Is My Inverter Really Donezo?

[TechiesWearBlack]

Well hello there!

This is my first post on Badcaps
And I have to say, this forum is GOD

First off, you can use my real name. I'm Casey, located in Ottawa, Ontario since '97 when I moved from Vancouver. I'm 19 and I'd say I'm preeeetty good at fixing things. I'm pretty knowledgeable with electronics, so be as pro as you'd like and I'll probably understand.


Well, thats it for the introduction. On to my beautifully unexpected problem.

Almost forgot, happy New Year! The hungover afternoon on New Years Day is when this happened:

I have here my beloved Acer 19" Widescreen (AL1916W) manufactured 2007/04. The other day when I went to use my computer I noticed someone left the monitor on and the computer off. And NOBODY in my house turns the computer off when they're done with it :P Kinda makes me want to ...

I turned on my PC and sat down, the orange light turned to green, the screen showed my BIOS for a second and then BLACK. What? The light was still green... Okay, lets cycle the power...

Turned it back on, Acer logo showed up as usual, screen turned on for another second for me to see the 7 logo, BLACK... Light was still green... SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET... Maybe if I do it again it'll magically fix itself. Third times the charm, right? Acer logo, second of dim logon screen, BLACK.

I skipped the pointless troubleshooting as I know everythings fine besides the LCD. Read up about this famed "Two seconds to black" problem and came across a posting on this forum about... What do you know?!?!? Bad caps on an LCD monitor :P

Let's do this.

Opened 'er up, was pretty simple. Got the shield off the boards and took my first look at the inside of an LCD monitor. Cool Checked for loose connections first, nada. Took the boards out to inspect them, nothing out of the ordinary. Until... I noticed two 220uF 25v caps were slightly bulged with a teeny weeny little bit of electrolyte on the tops. They weren't REALLY bulged or open at all, but I guess from SOMEWHERE they were leaking.

OMGIFTHISISA$1FIXIWILLBESOHAPPY!!!

Went to Radio Shack (Now called "the Source by Circuit City") to see if i could find a couple of these caps. They only sell 20 packs and none of them were the right ones. This guy I know from high school works there and he told me to go to this place called Gervais Electronics, but its a little far so I didnt make it yesterday.

I've read about some people just replacing caps and it works again, others replace them and it still does the same thing. I dont have a soldering iron, desoldering iron or solder for this so I'll have to look around and see if i can borrow them. I have a multimeter, but surprisingly even to myself, I don't really know how to use it :P

SO...

1. How do I/can I test these 220uF 25v capacitors with a multimeter?
2. Do you think my inverter is toast anyways?

I'm looking at $30 for an inverter off eBay. Which isn't horrible, but I may just get a new monitor. Or even get a new monitor, fix that one and sell it.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
Casey

[retiredcaps]

Re: Is My Inverter Really Donezo?

I noticed two 220uF 25v caps were slightly bulged with a teeny weeny little bit of electrolyte on the tops.

Went to Radio Shack (Now called "the Source by Circuit City") to see if i could find a couple of these caps.

If the 220uF 25V caps are low ESR caps, you cannot replace them with general purpose caps which is what the Source usually sells. You must replace low ESR caps with similar specifications.

What brand and series are the original caps? For example, Panasonic is the brand and "FM" is the series. For example,

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...ords=P12383-ND

Gervais Electronics

Looking at their website, they don't sell low ESR caps either.

1. How do I/can I test these 220uF 25v capacitors with a multimeter?
2. Do you think my inverter is toast anyways?

1) You can't measure ESR (equivalent series resistance) with a multimeter. You need an ESR meter for that. Some multimeters can measure capacitance.

2) Your inverter is likely okay. Change out the caps and you should have a working monitor again.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Is My Inverter Really Donezo?

Yes to the above.

They are bloated and leaking.
More testing is pointless, they are bad.
If they aren't already dried out then they will be very soon.

In most screens you'll want to replace all the Lytics in the PSU and Inverter sections simply because they use crap caps.
.... That is unless you just like dead screens and taking things apart.

AT LEAST least replace all of whatever brand you found bloated.

Can't tell you if it has other problems too but I can tell you that you can't find that out for sure if it has bad caps.

Rack-shack does not have low ESR caps.
Few brick'n'mortar stores will and only some will know what you are talking about.
.
.
Need at least make/series/uF/volts/diameter to look up the specs on your old caps.
.

[smason]

Re: Is My Inverter Really Donezo?

Went to Radio Shack (Now called "the Source by Circuit City") to see if i could find a couple of these caps. They only sell 20 packs and none of them were the right ones. This guy I know from high school works there and he told me to go to this place called Gervais Electronics, but its a little far so I didnt make it yesterday.

Good day eh! Nice to see another Canuck here.
Don't bother testing them, if they're even slightly bulged, they're bad. Replace 'em, and the others as well if you don't want to open it up again later.

The Source is next to useless for anything other than cell phones and toy cars, and even then, there are better places

I doubt you'll find any place in Ottawa that will stock any decent low ESR caps. Digikey.ca is your best bet, but in low volume the shipping may not be worth it ($8.00 flat rate overnight)