Last week I got an Acer AL2416W monitor (VGA only model) from a friend, exhibiting the "2 seconds to black" problem (the monitor, that is, not the friend). I've read the service manual and this forum on what others had to say about their model, then opened it up and did some structured testing.
I think only the caps on the inverter board are shot:
- Acer logo shows, then disappears
- Picture is faintly visible with a flashlight. Top tip: shine the flashlight while moving a white window around on the PC attached to it -- it's much easier to detect faint movements that are in perfect sync with your hand, than it is to see a static image.
- If I leave the display powered, but turn off the video signal for a few minutes, then turning it back on, it often works normally for a few seconds, then turns back to black. That tells me that the power supply, the video decoder and the CCFL tubes are all OK. And even the inverter briefly works.
- Measured fuses F1, F2 and F3; all are very low resistance, so good.
- Measured MOSFETs Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6: all terminal combinations are infinite resistance, so good.
So all things considered, I think I just need to replace the 10 caps. None look out of the ordinary, but I don't have an ESR meter yet so I can't measure them. I've looked around on a suitable webshop and found two suitable replacement models among their selection: Rubycon 35ZLH100MEFC6.3X11 and 35ZLJ100M6.3X11. Any reasons favouring one of them? The ZLJ is slightly cheaper but that's not a major concern.
I think only the caps on the inverter board are shot:
- Acer logo shows, then disappears
- Picture is faintly visible with a flashlight. Top tip: shine the flashlight while moving a white window around on the PC attached to it -- it's much easier to detect faint movements that are in perfect sync with your hand, than it is to see a static image.
- If I leave the display powered, but turn off the video signal for a few minutes, then turning it back on, it often works normally for a few seconds, then turns back to black. That tells me that the power supply, the video decoder and the CCFL tubes are all OK. And even the inverter briefly works.
- Measured fuses F1, F2 and F3; all are very low resistance, so good.
- Measured MOSFETs Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6: all terminal combinations are infinite resistance, so good.
So all things considered, I think I just need to replace the 10 caps. None look out of the ordinary, but I don't have an ESR meter yet so I can't measure them. I've looked around on a suitable webshop and found two suitable replacement models among their selection: Rubycon 35ZLH100MEFC6.3X11 and 35ZLJ100M6.3X11. Any reasons favouring one of them? The ZLJ is slightly cheaper but that's not a major concern.
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