The Guts of a Monitor…

Stardate 65140.4

My primary monitor has given up the ghost.  Apparently, the power stage commonly blows capacitors.

(Insert penis joke here.)

I found a few tutorials on fixing it, but with my fumble fingers, I figured I'd probably make it worse and let the smoke out of it the moment I plugged it back in.

So I scrapped it, following the tutorial as far as it went.

While this monitor was a Hanns G HW173D 17 inch widescreen monitor, the parts are essentially the same on all LCD monitors.

There are only three circuit boards in the entire thing:

  * The LCD panel itself has a board to drive it.
  * The video input board.  (In this case, with both VGA and DVI-I inputs.)
  * The power board.  (With two bulging capacitors.)

The latter two were attached to an aluminum housing, which was, except for only two screws, TAPED to the light/display assembly.

It's a wonder the thing didn't fall apart earlier...

I then turned my attention to the display itself, finding a series of plastic sheets:

  * The LCD display itself
  * Several  diffuser sheets, either frosted or white.
  * A polarization lens (found that out by shining a laser pointer through it).
  * An edge-lighting panel.

I also found two 1/8 inch diameter fluorescent tubes.

Obviously, the tubes will be heading to the recycling center, as will the aluminum pieces, and the housing and boards will go to the trash.

I may hang onto the various panels and sheets, though, just for the conversation value.

I'll be getting an ASUS VE208T LED backlit monitor as a replacement, which will give me three more inches.

(Insert penis joke here.)

And Newegg.com is running a deal that includes a free wall-mount kit!

I'll let you know how things turn out.