Hi to all,

I have a problem with my monitor that started a few weeks ago and now
it seems to become more serious.

My computer and monitor are Packard-Bell, from 1998, but both were used
for a very, very short period of time ( in total about a year, a few
hours in a week ), that is, they are almost new.
I'm using WIN98SE.

The monitor never had any problems, the colors and sound were perfect
( microphones are on the two sides of the screen ), but a few weeks
ago the screen simply started to go black after about 2 hours of work.
The LED light still looked green and the computer itself continued to
work, for example sound from an Internet broadcating site continued to
be heard ok.
In this case I had to turn off the power of the monitor from its
front-end button and turn it on again after a few seconds.
When turning it on again, a sound like a "metalic click" was heard,
and then everything went on ok for more 2-3 hours. Then the same
occurred again.

After some time, the monitor simply started to do this during cold boot,
that is, after the first screen shown on power-on, the screen simply
gets black, producing a "low sparkling sound" and I need to do the same as above, monitor power-off and power-on, to get to the desktop.

Now, while in the desktop, I see that the desktop image on the lower part of the screen has a small vibration motion.
This motion stops if I enter an application, for example a small game
window, and reappears when exiting that application.
This motion appears immediately after the first boot.

Also, after 2-3 hours of work (mainly Internet browsing), the image
simply started to become darker and darker and the current window's
borders "stretched out" and became somewhat curved, without touching
the screen setup menu.
Then the screen started to black out almost every minute, that is,
when I turned it off and on, the next minute it blacked out again.

I'd be very grateful if somebody could advise me whether this could be
a problem of the monitor itself and whether it could be repaired, or
is it possible that the computer is causing the problem.

I think something could be wrong with the electric part of the monitor,
also I read on other threads about some heating problems causing this.

The computer box itself was opened a few weeks ago by a technician and he found its inside surprisingly clean, but without touching the
monitor, whose problem seemed minor at that time.

Any help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks anticipately,
Iudith:(

Based on your description of symptoms:
It is most likely the monitor power supply going away due to capacitor problems. Six years is a long time and those PB monitors were not all that great to begin with.
DO NOT try to take a monitor apart unless you have been technically trained to repair them as the retained voltages inside are LETHAL.

Hi PrntRhd,

Thanks for your prompt answer.

I agree with you that this is not the best of the monitors, considering
it has such problems after about one single year of usage (in spite of
its age, it was not used more than a year, and even during this year,
for a very, very short time).

If I understand you well, this problem can however be repaired, of
course, by a specialist.

You see, I don't like their "style" here, whatever problem you have,
they always finish by trying to convince you that you need a new
computer, because most of the time the technicians are also sales
persons of different suppliers. So, if you are not a technician by
yourself, you cannot be sure whether they tell you the truth or not.

My computer usage is not a very intensive one, because most of the
time I'm at work (by the way, the computer at my work works all day
long, already for a few years, with no such problems !).

Therefore I don't really intend to change it every year.
I'll be grateful if you could confirm my conclusion that this problem
could be repaired at least for some other year of work or, the opposite,
I'll better start to look after another monitor.

Thanks a lot & My best regards,
Iudith

If I understand you well, this problem can however be repaired, of
course, by a specialist.

Monitors often can be repaired, however the cost of those repairs is often equal to, or exceeds the cost of a newer better quality monitor, which will likely also last longer than the repaired one.

I took my 1st monitor to be repaired by specialists.

It worked fine for 3-6 months then broke down again.
They repaired it at reduced cost, but it broke down for a 3rd time after another few months.

So I bought a new Iiyama monitor and it has worked flawlessly for years now.
Conclusion:
You are probably better off buying a new one.

Try the monitor in another PC just to check that it is indeed the monitor that's at fault.

And try to borrow a working monitor to connect to your PC as a check that the PC has nothing wrong with it.

Thanks to both of you for the answers.

Of course it can happen that a new monitor will cost less than
repairing the old one, but this is exactly where the problem resides,
at least in our place.

When I bought my computer, I was sure it was brand new, out of the box.
But today, as I see ( I have an unsolvable problem with the mouse also ), I'm not so sure it was really new.

Of course they are always eager to sell you a "new" computer, but
I cannot be sure it is really new, or they just sell you a refurbished
one as a new one, and then, after a short time, all the problems start
again. I suppose this was the case with my computer also.

I'd prefer a new one, but I cannot find out my way among the "clever
ones" that know how to exploit your lack of knowledge.

My best regards,
Iudith
:confused:

When I considered buying our first PC I had no experience whatever.
But I did have previous experience of buying unwisely.
[I bought an "Ovation Baladeer, custom cutaway", guitar from my local music shop, and the frets were subtly flawed, when supposedly new.]
I learned then that it's a good idea to get help from someone who knows, or to buy from a reputable source [if you can identify one].

I didn't know anyone who was knowledable on the topic of PC's and I didn't know which sellers were reputable.
But my son was at University then and he said that there was someone there who sold PC's with official sanction.
So I got my son to buy a PC from the University seller.
That was Xmas 1996, and I'm still using that PC [with a few updates].

I now tend to buy items recommended as "Best Buy" by my PC Magazine, or from a local PC retailer who "piles 'em high and sells 'em cheap".
His shop is too busy to bother with trying to sell anything other than boxed items, never opened, that he can trust his customers won't bring back with complaints. He wants to keep those to a minimum I'm sure, and succeeds in that. His goods are competitively priced and never let me [or him] down.
I did buy my Hewlett Packard CD-RW drive from an online/phoneline retailer and the hardware was perfect, though their sevice was less than perfect.

When I needed a new monitor, I read through the magazine and selected one of they recommended, and bought it [online I think]. That one didn't work well out of the box and I sent it back [I lost the cost of transportation]. The next recommended one I chose was the IIyama, and that turned out to be a real winner.
If it failed within 3 years, I was to put it back in its original box, post it back to them, and they would, within 3 days, send a replacement, of equal or better quality and ability, with the same number of hours of use.
It's more than 3 years now and it has never so much as blinked.

Hi Sylvander,

I'm so happy somebody understands my point.
If you talked about your son, then we are more or less the same generation and therefore maybe we can't understand what goes on today.

I also worked for years on an old XT of a friend, "born" in 1989,
I used it day and night from 1996 until 2001 without any monitor problem.
It was already tired, here and there a specific character didn't light
on, but the screen never turned black !
Good old fellow, who knows what faithful service is !!!

Now, they only want to sell.
When something is very cheap, I always suspect to be something wrong
with it, especially if declared as "new".

When I bought my computer in 1998 it wasn't cheap at all for those times, I also bought it through a "guaranted organization", from a
well-known manufacturer, intending to have it working "all my life",
as my computer needs are more or less limited to what I have today.

But here I am, having failed. I feel like going and learning all this
hardware stuff and becoming a professional (as I am in software),
so that not to depend on anyone.

I'll try to look after some credible source.
If it were for my experience with buying books through the web from
abroad, I'd make it without thinking, because there I only experienced maximum correctitude and credibility.
But for a whole computer this is complicated logistics.

Anyway thanks a lot for your help, information and high understanding !

My best regards,
Iudith