shadows and pastel areas on a monitor: Is that normal?

[skyking]

A trader sold me a used monitor. I went to check it out, and all the video that the trader showed me was basically dark. A dark rainbow screensaver, a dark third-person shooter, etc. I saw nothing wrong at that time. This person stated that they had to disconnect thier internet connection to set this up on their laptop, and I was OK with that. Otherwise, I would have opened I.E. and spotted the following problems.
I asked specifically, " So, there are no issues with this monitor?" , to which they replied "no".
I get it home that night, bring up a browser, which has some light and white areas, and there are these shadows along one side, and some pastel patches that are highly visible when displaying white areas. Needless to say, I am upset.
I contact the trader, and tell them I must return this, it is not as advertised. The reply: " When I got this, I was told that this was normal", and "I am so frustrated, I spent the money on bills already". My question is, do any of you find it normal to see shadows which are permanent and visible when displaying white areas of a browser, as well as circular pastel areas?

 

[lobadobadingdong]

No this is not normal, (well, it is if your monitor is on its death bed). This is usually caused by the electron grill losing it's magnetic properties in a few places. It tends to only display itself with high voltages(i.e. bright screens), things get out of alignment from the electon gun and don't hit all of the phospers it's supposed to and so you get weird colors(shaded) in different places. Since the problem is actually in the tube itself all you can really do is get another monitor. You might get the model and serial number and see if you can get an RMA from the manufacturer, most monitor manufacturers honor 3 yrs from date of production. You'll either get a nice refurbished monitor, or (sometimes) a brand spanking new one. My dad had an older 15" .27dp Viewsonic that died and Viewsonic sent him a new 17" .25dp flatscreen! Some people have all the luck.