What is life expectancy of a monitor?

[1Cane]

I have a Samsung Sa350 that has quit working.  It is a little over 3 1/2 years old.  I've tried different cable connections , mini dvi ,hdmi and power supplies with no result.  The best I can get the screen to do is say signal has been lost.  I even hooked it up to the  video player with no result.  My other two screens are still working fine and I used their outlets on the troubled screen with no results.  So my question is 3 1/2 years normal for a monitor?
  The other problems I have been having with them is after six or 8 hours the Power Supply shuts off it is not really a big problem because all you have to do is turn it back on and it's good for another six or eight hours.

[Bizman]

There has been capacitor issues in the built-in power supplies of monitors. A qualified technician can easily fix it but he will charge one hour for it. The caps are relatively inexpensive.

There's other possible reasons, too. And yes, with bad luck 3 1/2 years may be normal for a monitor. Some of them have to be built on a Monday...

Bad caps can also be the reason behind your power supply issue.

WARNING! Don't open any power supply unless you're qualified. There can easily be lethal currencies inside!

[Chalenge]

Which power supply is failing after 6-8 hours?

Bizman is correct about the caps and it can happen 3-4 years into the life of the hardware. Generally there will be 3-6 caps on the power section of the monitor that have swollen and failed. This happens often enough that it is actually an advantage to buy a quality soldering iron and replace the caps yourself, unless you have five thumbs on your hand. There will also be a larger capacitor on the same board that can bite pretty good, so you have to learn to either drain it, or avoid touching it because the discharge can be really painful. Draining one is basically attaching two probes with heavy gauge wire attached to a high voltage resistor. I would research it on the net rather than take advice off of a BBS< but it's not hard to do.

Total cost will be $12-20 if you buy over-priced parts. Economically you could do it for a few dollars by looking for caps at the wholesale houses online.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Which power supply is failing after 6-8 hours?

Bizman is correct about the caps and it can happen 3-4 years into the life of the hardware. Generally there will be 3-6 caps on the power section of the monitor that have swollen and failed. This happens often enough that it is actually an advantage to buy a quality soldering iron and replace the caps yourself, unless you have five thumbs on your hand. There will also be a larger capacitor on the same board that can bite pretty good, so you have to learn to either drain it, or avoid touching it because the discharge can be really painful. Draining one is basically attaching two probes with heavy gauge wire attached to a high voltage resistor. I would research it on the net rather than take advice off of a BBS< but it's not hard to do.

Total cost will be $12-20 if you buy over-priced parts. Economically you could do it for a few dollars by looking for caps at the wholesale houses online.

I don't know about your country but it's illegal to give advice like that to anyone who is not a qualified electrician in many countries. DIY hobby like that can potentially get them killed, or their families killed.

[Shamus]

Its not illegal here.

[Chalenge]

It's also not likely to get anyone killed.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

It's also not likely to get anyone killed.

Messing with power supply caps not likely to get a totally clueless amateur killed?  There's very few things that could be more dangerous that you find in your own home.

Besides the risk of an instant electrocution that can happen through the remaining power charge in the capacitors even if you have unplugged the monitor, the home repair guy can botch up the repair so that the monitor catches fire quietly at 3am when people are sleeping.

Yeah, definately a safe thing.

[Chalenge]

You're speaking straight out of a strong desire to be right, but you're wrong. The power side of a monitor is really not very dangerous, unless you're foolish enough to work on it while it is plugged in. Botching a job and causing a fire? Now that's paranoid delusion right there. We have discussed this very topic many times on the bbs here Ripley. There was even a tutorial written about it at one point. Try to keep up.

[Chalenge]

By the way. . .

Here is an instructable on how to do this (don't try this if you live in Ripley's country):

http://www.instructables.com/id/Fix-Your-Monitor-Replacing-Capacitors/

A tutorial on overclockers on the same subject:

http://www.overclock.net/t/967253/monitor-repair-capacitor-replacement-tutorial

A shaky video on youtube where you can see exactly how things look inside during the operation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02uLSu1Jj5M

And there are thousands more sites with the same sort of thing out there.

Now if you find a capacitor marked 400V then I wouldn't touch it. 400V and 4700µF delivers 370 joules (this is from defibrillators) and can start or stop your heart. Is there one of those in your monitor? No. Probably you are in more danger of reacting to the shock of a capacitor and flinging the screwdriver in your hand at your pet dog and killing him.

Like I said, do some research about it and learn how it's done and if you don't feel comfortable doing it then just don't do it. But don't run around screaming the sky is falling and telling everyone how dangerous caps are. That's just goofy.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

You're speaking straight out of a strong desire to be right, but you're wrong. The power side of a monitor is really not very dangerous, unless you're foolish enough to work on it while it is plugged in. Botching a job and causing a fire? Now that's paranoid delusion right there. We have discussed this very topic many times on the bbs here Ripley. There was even a tutorial written about it at one point. Try to keep up.

As I said the caps can store a lethal current which can kill a person if he touches the mains side with both hands, enabling the current to pass through his heart. 0.1-0.2 milliamps is the most dangerous level.

[633DH98]

A lamp can also be used to discharge capacitors.

[guncrasher]

can't use a lamp, if you use a lamp the power goes out.  if the power goes out we have zombies on the streets.

but seriously if you live near Los Angeles I have 3 used monitors.




semp

[MrRiplEy[H]]

By the way. . .

Here is an instructable on how to do this (don't try this if you live in Ripley's country):

http://www.instructables.com/id/Fix-Your-Monitor-Replacing-Capacitors/

A tutorial on overclockers on the same subject:

http://www.overclock.net/t/967253/monitor-repair-capacitor-replacement-tutorial

A shaky video on youtube where you can see exactly how things look inside during the operation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02uLSu1Jj5M

And there are thousands more sites with the same sort of thing out there.

Now if you find a capacitor marked 400V then I wouldn't touch it. 400V and 4700µF delivers 370 joules (this is from defibrillators) and can start or stop your heart. Is there one of those in your monitor? No. Probably you are in more danger of reacting to the shock of a capacitor and flinging the screwdriver in your hand at your pet dog and killing him.

Like I said, do some research about it and learn how it's done and if you don't feel comfortable doing it then just don't do it. But don't run around screaming the sky is falling and telling everyone how dangerous caps are. That's just goofy.

I have done research and know for a fact that a layman should never attempt to fix an electrical device. The voltage rating of the capacitor for example tells absolutely nothing of the actual voltage it stores. Also you don't need a single 4700uF cap, power supplys have many smaller ones. If the monitor is non-led, it also has high voltage supply for the cold cathode lamp inside. Also it seems you never heard of electrical fires caused by bad soldering jobs or using wrong components in the wrong place?

The internet is full of instructions on how to blow fireworks in your ass, I guess that validates the stuff in your expert opinion  

Oh, and btw if you manage to burn your house down make sure to send the claim to Chalenge because when the insurance inspector finds out the cause of the fire that burned down your house, they're going to refuse paying before you can say hello.

[Chalenge]

I just put you on my squelch list Ripley, because I am now convinced you have nothing of substance to add to any thread. The history of my squelch list includes quite a few people that without exception inevitably met with PNG status. Good luck.

[ACE]

While I was in tech school we studied electricity. I don't know how many micro frauds (I think I spelled it right uF is the symbol on a volt meter) but caps as you are talking about is capacitors I assume right?  If so yes they can kill you. In bigger appliances absolutely. In a monitor I'm sure they are very small I wouldn't know. Nonetheless, the smallest amount of electricity can stop your heart though it's unlikely.