Monitor Life (Maximizing It)

[webley]

What is the best way to extend your monitor's life as long as possible?

Does the powersave setting that turns off the monitor after a time extend the tube's life or is it better to power the monitor down manually when not in use?

 

[Jiggz]

The built in powersave extends the monitor's life compare to manually turning it on and off. By turning it on and off manually the system goes thru more thermal shocks than by just having it turned off by the powersave feature. Another way I found out personally to extend the monitor's life is to keep it cool. There are monitor cooling fans available which sits on top of the monitor and connects to the CPU system. It'll only turn on when the system is turned on. And of course, opening and cleaning (vacuum) the system once a year will definitely extend its life.

 

[webley]

Thanks Jiggz. You open your monitor to vacuum it? How does a monitor come apart? Does the front bezel come off or the back part? I don't want to open it and not get it back together.

 

[CTho9305]

I put a fan on mine... I think it helps. It definately stays cooler

 

[chuckieland]

really.
how much are those fan cost

 

[CTho9305]

I spent a grand total of $0... I took it out of a dead AT power supply I had lying around, cut the header off, and soldered it to a 4-pin molex (? whatever you call the standard 4 wire rbby thing) connector. works fine. th only issue is that it has trouble with the pressure caused by the relatively small size of the ventilation holes and doesn't move much air (if any - i feel lots of air blowing randomly backwards due to blade turbulence). I had to make a big cone thing to cover most of the top of hte monitor and duct it to the fan to get good air movement

 

[jamarno]

Turn it off because the power saving modes don't shut down everything and keep most of the main supply running. Also don't run the monitor at its maximum horizontal scan rate (max vertical rate x max horizontal resolution) most of the time because that's the hardest on the horizontal output section. But don't bother with a fan unless the monitor is tucked into a crowded computer desk shelf.

 

[erub]

i have an old Dell 15" monitor from a 386 that is 10 years old..i left in on for a little while, and I turned it off some nights. It is still hooked up to my second box. I also have another 17" monitor that is from Feb 1997 on my primary box. I let it go in power saving mode when I put the computer in hibernate out of laziness. Do monitors really die that often?

 

[Scouzer]

I have an 8 year old 14" monitor that works just fine still... image quality is horrible but it always has been...

 

[zoom8112]

where can i find some monitor coolers????

i just invested a lot in my 21" monitor and want to prolong its life as well

 

[Zuph]

I'm bad. I sit the big speaker from my dinky little 3 peice multimedia thing on top of my monitor. I really don't care, seeing as how I get my monitors from the computer show. Refurbs sure are cheap, although, I'm not going to buy the one that looks like it fell down a flight of stairs.......

 

[MichaelD]

You definitley get an "A for effort!" We all want to get our money's worth when it comes to big-ticket items like monitors.

The power saver feature that "turns off" the monitor, doesnt' really. If you shut out the lights in the room when the monitor is on that "power save mode" you'll see a faint gleam or shine or light coming from the monitor. It's still on, just the signal from the vidcard is attenuated. This may save a few watts, but does nothing for the life of the tube.

I shut my monitor off when I'm going to be away from it for more than an hour and am leaving the computer on. I do realize that the ON/OFF/ON/OFF cycling ins't good for the monitor, but I don't think it's any worse than leaving it on, with the tube burning. There's a also a substantial reduction in heat in the room when the monitor is off.

You don't need a fan on your monitor UNLESS you have it crammed into a little cubby w/no breathing room around it. If the monitor is sitting on a desktop, with at least 12inches all around the casing for breathing room, you are fine. A good habit to get into is to vacuum the case breathing holes everytime you vacuum the room. That's about once every 5-10 days for me. I carefully vacuum the breathing holes. No dust buildup there. Good luck.

 

[Gosharkss]

Monitor longevity Top ten list

1. Run at the manufacturers recommended resolution and refresh rate
2. Use indirect lighting, turn the brightness and contrast down (this will also improve focus)
3. Turn off the unit when not in use for long periods (over 8 hours) less than 8 hours use the energy saving modes, use a screen saver for shorter periods (over 15 minutes)
4. Keep unit in a well ventilated area (Fans are not necessary) if you do steps 1 - 3
5. Keep your fingers off the face of the tube
6. Keep monitor a sufficient distance from anything that creates a magnetic field
7. Degauss once a day (not necessary if you turn the unit off)
8. Do not place anything on top of the monitor especially containers of water, do not block ventilation slots, top, bottom and sides
9. Use a surge protector (Unplug the unit during thunderstorms)
10. Avoid direct sunlight


Jim Witkowski
Chief Hardware Engineer
Cornerstone / Monitorsdirect.com

 

[RickH]

Just use power saver mode. Let Windows power it down after 10-15 minutes. My 19" Hitachi and Viewsonic monitors have no detectable heat in the morning before I move the mouse. According to the manual the power use drops from ~120 watts to "less than 15 watts" in power saver mode. R.

 

[webley]

zoom8112, Here is one source for a monitor fan. Link There are some review links there too.

I wish I knew if a fan can really extend life. My guess is that it won't do much for life extension because the cathode that sources the electrons still has to be hot to function and the cathode life is mainly what determines CRT life. I read that cooling the monitor may help prevent parts like capacitors from wearing out too fast though so maybe it would be helpful.


Yesterday I made a fan cooler for my monitor by attaching a low power 80 mm fan (0.1A) to a 12 inch diameter plastic cover and offset it an inch from the top of the monitor so the air can flow without turbulence (and noise). The following are temperature test results with the setup and without.


Powersave: Monitor, 27.6 C

Normal Operation: Monitor, 49.5 C

With Fan: Monitor, 44.5 C

Room Temp ~26 C for all tests

The small 5 degree reduction may be improved by a larger fan and better coupling of the plastic shroud to the monitor. I think I'll just use free convection (no fan) in the future anyway but it was fun to try.

 

[zoom8112]

thank you webly

 

[InFecTed]

If you turn down the pc, the monitor goes into power saving mode right?
So is there any difference if you turn it down using the On/OFF button?

<<7. Degauss once a day (not necessary if you turn the unit off)>>
Do you guys thing this is really good for the monitor, isn't degaussing a pretty stressful operation for it?

 

[Gosharkss]

All monitors degauss at power up. Degauss is not stressfull to the monitor in any way.

There is a coil of wire that goes around the picture tube just under the plastic near the front of the monitor. This is the degauss coil. When the monitor is turned on it will automatically degauss itself by sending a large current though this coil of wire. The degaussing circuit uses a thermistor to taper off the degaussing current over a period of a few seconds. Tapering the current off prevents the degaussing process from actually creating a residual magnetic field in the metal parts of your monitor instead of eliminating them.

Even though it makes the image wiggle and change colors for a few seconds it is not harmful.

Jim Witkowski
Chief Hardware Engineer
Cornerstone / Monitorsdirect.com

 

[Gosharkss]

<< If you turn down the pc, the monitor goes into power saving mode right?
So is there any difference if you turn it down using the On/OFF button? >>



The difference is 4 - 5 watts of power.

When the monitors goes into its lowest power save mode, it draws typically 4-5 watts, enough to keep the sensor alive that detects the H/V-signal used to wake the monitor up out of power save mode. Same deal with all television sets that use remote controls, they draw 4-5 watts of power to keep the remote sensor alive.

So technically power save is the same as turning the power switch off. Some people will argue it is better to turn off electronic equipment when not in use, others will claim it causes more stress on the monitor.

I turn my system and monitor off when I leave the office every night. If you are worried, buy a monitor from a company with good return / warranty policies.

Jim Witkowski
Chief Hardware Engineer
Cornerstone / Monitorsdirect.com