Trinitron dead?

[WRXpilot]

Hello,

I'm having a problem with my 19" Dell Trinitron CRT (P992).

I went to wake up my desktop last night, and instead of the monitor coming on the screen has stayed black and the power led started blinking green. Synchronized with the blinking, I hear a chirping/beeping noise from around the rear of the monitor tube.

It does this regardless of whether there's a video signal fed to the monitor, or whether or not it's evevn conneccted to a video card. Whenever the power's on, this is all it does.

Anyone have any experience with this type of problem? Did my monitor just die?

If so, what are current options for under $200. I want the best PQ I can get in a 19"+ display, flat screen (does not need to be flat panel though). Even with the small budegt this will mean no video card upgrade for me now if the stupid thing is dead.

 

[Markbnj]

It doesn't sound good. In my experience when this kind of thing happens the monitor is dead. It's possible that it could be repaired, but would likely cost you nearly as much as a new monitor.

There are relatively few options around for a new CRT, as many mfgs have stopped producing them. If you can find one you like it shouldn't be much more than $200 though.

 

[WRXpilot]

Yeah, that's Dell's opinion too, of course it's out of warranty.

It really upsets me, that was a hideously expensive monitor when I bought it, but I justified it by thinking I'd keep it for 5+ years. Now it's dead after 3 while my crappy generic 17" monitors are 7+ years old and working fine.

So, looking on the Egg I see this:

Samsung 997mb

Looks pretty good to me, meets or excedes all the specs of my old monitor; any caveats I should watch out for?

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

I would consider buying a high end CRT used. Your $180 could get you a better refreshrate and higher resolution. Take a look here. Most have free shipping.

http://www.azatek.com I bought a Mit 2060u NF four years ago and it still runs as new.
The 19" CRTs are much less expensive.

...Galvanized

 

[WRXpilot]

Thank you for the link GalvanizedYankee, that's the sort of thing I was looking for.

 

[xtknight]

Usually the blinking light means it's trying to tell you something. For example, sometimes a problem with the flyback transformer as someone else posted. But I don't know where you'd find the debug codes. It's not well-documented like motherboard POST codes are.

 

[WRXpilot]

xtkinght: Yes, I figured the same thing. The blinking and sound are very regular, certainly seems like some type of diagnostic code. It's not just buzzing or humming or making a random "broken" type noise.

Unfortunately, I can find no documentation to confirm this, and Dell support was unwilling to divulge them if they do exist. They simply insist that since the self-test screen won't come up, it's broken. Which was very helpful, as you might imagine.

I've called an electronics repair shop I've used before, but seeing that I may be able to replace this for ~$100, I'm guessing it won't be worth it to have it fixed, even if it is possible.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Only to add to your knowledge base, you might consider looking around this site.
I have found some good info here in the past.

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/crtfaq.htm

Some may laugh at me but so what! I live where temps range from 30F to 100F. Inorder
to keep my CRT cool in mid-summer a 120x25mm fan at 5V is hooked to the right top
of the case and blows through the vent slots. No cutting was done, it's just has a little hook
and rests on thin strips of foam. It's said to prolong CRT life...I hope so.


...Galvanized

 

[rhatsaruck]

Originally posted by: WRXpilot
I'm having a problem with my 19" Dell Trinitron CRT (P992).

You got yourself a sweet aperture grille monitor. That monitor was fairly highly ranked by PC World back in May 2002. Aperture grille monitors are no longer manufactured; you'll find shadow mask tubes today. Before you shuck out sheckles for a shadow mask CRT you should check one out for yourself. I suspect you're going to be disappointed. To me, shadow mask tubes look grainy, almost like looking through a screen door.

RR

 

[WRXpilot]

Originally posted by: rhatsaruck
You got yourself a sweet aperture grille monitor. That monitor was fairly highly ranked by PC World back in May 2002.

Thanks to the links I got here, I've actually gotten an order in for a direct replacement P992, for a lot less than I thought I'd have to spend.

In trying to figure this out, I realised that only a day or so before the monitor blew, I recalibrated my Adobe Gamma settings. This seems a bit more than coincidental to me, but is there any evidence that Adobe Gamma can cause damage to a CRT monitor, or even cause it to fail?

I'd hate to plug in my "new" P992 only to blow it again.