So my secondary screen died

[magwo]

Last night my secondary 19" display started going black.
If I switched it off and then on, it would display the signal, then go black again after a while. This time period got shorter and shorter.. and now it just displays the signal for a fraction of a second.

The display also emits a kind of electrical buzzing sound before going black.


1. Any ideas what might be causing this? Can I fix it, or should I just start looking for a replacement? The display is quite old so I don't think there's any warranties left.
2. If it can't be fixed, what kind of display setup do you recommend? I have been running a 1680x1050 along with a 1280x1024, been working fine, but last night I started 5-boxing on the single 1680x1050, and it was really nice to have all the views so close together. I'm thinking it might be worth getting one really high resolution display instead of several displays.

What do you think?

[magwo]

I've been looking a bit at the nice 24" 1920x1200 displays.
Consider a setup like this:




|============================
|##############|############|
|#####main#####|####slave0##|
|##############|############|
|##############|############|
|============================
|#slave1##|########|########|
|##etc####|########|########|
|#########|########|########|
|============================

[magwo]

The beautiful thing with this setup is that it gives you a nice ~1024x768 for both your main and your first slave.. and small displays for your other slaves.
Usually I find that I only need one high resolution slave display.

[Ozbert]

To make sure your windows have exactly the same proportions, try the following:

Top two: 960x720 each

Bottom three: 640x480 each

That should fill the screen perfectly and if you do window swapping, this setup should avoid distortion.

[magwo]

Nice, do you roll that way, on a single 1920x1200 screen?
Grats on 70 btw.. just read your blog.

[Syro]

To make sure your windows have exactly the same proportions, try the following:

Top two: 960x720 each

Bottom three: 640x480 each

That should fill the screen perfectly and if you do window swapping, this setup should avoid distortion.This is the exact same setup I have on my PvE team. The paladin(tank) and priest(healer) have the larger windows, and my DPS 2xmages, warlock, have the smaller ones.

For my 5 shamans, I use 1520x1200 for my main, and the other four are 400x300. Works really well.

Here's my monitor, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824014173&Tpk=benq%2bg2400wd

[Oatboat]

Is your buzzing coming from the monitor itself of the little battery pack the power cord plugs into?

[Icetech]

It's the capacitors that feed the back light... VERY common, i get alot of free monitors that way and fix em for a whopping $3:)

If you know how to solder its a easy fix.. if not, get a new monitor and send me that one:)

[magwo]

Ok, hmmm..

[Ozbert]

Nice, do you roll that way, on a single 1920x1200 screen?

Nope. I have two 1920x1200 screens on two separate PC's. Main is fullscreen on one, four clones are 960x600 on the other.

For my tastes, any window size smaller than 800x600 isn't usable, so I wouldn't want to cram five clients onto one screen.

[entoptic]

Be careful if you choose to do the work yourself. Indeed it sounds like a Capacitor is shoot. This is an easy fix however if you do not know about capacitors and the dangers of them then do not do it yourself unless you read up.

On most monitors and TVs if you touch the cappie and it goes on you are in for one HELL OF A JOLT. Sometimes this can kill however 5 out of 10 times you just go numb in half your body. If you use both hands and the cap discharges on you then ALL the enegry WILL go through your HEART and you could very well die.

Just be careful. It's a simple job but just be careful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA25ghMAyak&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS_EMssO7SE&feature=related

[-silencer-]

Nice, do you roll that way, on a single 1920x1200 screen?

Nope. I have two 1920x1200 screens on two separate PC's. Main is fullscreen on one, four clones are 960x600 on the other.

For my tastes, any window size smaller than 800x600 isn't usable, so I wouldn't want to cram five clients onto one screen.
This is true. I've got a 22" 1680x1050 monitor showing 4x alts now, but I'm about to go back to another 24" 1920x1200 for the alts. Even after adjusting the UI scaling, the fonts/icons are still too small for how much size the screen has (840x512). 600 is the minimum dimension I'd plan to use for either height or width.

[Ozbert]

Be careful if you choose to do the work yourself. Indeed it sounds like a Capacitor is shoot. This is an easy fix however if you do not know about capacitors and the dangers of them then do not do it yourself unless you read up.

On most monitors and TVs if you touch the cappie and it goes on you are in for one HELL OF A JOLT. Sometimes this can kill however 5 out of 10 times you just go numb in half your body. If you use both hands and the cap discharges on you then ALL the enegry WILL go through your HEART and you could very well die.

Just be careful. It's a simple job but just be careful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA25ghMAyak&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS_EMssO7SE&feature=related ('http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS_EMssO7SE&feature=related')I think the capacitors used in LCD's are likely to be a lot smaller than the ones in CRT's. I know that the insides of a CRT stay dangerous for hours/days after they were last switched on, but I don't think LCD's are like that. But, I'm not an expert on such things, so take my words with a pinch of bullsh*t and don't blame me if you get fried.