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#117006 - 19/09/2002 11:21 Help Fixing Monitor Power Supply
CommOri
journeyman

Registered: 30/12/2001
Posts: 83
Anyone here have any experience with fixing monitor power supplies?

I have a Gateway Vivitron 21-inch (not under warranty, bought it refurbed a couple years back) that blew a capacitor in the power supply the other day. I'm interested in fixing the monitor rather than throwing it out since it's not your typical $89 17-inch throw-away. I paid $600 for it and feel a wee bit of effort may be able to ressurect it.

I'm no electronics pro, so I'd like to chat with anyone who may have had some experience in this area.

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#117007 - 19/09/2002 11:38 Re: Help Fixing Monitor Power Supply [Re: CommOri]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31596
Loc: Seattle, WA
Can we assume you already tried to replace the cap and that didn't work?
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#117008 - 19/09/2002 12:19 Re: Help Fixing Monitor Power Supply [Re: tfabris]
CommOri
journeyman

Registered: 30/12/2001
Posts: 83
That's part of the problem. None of the components are marked. If I found someone who might do this for a living, they may know where to find a reference for the parts.

OR- maybe I should try to find a new power supply for the thing? Might be cheap, I just have no idea.

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#117009 - 19/09/2002 16:22 Re: Help Fixing Monitor Power Supply [Re: CommOri]
AndrewT
old hand

Registered: 16/02/2002
Posts: 867
Loc: Oxford, UK
The PSUs in monitors are very similiar to TVs. If you know a good TV repair shop they should be able to repair it for you.
Usually, the smaller establishments with experienced engineers are used to working without model specific manuals. They will likely be able to replace the unmarked cap using their experience to determine a (likely) suitable value.

Edit: Since it's a $600 monitor and since you are here asking these questions I think you should not risk making matters worse by attempting to simply replace the cap yourself. From the sound of things the cap wouldn't have failed so catastrophically in isolation and there are probably other faulty components in the set.
Leave be and get a professional involved, it sounds too nice a monitor to experiment on


Edited by Rue (19/09/2002 16:33)

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#117010 - 19/09/2002 17:28 Re: Help Fixing Monitor Power Supply [Re: CommOri]
tman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
The capacitor blowing may be cause by a manufacturing defecting in the capacitor or some other problem elsewhere in the monitor. Just blindly replacing the capacitor may cause further parts to blow.

As you don't know much about electronics it is your best bet to get somebody else to have a look. The voltages in a monitor are extremely high and can be dangerous if you're not careful.

Sorry, not quite what you want to hear but it's not safe to play about with the internals on a monitor if you don't know what you're doing!

- Trevor

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#117011 - 19/09/2002 17:58 Re: Help Fixing Monitor Power Supply [Re: tman]
Laura
pooh-bah

Registered: 16/06/2000
Posts: 1682
Loc: Greenhills, Ohio
Yeah, I hate opening up these small dummy terminals I work on when I have to do adjustments on the screens. I'm always afraid I'm going to get shocked even though I know what I can touch and what to stay away from. I don't do any major work on them replacing anything though. Large monitors would even be worse and I won't touch them myself.
_________________________
Laura

MKI #017/90

whatever

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