I have a Samsung SyncMaster 930b LCD. I think the "b" just means it's black, so 930 is probably sufficient.
Starting about a week ago, I noticed that when I turn on the monitor, the backlight stays dark and the green power LED starts blinking rapidly. The speed of the blinking LED is faster than what I'd see if there was simply no input signal. It blinks about twice per second, and only spends a split moment in the ON condition - most of the time the LED is off. If I were to guess, it looks more like power cycling rather than an intentional blink.
The monitor refuses to turn off when it's doing this - it's stuck trying to power up the backlight unless I unplug it.
After blinking the LED for several seconds the backlight eventually turned on. As long as I leave the backlight on (power management disabled), then there are no further problems. If I turn it off but turn it back on immediately, it works fine. It's only a problem when it's cold.
I haven't noticed if the screen is working when the backlight is off.
This problem has gradually gotten worse each day, taking slightly longer to power up each time.
Since I started leaving the monitor on constantly, I changed the brightness of my backlight to a much lower setting. Then I absent mindedly turned it off.
Next time I tried to start it, the cold start problem was much worse, but I don't know if the low brightness setting is just a coincidence.
I left it blinking for hours and the backlight never came on. Then I propped a lamp up against it and let the bulb heat up the back of the monitor. After doing that, I came back about an hour later and found the monitor working.
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Am I correct in assuming this is an inverter problem? How easily do these monitors typically come apart? Can I get to the inverter without disassembling anything else? I really don't want to get dirt into it or have to touch the LCD portion at all, if I can help it.
For now, I'm just going to leave it on, but someday it will end up turned off again so I might as well find out what I'm up against. Never opened an LCD before and the thought worries me. I suppose it might still be under warranty but I can't find any documentation or packaging whatsoever.
Starting about a week ago, I noticed that when I turn on the monitor, the backlight stays dark and the green power LED starts blinking rapidly. The speed of the blinking LED is faster than what I'd see if there was simply no input signal. It blinks about twice per second, and only spends a split moment in the ON condition - most of the time the LED is off. If I were to guess, it looks more like power cycling rather than an intentional blink.
The monitor refuses to turn off when it's doing this - it's stuck trying to power up the backlight unless I unplug it.
After blinking the LED for several seconds the backlight eventually turned on. As long as I leave the backlight on (power management disabled), then there are no further problems. If I turn it off but turn it back on immediately, it works fine. It's only a problem when it's cold.
I haven't noticed if the screen is working when the backlight is off.
This problem has gradually gotten worse each day, taking slightly longer to power up each time.
Since I started leaving the monitor on constantly, I changed the brightness of my backlight to a much lower setting. Then I absent mindedly turned it off.
Next time I tried to start it, the cold start problem was much worse, but I don't know if the low brightness setting is just a coincidence.
I left it blinking for hours and the backlight never came on. Then I propped a lamp up against it and let the bulb heat up the back of the monitor. After doing that, I came back about an hour later and found the monitor working.
===============
Am I correct in assuming this is an inverter problem? How easily do these monitors typically come apart? Can I get to the inverter without disassembling anything else? I really don't want to get dirt into it or have to touch the LCD portion at all, if I can help it.
For now, I'm just going to leave it on, but someday it will end up turned off again so I might as well find out what I'm up against. Never opened an LCD before and the thought worries me. I suppose it might still be under warranty but I can't find any documentation or packaging whatsoever.
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