Samsung 226CW Flickering?!?! Help

[ketamine]

Hi, I bought this monitor about 2.5 yrs ago. Tonight I had went to bed and turned it off, but hours later decided to hop on the computer for a minute. When I turned on my monitor it flickered like crazy almost like a strobe light. I turned it off as it made me kinda dizzy =P, I then turned it back on to see no lighting at all but could see the windows I had open if I looked verrry closely. I turned it off once again and back on and it has been fine since. I assume this is bad capacitors as I googled this issue and found youtube videos explaining this issue in detail for the 226BW models. My main questions are the following:

Is it easy to replace these caps?
Is it safe to do this? I am afraid to open her up and get zapped or hurt or worse.
Do LCDs carry big cap charges like CRTs?

Any other info you would like to give will be greatly appreciated. I can't afford to fork out the money for a new monitor when I have a good one now that might just need a repair. I am new to soldering and am willing to take this challenge as long as I know I won't die or get zapped very bad from the caps, how do I know if they are holding charge? DO you only get shocked if you touch the solder points or the cap period? I have so many tiny questions about this >.<. Hope I get some good answers as I have an AMAZING vx922 monitor that I adored sitting in storage when it went out, maybe I could fix it too. Thank you in advance for any and all help/information! :biggrin:

EDIT: One last question, how do you know if you succesfully fixed it? Is it as simple as hit or miss, like will it turn on without issue and stay on and that is it, or can I make the situation worse by messing up?!(bad soldering and such?) I guess I want to know how I would know everything is back to normal and be 110&#37; sure if I attempt this job.

 

[Harvey]

Is it easy to replace these caps?
Is it safe to do this? I am afraid to open her up and get zapped or hurt or worse.
Do LCDs carry big cap charges like CRTs?

I searched Google for 226BW capacitor replacement U.S. and found this site. Searching for your model, I found this capacitor parts kit. Be careful. They have another, similar parts kit specified for European models.

If those are the only caps you need, they are all low voltage parts (< 50 volts) so there shouldn't be any shock hazard in those circuits. However, the cold cathode fluorescent lamp, itself, requires a high voltage supply so you should be careful.

Several of the Google links go to "how to" videos and forums specifically related to replacing these caps. It would be a good idea to check them out for specific info about how to do it safely. There are also links other sources for the parts. Check them not only for price, but also to see if they contain the same components. If so, you can be pretty confident that you'll be getting the right parts.

I'm an electronic design engineer, but I haven't personally had occasion to go inside a flat screen... yet. However, I have been inside of CRT monitors that have much higher voltages so I wouldn't be afraid to try, but only AFTER getting as much info as possible about how to do it safely.

EDIT: One last question, how do you know if you succesfully fixed it? Is it as simple as hit or miss, like will it turn on without issue and stay on and that is it, or can I make the situation worse by messing up?!(bad soldering and such?) I guess I want to know how I would know everything is back to normal and be 110% sure if I attempt this job.

After you do the work, if it turns on and works correctly, you got it right. If it becomes an SED (Smoke Emitting Device), you didn't. :sneaky:

OTOH, if the monitor's already fried, AND you're sure you can do a clean job, you don't have much to lose.

A good, clean soldering job is important. That includes a good solder joint and cleaning up any flux residue around the joint. Do you have experience soldering? Do you know how a good solder joint looks? If so, it shouldn't be a problem.

Electrolytic caps are polarized. Be very careful to note the polarization of the old caps and install the new ones the same way. If you reverse the polarity, they tend to act like party favors and explode. At those values, they'd probably sound like a loud cap gun than a small firecracker and spew their chemical contents around the inside of your monitor.

Hope that helps. Good luck.