a few buttons it just has a loud beeping noise at me. any suggestions?

[mootsfox]

Is there any way to tell if its definitely the back lights or if its the whole panel?

The chances of a LCD panel up and dying without outside influence is like zero. The panel is a TFT film, a piece of plastic used for support and diffusion, and diffusion layers of paper/plastic.

If not the backlight, one of the logic boards may have gone bad, or the monitor's power supply. You can't check these yourself without an oscilloscope or multimeter, respectively.

CCFL's only have a life of 10,000 to 50,000 hours, with huge reductions possible from shock, temperature, humidity, and irregular current.

A dead backlight is the first place I'd look, but it could be something more. In the end, it might be a wiser idea to just buy a new monitor. I'm not trying to insult you here, but you don't sound extremely tech savy, and replacing CCFL's yourself is likely only to cause a headache.

[Ikith]

The chances of a LCD panel up and dying without outside influence is like zero. The panel is a TFT film, a piece of plastic used for support and diffusion, and diffusion layers of paper/plastic.

If not the backlight, one of the logic boards may have gone bad, or the monitor's power supply. You can't check these yourself without an oscilloscope or multimeter, respectively.

CCFL's only have a life of 10,000 to 50,000 hours, with huge reductions possible from shock, temperature, humidity, and irregular current.

A dead backlight is the first place I'd look, but it could be something more. In the end, it might be a wiser idea to just buy a new monitor. I'm not trying to insult you here, but you don't sound extremely tech savy, and replacing CCFL's yourself is likely only to cause a headache.

I am tech savvy however my lifes work isn't working on monitors half of the computers I work on don't even have monitors plugged into them. I asked what I asked because I don't really want to waste 20-30 bucks on back lights when the whole panel is toast and I'm sure you wouldn't either.

[Spekkio]

most likely if the display is black if the backlight is toast and you look REAL close at the monitor you can see a slight image of whatever should display on the screen. if the display is toast, you'll either see a bright, blank image or just a totally black screen with no faint image on it.

[Ikith]

I just hooked it up to my laptop powered it on and looked really close and couldn't even see a faint image.

[Spekkio]

make sure you have some fairly strong direct light and a fairly distinct pattern. it's also possible i'm wrong about the visibility of the image but i know that the monitor that i had that failed clearly showed a faint outline of the sharp edges of the background image.

[Kryssan]

If you think the problem is just with your backlight, get a high powered flashlight and hold it near perpendicular to the top of your screen and boot up your computer. Need to hold it in such a way the light doesn't reflect from the screen otherwise you won't be able to tell much. Play with holding it a little and you'll understand what I mean. The white text/black background of POST/BIOS load should be really easy to see with this setup. Had to do this plenty of times with the Dolch computers we used to use at work because their lights would fail if users didn't turn them off with keyboard function code when they closed (really old laptops without shutoff switches)... and yeah. Some days I hated being an administrator, I really did.


If you have another computer test it on that as well, much easier. Because there is this popular little error with Windows called the 'black screen loadup' that some users have the joy of experiencing... in which case, have fun with Google. You'll find lots of info on it.