That was the only real issue with the whole thing - getting it apart blind. It ended up coming apart more like a cell phone than a monitor, by my experience. Once the stand is off, there is only one screw to remove, then its the trusty old guitar pick (secret tool of the cell phone/ipod industry) to remove the rear cover. Not required, but I also removed the whole screen and electronics modules from the rest of the plastics by removing 4 more screws - 2 on each side. The real difficulty, in order to make it look untouched, was that the power supply electronics and video inputs were under a steel cover that was fastened down with metalic tape, which I did not have in stock. I replaced by being careful and using some double-sided clear tape (Later). I slipped the button array circuit board loose from the frame and let it dangle carefully. I disconnected the output lines to the 'inverter/backlight/rest of the display electronics' which are dangerously exposed across the entire bottom of the screen, but fairly sturdy (double-sided tape?). This allowed me to move the unneeded parts well away from dropped tools, etc. Those connections were hard to disconnect, only because they are well-made and require some wiggling. I believe I left my mark most evidently there, especially since I numbered them and didn't bother to clean off the numbers. After doing one, I believe I could probably complete the process without anyone knowing I had been in there. Except....I used a totally different brand of capacitor with higher temperature ratings and the physical sizes were different as well. I matched the ratings otherwise. I guess I had to unplug those cable to remove the two boards to properly inspect and work on them. I guess there were 5 more screws there. And the video cable connector screws/nuts had to come off as they were holding that side of the small board into the cage. The heat sink was on the small board and itself was very small. The caps were all on the power supply board. It is made to be set up in several configurations. I didn't study whether that was for different models or just different caps. but I used the same positions as before, since the holes were left open from my de-soldering braid. The caps are all tacked down with a solid silicone-like substance. I used a matching almond silicone that is a little more rubbery, but still electronically neutral (enough). I finished cleaning up the dust with my trusty dollar brush, blew out everything with the canned air, and put it back together. It has been on ever since I finished and let the silicone dry for a while (hair dryer helped). It only just now exhibited a little bit of what I would call a 'hot chip', but I am definitely not a pro (I was an English Major), since there were a couple of black sections that remained until I passed the mouse over them. The Samsung I fixed a few months ago did that occasionally as well, but not very often, and then seem to stop, so I don't really know. If that is the only thing wrong, I will call it "useable" or "donateable" but maybe not "saleable". I know, I know, an English Major who makes up his own words....I enjoyed the time spent doing the repair, but if I charged what I make at my real job, it might come out pretty close to what I paid for this Acer 23" that I am using right now (which is why I bought it even after I repaired the Samsung - and like Liz and company - you have to have working tools to get your job done). Sorry for such a long message about hardware and nothing about Linux - hardware is more my strength these days. DaveC On 1/6/2012 5:33 PM, E Johnson wrote:
Dave,
Very glad to know that you managed to resurrect this thing. Meanwhile I am very happy with the new one.
Thanks for the feedback on how you repaired this unit. Its twin here (not in warranty) is still running fine, but I can imagine I someday might have to deal with a similar problem in this one. I used to build& instect& troubleshoot small electronic devices, mainly little telemetry units for rockets,& mysterious black boxes for aircraft carriers. Except now I have no soldering tools any more.
Anyway, mybe the dysfunctional heat sink was what caused the heat problem& early demise of the monitor. I now recall a "funny" smell right after the first blackout.
Hopefully the heat sink on the remaining one here is glued on well enough. If the DH ever turns loose of Monitor 2 long enough, maybe we can take a look.
Dave - How much disassembly is required before the heat sink is visible?
Thanks again to everyone here.
Liz J
On 6 January 2012 15:55, David P. Connell<davec99@charter.net> wrote:
Just for general info: the aforementioned Acer monitor from Liz had several obviously bad caps in the power supply section. They were all from the same manufacturer and the worst were all the same value. As mentioned below, I just replaced all of them while I had it open - well, not the very largest, or the very smallest, nor the solid ones. The big and small ones looked pretty good, with no signs of bulging or leakage and I'm hoping they were made on a different assembly line, since the values were way different from the bad ones.
It has been running for about 18 hours, played a full DVD movie, and returns from powers-saving mode. I'm not entirely convinced that one of the IC's is not running at the edge of its specs, since there was some evidence of heat there. Also, on the video output board, there was a poorly adhered heatsink that I reattached with a spec of super glue and a small gob of silicone fixant. It was kind of tipped over onto another chip and not doing its job - probably not an electrical problem.
I am glad, and hope for the future, that there is nothing wrong with the part that would normally encompass the inverter, because it is integrated into the LCD itself and runs the full width of the screen. If I were to be very careful, I could restore the bad caps and try to take advantage of Acer's (so far) excellent customer service and warranty service, but the way the monitor was constructed insured a lot of evidence is left of any repair work (special tapes, tricky plugs, etc - no seals though).
I have also had to do a capacitor replacement on my otherwise very nice Samsung SyncMaster 226BW. Thank goodness for forums!
By the way, I am down to a single machine running MythBuntu/MythTV as far as Linux goes, although I am constantly using various Live CD's for the ease of use, testing, and tools they provide. I also have a couple of Android devices, but haven't dug inside them much except to 'root', etc.
Thanks Liz also - the time was enjoyable, finding the parts helped me find some other stuff, and it worked! It goes very nicely with my Acer 23"LCD/LED.
DaveC
On 1/6/2012 11:51 AM, John Stoffel wrote:
Tim> Funny you say that. We have dozens of those monitors where I Tim> work and we pick one day a month and for about 2 hours we set up Tim> a assembly line. One person desolders the bad caps, another Tim> person solders on new ones, then we have one monitor we use as a Tim> test rig. We can crank them out at this point. Though we long Tim> ago figured which 5 caps are the likely culprits and we just Tim> replace them all, even if the cap looks good.
I love the Samsung 204Bs, I wish I could get more of them. Nice 1600x1200 display, pan/tilt/height adjustments, etc. Got any you want to sell?
John _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
-- David P. Connell "Watch where you're going; remember where you've been."
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-- David P. Connell "Watch where you're going; remember where you've been."