Hi all, havn't been in for a while (possibly a good thing).

I have just bought a 24" monitor off of a friend, and do not really have a great deal of background knowledge on it, all I know is that the screen remains blank on start up.

My old monitor (an 18" Packard Bell) works fine starts up and diplays so I am 99.9% certain that this is not a comp issue, however when I connect the new monitor (a Samsung SyncMaster 245BW) to the comp there is nothing. The blue power light comes on, I have tried shining a light into the screen to see if it could be a backlight issue but cannot see an image on the screen, I have had the back off of the monitor to check the Capacitors and all look ok. I have currently only tried connecting via the VGA input, however there is also a DVI IN(HDCP), is it worth purchasing a cable to give this input a try (I'm not sure if it would make a difference)

I thought I would take it on as a bit of a bargain project, fix it and use it, but I am currently a little stumped as to what the problem may be.

Does any one have any ideas as to what the issue may be and what I could try next.

Many thanks in advance Wayne


It has also just occurred to me to try connecting just the power to see if I get any 'No Signal' message, but again the screen remains black.

I would try that monitor on another computer.

Hi Digarati, Just tried with no joy, still the same issues as mentioned.

Hi Digarati, Just tried with no joy, still the same issues as mentioned.

Well, if that monitor does not work on 2 computers, I guess you need to see how good of a friend this guy is. Return the monitor and get your money back.

I was thinking more along the lines of fixing the monitor and was wondering if anyone had any ideas of where I could head next, following the info I have given above. I only paid £20 (about $35) for it knowing it was not working, just looking for other issues that may cause this problem, hopefully I can address them, fix them and have a low cost monitor up and running.

I have ordered the capacitors (even though they look ok I shall swap them for new) and a dvi cable just to rule out any issues with the VGA.

Wayne

I always start at the way. Is the power supply good?

Yes, power's good. I'm using the same cable on the faulty monitor that works on the smaller monitor. I have checked the two 5A fuses on the PCB and both are fine. All is switched on - the wall, switch on the back of the motitor and the button on the front

One thing I have noticed is the potting glue on one ceramic capacitor has gone dark brown, whilst the rest of the potting glue used on the board has remained yellow. It is however up against a heatsink and has been used to support the capacitor and a resistor, I think that it may be the excessive heat that has caused the discolouration - I may be wrong.

Also, the large 450wv 82uF capacitor has a plastic top as opposed to a metal vent stamped top, the plastic top seems to me slightly rounded - I have been told that the main capacitor on an LCD monitor board does not usually malfunction - not sure how true this is???

I don't know that there is one "main" capacitor, but capacitors in monitors do go bad too. You may plug in the exact model and capacitor kit into your search engine and see what comes up.