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For some reason all of a sudden my monitor and everything on it is very blurry. I try degaussing, turn my system off and on but it's still a big blur. Does anyone know why it's doing this? (I'm typing this up on my second monitor)

The electron gun got knocked out of alignment. Take it into a reapair tech (if you like bending over and having money pulled out of your ass by a big hairy man with gorrilla sized hands (without the aid of lube)) or just buy a new one.

Expensive? (the repair I mean)


Also typically what kind of places do this kind of work? I assume the local Best Buy might not be the place.

Probably have to send it back to the manufacturer. I think, infact it may not even be possible to fix without costing more than a new monitor. Let me check...

Yeah, I just checked. The electron gun is, I'm pretty sure, integrated with the picture tube. Wich makes up most of the monitor's volume. As such just buy a new one. It'll be cheaper that way.

You've checked that your cables are snug? No new sources of interference (speakers, magnets, that sort of thing)?

If it's well and truly borked, it sounds like an excellent opportunity to upgrade to a bigger monitor.

Erm, not to rain on the "buy a new monitor" parade, but you should check if your warranty is still runing since monitors usualy get really long warranties (5 years is not unheard of). In that case you can skip the anal-fisting-pricing mentioned above and get the same service for free since these kind of "defects" should be covered.

For a lot of this kind of stuff they don't ship them all the way back to the manufacturer but rather to a local distribution node/repair center.

For around $200 you can get a nice refurbished 21" CRT monitor.

Prices for TFT monitors are very reasonable now too. If you got the cash (£190 for 19"). I got one and can hardly bare to look at a nasty crt monitor now.

Ehh, 19" LCDs are just the same resolution as 17" - 1280x1024. If you're going to go bigger than a 17" I say go for a 20" and get a better resolution.

Uraniun235 wrote:Ehh, 19" LCDs are just the same resolution as 17" - 1280x1024. If you're going to go bigger than a 17" I say go for a 20" and get a better resolution.

I personally need the 19 inchs to clearly see on 1280, and its not that I have bad eyes.

A monitor would have to be sent back to the manufacturer to be repaired so prepare for 2-3 weeks without the monitor and it will probably cost as much as a new one.

It would be cheaper and easier to just pick up a new monitor.

Not necessarily, most large urban areas will have a service centre where you can take your monitor in for repairs, all you need to do is call and get a service authorization number. The Toronto area for example has service centres for LG, Panasonic, Sony, and several others.

Failing that, and this is now in the "do at your own risk" category, open up the monitor and look for some trim pots, they should look like the ones in the top row but they'll have a plastic shaft. There should be 2 of them, usually located near each other. Keep one hand behind your back at all times, then with the monitor on and a picture showing, use the other to turn the pots with a plastic screwdriver. As I say, do at your own risk, there are kilovolt voltages involved and you could easily fry yourself and die.

Get it repaired by a professional or buy a new one. Messing around inside a CRT without knowing what you're doing is not worth the couple hundred bucks it would take to replace it.

Uraniun235 wrote:Get it repaired by a professional or buy a new one. Messing around inside a CRT without knowing what you're doing is not worth the couple hundred bucks it would take to replace it.

Or the potentially lethal shock you could end up eating.

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:

Uraniun235 wrote:Get it repaired by a professional or buy a new one. Messing around inside a CRT without knowing what you're doing is not worth the couple hundred bucks it would take to replace it.

Or the potentially lethal shock you could end up eating.

Or face full of glass shrapnal if you pop the vacum. Or the afformentioned shock from the capacitors. You won't fix this by poking things with a wrench or screwdriver.

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:

Uraniun235 wrote:Get it repaired by a professional or buy a new one. Messing around inside a CRT without knowing what you're doing is not worth the couple hundred bucks it would take to replace it.

Or the potentially lethal shock you could end up eating.

Yeah, I'll have to third that. I had a Mac Plus when I was 12-13 years old, that I opened up one time to check a cable. Mac Pluses had a 8"-9" CRT built into them, and I made the mistake of touching one of the monitor mounting clips - it took a couple of days to get back full feeling in my arm.

Even if you don't fatally screw up, fucking around in a CRT can still light your ass up.

If your monitor is under warrenty, I'd send it back for service. If not, it will probably cheaper to get a new one.

Am I the only one who thinks that tinkering with electronics which have several kilovolts running through them is a relaxing & enjoyable hobby?

Hey, if you know what you're doing, if you've got steady hands, proper tools, and the coordination and knowledge needed to do it right, that's great. It's not like monitor and TV technicians drop dead left and right, and as long as you enjoy it, then it's worth it.

But if you don't know what you're doing, I can't recommend that anyone poke around in a CRT as a cost saving measure. The risks are simply not worth the money.

aerius wrote:Am I the only one who thinks that tinkering with electronics which have several kilovolts running through them is a relaxing & enjoyable hobby?

Probably. Or maybe you got a few braincells fried when you zapped yourself a few days ago.