LCD lifespan

[Kochab]

What are your experiences with the LCD lifespan?

I bring this up because my 5-year-old LCD died recently. Apparently it died of a bad backlight inverter. It was also showing another sign of aging: flickering horizontal lines when powered on (which would disappear after warming up). This was a little disappointing as CRTs just seem to go and go and go (though I did have a bad experience with a... PixieTech I think it was... bad phosphor... lasted 2 years; I could hardly see anything towards the end).

I would like to fix up the old thing but replacing the inverter is unlikely as the part is relatively old and no one has it in stock. Repairing the inverter itself would cost about $100US and wouldn't be worth it. I could repair it myself, except I don't know how (I've taken the inverter out already, it would just be a matter of knowing what to do ... recoiling something or another).

So I've been searching for a new LCD monitor. But I've been thinking: should I buy an extra backlight inverter while they are still in stock? or perhaps an extended warranty?

FYI: my old LCD was a Viewsonic VP150m 15" 1024x768 MVA; paid $750US; "on" time was at most 12,000 hours

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: Kochab
What are your experiences with the LCD lifespan?

I bring this up because my 5-year-old LCD died recently. Apparently it died of a bad backlight inverter. It was also showing another sign of aging: flickering horizontal lines when powered on (which would disappear after warming up). This was a little disappointing as CRTs just seem to go and go and go (though I did have a bad experience with a... PixieTech I think it was... bad phosphor... lasted 2 years; I could hardly see anything towards the end).

Heh, exact same thing is happening with my 5 year old LCD as well :laugh: So the horizontal line thing is the inverter's fault?

 

[Kochab]

the horizontal (vertical to some) line thing is not the inverter's fault. The horizontal/vertical line thing is caused by a bad TCP (Tape Carrier Package). This is the death knell for an LCD as it would take a cleanroom and specialized equipment to fix the problem. The sign of a backlight inverter problem is a brief image then absolutely nothing when you power on the panel. Another common problem is a failing backlight: this is the easiest and cheapest to repair (if you do it yourself). The symptom for this is faded and orangy colors. The backlights are cheap, but during removal/installation be careful not to break the tubes as they contain mercury-vapor. Take a precaution and do this outside.

Information is pretty sparse on LCD repair and even this site, specializing in LCD repair, is pretty sparse on info.

LCDs haven't really saturated the market until recently... The reaper-man is a-comin' for your LCDs folks. Hate to be the bearer of bad news...

 

[TheRyuu]

Well then lets hope my 2 month old VX2025wm doesn't have that problem for another 4 years 10 months

 

[beserker15]

lol, that's why I have my turn off monitor time in windows set to 5 minutes. My friend had a 17" envision tv/monitor lcd died in about 2 years...

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: beserker15
lol, that's why I have my turn off monitor time in windows set to 5 minutes. My friend had a 17" envision tv/monitor lcd died in about 2 years...

It makes you wonder though if they died also because of the cycling, it's hard to know what is less stressful on the monitor, the cycling of the screen or leaving it on all the time.

One wierd symptom on my LCD monitors were these color blotches that began to show up on the sides of the screens, eventually getting larger and larger, then I went to some sites, loaded up some lines and grids for LCD calibration, and 'calibrated' my monitors from there. I also because of the blotches, setup a screen saver that made the screen completely white and wouldn't change, it'd stay like that continuously for hours until I moved the mouse then stopped doing it.

Eventually (I have no idea if what I did above was the cause of this) the pink blotches began to fade away, and now that I look, I see that they're completely gone and that I've forgotten about them, strange...

 

[JRW]

We've had 3 LCDs go out at work and they were all 4-5 years old, the remaining lcds from the original batch are all showing signs of age, faint vertical lines throughout the picture & noticably darker image. I'd have to say from what ive seen LCDs dont age nearly as gracefully vs. CRT but I cant say for sure being theres so many differant models / brands.

 

[nitromullet]

I think it's tough to say. 5 years ago LCD tech was much less mature than CRT technology, and I'm sure that they've made huge jumps in almost all areas of LCD technology since then.

It has to do with build quality as well. I'm not sure what the intended life expectancy of most modern electronics are, but from looking at most of the stuff I buy I don't get the impression that most stuff is built to last much longer than 5 years. JRW has a really nice CRT, that was extremely expensive in its day, so I would expect it to last and maintain a good picture. Whereas, my wife's three year old Sony (E series) 19" is starting to look kind of crappy. It had a fantastic picture when it was new, but the colors are not as bright anymore and the overall image looks kind of blurry to me. Most of the CRTs I've seen in retail stores recently look like they are complete garbage. I think the last good new CRTs were the NEC Diamondtron screens, but I think even those are no more.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

http://www.network54.com/Forum/87612/

I've used that forum before with good results. Was an old $800 18" Viewsonic LCD with wavy lines. All it needed was a new capacitor. Replaced it and worked great for another year.

 

[kmmatney]

None of our 5 year old LCDs have gone out at work, but we only have about 4 of them. We had a power transformer go out on an old 15" Viewsonic, but luckily the LCD had a "brick" transformer in the power cord, so we easily replaced it (12V, 4 Amp transformer).

We have an old 18" Viewsonic that had something heavy lying on it in a car, and there are dark "smears" in the image, which have now been there for years. We still use it though. It traveled to many tradeshows before some idiot put heavy pieces of metal across the screen while it was face up in a car :roll:

 

[Kochab]

Thx for the link BPJ. It looks like all I have to do is change 2 electrolytic capacitors on my backlight inverter and it'll be back online

A question though: you say you changed a capacitor on your LCD and the wavy lines went away, which capacitor did you change? And how did your Viewsonic ultimately expire?

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Kochab
the horizontal (vertical to some) line thing is not the inverter's fault. The horizontal/vertical line thing is caused by a bad TCP (Tape Carrier Package). This is the death knell for an LCD as it would take a cleanroom and specialized equipment to fix the problem. The sign of a backlight inverter problem is a brief image then absolutely nothing when you power on the panel. Another common problem is a failing backlight: this is the easiest and cheapest to repair (if you do it yourself). The symptom for this is faded and orangy colors. The backlights are cheap, but during removal/installation be careful not to break the tubes as they contain mercury-vapor. Take a precaution and do this outside.

I recently found one vertical line towards the left end of my 21" LCD. So is it a sign of impending death? I thought I could live with a not-so-visible line but I guess that may not be the case in near future. (we had 2 horizontal lines with Aperture-grill CRTs, remember?)

How can it be fixed? If can't, how long will it last? It's about a month ago when I first found that vertical line.

 

[Kochab]

...those lines will get progressively worse, I'd say you have another 9-12 months left. Do your lines disappear after your LCD warms up? mine did but if it went into standby for only a moment the lines would reappear.

One of the posters here (up 4) said he changed a capacitor and the lines disappeared, so there's hope for a life-extension.

How old is your LCD? make? model?

 

[n7]

Heh teh inverter went on my Sharp 17" after only about a year.

As for orangy, not yet, but my Sharp has gotten this yellowish tint...(didn't have that originally)

Looks kinda crap compared to my 20" Samsungs...

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Originally posted by: Kochab
Thx for the link BPJ. It looks like all I have to do is change 2 electrolytic capacitors on my backlight inverter and it'll be back online

A question though: you say you changed a capacitor on your LCD and the wavy lines went away, which capacitor did you change? And how did your Viewsonic ultimately expire?

Well I honestly can't remember if it was a resistor or capacitor, but the info came from that site.

And I don't remember exactly which I changed, but took the monitor apart, got my soldering iron out, and went to town. Was easy to do.

It worked fine for say a year, then the lines started showing up again, but not as bad. And another thing to note...I didn't use the correct part. Let's pretend it was a 100ohm part. Well the best I could find locally was 125ohm. So just used that

I mean at worst it would fry the monitor, which was already broken. So if I used the right part it may fix it right up.

I'm actually using it at home right this second. Pilfered it from work since I don't have an extra screen at the house to do some testing. It works fine for motion stuff like videos, so will probably turn it into a TV since you don't notice the wavy lines that way.

It's a really nice monitor design wise considering it's age. Weird 17.5" screen, but the big base with height/tilt adjustment is nice. Boss just had to have the latest gadget when it came out and ponied up the big bucks for it.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Kochab
...those lines will get progressively worse, I'd say you have another 9-12 months left. Do your lines disappear after your LCD warms up? mine did but if it went into standby for only a moment the lines would reappear.

One of the posters here (up 4) said he changed a capacitor and the lines disappeared, so there's hope for a life-extension.

How old is your LCD? make? model?

It doesn't disappear after warm-up. It's been like that for about a month but I haven't seen another line yet. It's a 3-year old Samsung 213T and for those 3 years I'd say it's been ON for over 2 years. (I never turn it off)

 

[MGMorden]

I had a Hyundai LCD of similar age die on me about 4 months ago (I'm guess b/c of the backlight inverter. I'd turn it on and get 0.25 seconds of image before it disappeared again). The STRANGEST thing is that towards the end . . . the thing got screenburn. I know it's nots supposed to be possible on an LCD, but I could actually see the burned in image of the start menu button even when I switched over the Linux. There were some other areas that were starting to get distorted (mostly out towards the edges of the display) too.

All in all though, I figure for the price, several years of use was worth the money spent. I replaced it with an LG 19" unit that is working well. Heck I noticed while shopping two weeks ago that 17" LCD's were down to $150 or so, and ended up grabbing a Sceptre 17" unit to use in a dual-head setup.

 

[Kochab]

...funny how if it's not one thing it's another at that age. I guess 4-5 years is the entropic limit, as I term it. Though some may call it designed obsolescence.

BTW, I know I said earlier that, "the sign of a backlight inverter problem is a brief image then absolutely nothing when you power on the panel", I might be wrong on that. I've been doing a little extra research since putting up this topic, I read one site that said,

SYMPTOM 17: When turning the laptop on, the display lights for a moment then goes dark. Looking close I can still barely make out a desktop.

ANSWER: It's the CCFL inside the panel that is worn out. The inverter is turning itself off to protect its electronics on the PCB since the load/impedance from the lamp is wrong for it to function.

Sorry for the slight misinfo (though it may still mean a bad inverter, I think). It makes sense to me because my backlight inverter's el. capacitors look fine. I'll have a look at my CCFL tubes later today, and maybe order myself a couple. I'm due for a new monitor but it'd be nice to have my old one working.

 

[kmmatney]

Hopefully, all LCD displays will use LED backlighting in the future. That should improve the lifespan.