I mentioned a few days ago that my 20" flat panel monitor had given up the ghost--and the only guy in Boise who advertises that he repairs them at a price that makes sense seems to have disappeared. At least, his website, boiselcd.com had been suspended, and his cell phone went straight to voice mail. Now it indicates that the cell phone account is suspended.
So I ordered up a replacement--and wow! I order an LG EV2350V 23" from Tiger Direct. With shipping and sales tax, it came to $179.01. It is as light as a feather. It is huge. It is very bright--much brighter than the 20" ViewSonic it replaces--and it goes up to 1920x1080 resolution, which even my five year old HP Pavilion DV5126 notebook can use. (The older Compaq that I use for Linux, unfortunately, is limited to 1024x768 resolution, but at least everything is big and bright on it.)
The only area where this is in anyway inferior to the old (and dead) monitor is that the old monitor had a mount that swiveled and raised; this tilts, but is a fixed height. Still, I have an old phone book that lifts the monitor up to where it needs to be, and that was free.
I keep hoping that I can find someone who knows how to do the repair to get the power supply on the old monitor working again.
If your dead ViewSonic was a VP2030b or similar, there is plenty of info at badcaps.net/forum on same. We used them here extensively and many have failed and been thrown out. I've retrieved them, replaced about $5 in electrolytic capacitors and they work fine.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not up to doing the replacement, Clayton, let me know and I can do it for you gratis - and throw in an extra monitor as a spare.
Thanks for your terrific blog!
Jim Horn, Carson, WA
Would it simplify things if I just removed the power supply board? That way there is less to ship both ways. I would be more than happy to pay you for this.
ReplyDeleteClayton,
ReplyDeleteI posted a suggestion shortly after you posted this issue about checking for any bulged or split capacitors on the power supply and I thought it posted but I guess not. Anyways have you located any visually damaged capacitors?
Kurt L (remember him?) and I (Walt) can probably be persuaded to fix it for you (here in Boise). He and I fixed a Toshiba DVD player of mine a few months ago that died after very little use (though it was bought new in '06)--those cheap Chinese parts in even name brand equipment is disappointing and annoying! It's hard to find parts locally anymore so we'll need to get the specs on the part so it can be ordered (the local parts supply has dried up).
I saw it, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to mess with anything SMT. Another reader has a stack of the same model that he is fixing. I'm going to ship it to him on an exchange basis.
ReplyDelete