Not exactly hardware, but I didn't see another place to put this. My fiance went to use the computer and just after she opened IE (didn't even have time to surf away from the homepage)"the top of the screen went grey and then the whole thing blacked out." I tried turning the monitor power on and off. When I did this the image came through (perfectly), but then balcked out again. Next I tried rebooting and it would pretty much do the same thing except. Everytime it would go to a "new data" screen (memory test, post boot, windows log-in screen) an image would pop up briefly then black out. I fear its burnt out because I do smell a very slight odd burn smell. I tried calling tech support but I could barely understand a thing the guy was saying and after barely asking me anything he kept insisting I send it in to get the AC adapter repaired, but my model doesn't even use an AC adapter!! Any ideas would be much appreciated.
do you have another monitor you can use? try it in place of the one having problems. if the second monitor works, then the first one is probably busted; the burnt smell may be indication that something inside popped and burned out.
yeah...that's pretty much what I was afraid of...unfortunately I don't have a 2nd. i read this on another site: "Hi this is the way how to examine what's wrong with your LCD monitors. Power on both CPU and monitor. After it turned off, you have to check if you can see the image on the screen or not by shining a flashlight into the screen, not directly but find the best angle to the screen and take a look very closely. If you can see the icons or any image, there will be a minor problem. Like me, I can see window image using flashlight and check lamps inside. Some of them were broken and it is easily replaced. If you cannot see anything on the screen, there'll be some problems with inverter board. If you have soldering tool and want to fix it by yourself, check the caps first. It may cause this problem. Some caps might show leaking or burn spot on the board because of too high temp. If you don't have soldering tool, you better go get a technician to do so." Does that sound roughly accuarte to you & if so what's the best way to open a monitor...I don't see any obvious screws...there is a small slot in the back with an image of a lock with a "K" inside of it.
Update: A way occured for me to do the test in reverse while being able to reach the same (I think) conclusion. Instead of hooking up another monitor to my computer I hooked my monitor up to my laptop and used the "monitor out" function. True to form the image showed up briefly and disappeared. Seems to narrow the problem down to the monitor, but the question is "how fixable is it?" Hopefully very. I CAN make out some trace, but very dark images when it goes black so hopefully its a lamp issue like the paragraph I quoted suggests...Now if someone could just tell me how to get into the thing...
Is the monitor under warranty? If so, I'd simply let the manufacturer repair it. If it's not under warranty, then I'd highly recommend buying a new monitor. You can purchase parts to repair it yourself (link here), but the costs can add up quickly, plus you don't get a warranty. Also, what is the brand and model of the monitor?
Its a Fujuplus 17", and I got it in '05 so the warranty is long past. Yeah, I've pretty much determined either the inverter or lamp is burned...I may try to fix it, but my brother-in-law is just gonna send me his old one since he just got a new one. In the meantime...is there any way to use my laptop as a monitor for my PC? I'm aware of stuff like TightVNC & LogMeIn, but they don't really solve my problem. There are some applications on my PC that my laptop can't handle so I'm wanting to bypass the laptop's hardware and just feed data straight from the PC to my laptop's monitor. Possible?
