Monitor Woes

OldBuzzard · Nov 13, 2004, 02:26 AM

My secondary monitor 'died' today, and I'm wondering if anyone here has had sysmptons similar to what happened to mine.

It has been working just fine. Hasn't been getting dark, or having instability problems. The 'death' started with the screen looking like someone put a yellow filter on the front...it got a yellow glow on the whole screen, and then just went black. If I turn it off, and then back on, I can hear it start to energize, and then a few seconds later a soft 'click', and the power light starts flashing. I'm assuming that the 'click' is a relay/circuit breaker tripping.

What are the odds that this is something fairly simple and fixable? It is an old 21" Silicon Graphics Workstation Monitor (Hitachi CM2198MSG), and not worth much these days, but it did have good resolution, and will not be cheap to replace.

Judas · Nov 13, 2004, 03:29 AM

.....hmmm..... not sure, but i don't think a heat issue is the problem....

how old is it?

It may be due for a cleanup though, Capasitors and other things wear out... but if it was taken well care of ... should work well..

It problem has a few small loose connection.....

Swimtech should have some insight on this.....

OldBuzzard · Nov 13, 2004, 07:07 AM

Well. I verified that it IS the monitor. Thought that it might possibly have been the output from my 9500"s secondary output, so I plugged the bad monitor into the primary output and it was still dark. This sucks and I'm suffering from 'dual monitor withdrawal' already

I'm thinking that even if it is fixable that it may cost more than the monitor is worth. I can get a re-furbed 21" SGI GDM5410 around 250.00, Use it as my Primary, and move the Hitachi CM-813 to secondary. The other option is to just get a cheap used 17" and use that for the secondary. However, I've been real happy with the re-furbed workstation monitors. They are designed for very high quality display, and they are easy on the eyes.

At least I won't have to 'justify' any costs to the wife...she's been doing a lot of work on the family tree, and she likes 2 monitors too

swimtech · Nov 13, 2004, 01:33 PM

Hey guys,

When your screen went yellow (glowy/sheeny looking...), likely was a short on the electron guns or the grid(s) inside the CRT. This short is sensed by the feedback circuitry on either the 200v line or the 1000v line that feeds back to the power supply - an overcurrent problem - causing the unit to shut itself off.

The reason it won't give a picture any more is that at powerup the power supply of the monitor is still sensing a short - it is designed not to blow itself up - and refuses to send current that powers the electron guns and/or the horizontal output circuit (because the 1000v is generally high voltage transformer derived after the horizontal output stage is operational). The monitor just looks like its sitting in standby mode...

Time for a new monitor OldBuzzard, and your new one will likely be cheaper and better performing than your Hitachi was.