Headscratcher: My LCD Panel Has Gone Screwy
A little personal troubleshooting is going on here at the apartment here today; I thought I might share it with you guys to try to figure out what's going on.
I bought two Dell 2001FP flat-panel monitors a couple of years ago. I recently moved one over to my girlfriend Susie's gaming rig and, as per usual when I try to do something nice, it immediately broke, making me look like a cheap heel. See that mild yellow bar on the right? It would do that from time to time on my PC. But now it's throwing that multi-colored bar in the middle, flip-flapping an inch-and-a-half bar of insanity every couple of seconds.
At first I thought it was the cable. It is not. Then I thought it might be her video card. It is not. It happens with both DVI and VGA connections. Now I'm looking at this as a learning experience, since fixing monitors is basically impossible without a tiny spaceship and an elemental shrink ray.
Here's my guess: The video processing hardware inside is dying, but in such a way that each "strip" is dying independantly. The yellow bar seems to be the same width as the inverted one, about 1.5 inches, and the monitor is about 16 inches wide, so that gives us a nice base 2 number of... 10.666. Okay, so much for that. Any ideas?
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Is the bar in the same place at every resolution? Does it happen with a different video source (i.e. a different computer?)
I'm no expert on LCDs but it sure looks like an LCD hardware issue to me. A better question is what is the native resolution of the screen, and how many pixels across is the stripe.
Yeah, the resolution doesn't matter, nor does the input, nor does the cable, nor does the source. (We tried swapping them all.) I'm 99% sure it's an inoperable monitor failure, but I guess I'm mostly just curious about what is failing. It's so strange that only part of it would die, not all.
And yeah, the "inches" thing was just because I wasn't going to get in there and count each row of pixels.
I'm a computer tech and I'm afriad to say that there is probably no way to repair that screen. I'm willing to bet the entire LCD has failed somehow. It might be just the cable that leads to the LCD panel but I dont' think that's what's going on. I think it's time for a new monitor Joel, sorry.
BTW when did you start posting for boingboing? It's been a while since I last checked Dethroner but I dont' remember you mentioning starting up here
I saw one guy who had the exact same problem with his compaq laptop. The solution that he discovered was to apply pressure to the bezel of the LCD (you may have to fool around to find the right place). What the guy then did (if this indeed works for you) was take a big binder clip and "clip" it to his monitor, so that it would always apply pressure to the right point, and voila! problem solved (much cheaper than a new LCD).
KM
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http://kristoph.minchau.com
I have repaired several of these exact units. The graphics boards begin to overheat and eventually fail completely. Replace the graphics board (Dell part number is on the board.) It is not worth trying to repair the board. Getting the unit apart will be the hardest part for most folks. Use a piece of soft plastic to get the frame off or you will leave marks. Follow normal safety rules but keep in mind that these are much less dangerous than CRTs were. If you lived in Austin I would do it for you.
I might be able to do a simple repair. How much do the replacement boards run?
Damn you ribbon cable!! Since this happened during a physical movement, it follows that it is a physical failure. I've had laptops do the exact same thing due to ribbon cable failure from the main board to the screen. Does the problem get worse/better by squeezing the bezel? Sounds like it's time to check out new monitors...
Ack. The replacement logic board is $80.
LCD monitors have a number of "column driver" chips along the top of the screen which along with corresponding row driver chips allow the incoming video signal to be delivered to each of the millions of individual sub-pixels in the screen. These chips are bonded to the glass of the LCD itself and it looks like you've either got a failed driver or one that has come loose. If it's just loose then you may be able to make a temporary repair by pressing it down. If it's failed then a DIY repair is probably out of the question since the pin pitch is so tiny (when I worked with these I used a stereo microscope and remote control manipulators to move test probes between the chip outputs).
Asher (used to do display research in a former life).
What little I know about LCDs is that they have three basic components which can fail:
An inverter board, which causes spazzing after minutes to hours when it heats up, or just failure to launch. Maybe fixable.
A cold cathode backlight, which fails slowly, causing dimming, odd tints over the whole screen, or no light at all (with the picture still barely visible. These can be replaced sometimes, if you can find a source of replacements.
The screen itself, which is the source of what you're looking at as well as various other flickering or solid lines, and pressure marks.
That's cheaper than a new girlfriend.
you could try taking out the existing logic board, put it in your freezer for about 10 minutes and see if it works briefly before heating back up. that would at least confirm that it's worth $80 to get a replacement.
Dell just contacted me, having read the post, to remind me that I am probably under a three year warranty for this panel, so that's nice. If I am, I kind of want to pull it apart anyway just to test the panel.
But what I wanted to say is: I can't believe we just been doing this for a couple of weeks and yet there are already so many sharp people on here. I had this inkling that if I asked what was wrong with this panel, there'd be a few of you smarties out there to educate me. Which is very, very awesome. Thanks, guys!
do what every single person has done when a hunk of junk stops working properly, GIVE IT A GOOD WHACK.
A GOOD WHACK has saved many hours of repair and replacement. A GOOD WHACK never fails! If it doesnt work at first, you havent whacked it hard enough.
@#14, that's what I like to call Percussive Maintenance.
Percussive maintenance is certainly indicated here, as are the other possible fixes.
But just make sure not to fuck it up so much that Dell won't do a warranty exchange.
Joel,
From someone on the inside, don't go taking it apart.. it does uhh kinda void your warranty if you still have one.
looks like the same thing that happened to me. my nvidia video card was overheating with the temp of the core as high as 110 degree C, while using windows (2d).
anyway, i bought a new video card and everything is back to normal.
I once had a graphics card that wasn't in its AGP slot properly and so it was doing exactly what yours is.
The card was stuffed so i sent it back and they replaced it as faulty :)
never had that issue again
I have one of those 2001FP's. The VGA input is going bad on it as the color is mainly greenish. It isn't the screen as the DVI input still has good color. Sounds like a board issue with me.
I replaced it with one of the newer 2007WFP-HC's.