The infamous 2 seconds to black

[EGuevarae]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Slam a stiff triple of whatever. (or fourple or fiveple if you drink often)
Before it hits take a hot hot shower.
Whack-off.
And then crash.

I don't drink often. And I've tried the OH way of the force, but it didn't work (1 hour of sleep at most. Better thatn nothing, but not enough...)
I tried that combined with a hot shower, and nop.... nothing.
Then the whack-off part was not necessary (so far), but my wife is starting to complain that she does not sleep because of my "I can't sleep so come over here so we can make something out ..". I think I'll take the shower, drink, mate with her, whack off and go to bed.I'll post back the results.

[shimjocky]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Back again.
So I hooked everything back up and it did make a difference. I started to probe the jumpers and I am getting 14V on some of them. I am not sure I will be able to probe the bottom of the board though because flipping them over with everything hooked up will be next to impossible.

I will use a pic of the top side and label my readings thus far. Should have that soon.

[EGuevarae]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Back again.
So I hooked everything back up and it did make a difference. I started to probe the jumpers and I am getting 14V on some of them. I am not sure I will be able to probe the bottom of the board though because flipping them over with everything hooked up will be next to impossible.

I will use a pic of the top side and label my readings thus far. Should have that soon.

I'll be waiting. We're almost there, boy !!!!

[shimjocky]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Ok, here is what I have checked thus far. This is with the monitor hooked up to the pc and the power light is green.

[EGuevarae]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Well, the inverter part is getting power (14v, 12v readings on jumpers). The lamps had any visible damage?
They still don't lit anymore?

[shimjocky]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Just checked and no they don't light up at all.
As for the lamps I only got a glimpse at two of the four. I did not fully remove the brackets that held them as I got a little skittish at that point in the tear down as it looked like it might be difficult to get that part back together and I only wanted to do it if it was absolutely necessary.

What I can recall is that one of them may have looked a little dark at the ends.

[EGuevarae]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Just checked and no they don't light up at all.
As for the lamps I only got a glimpse at two of the four. I did not fully remove the brackets that held them as I got a little skittish at that point in the tear down as it looked like it might be difficult to get that part back together and I only wanted to do it if it was absolutely necessary.

What I can recall is that one of them may have looked a little dark at the ends.

Dark ends are kind of normal. But sometimes they overheat way too much and the glass breaks.
Can you get another set of lamps to test with?

[shimjocky]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Dark ends are kind of normal. But sometimes they overheat way too much and the glass breaks.
Can you get another set of lamps to test with?

No I don't have access to another set of lamps. Can I test them individually? Like unhook all but one at a time or does it not work that way?

[shimjocky]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Just answered that question myself, no worky. If they are not all hooked up the monitor will not even try to power up.

[shimjocky]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

As a somewhat cheap test, could I use one of these and test the bulbs? Not sure about the power needed to run my backlights.

http://www.xpcgear.com/dualccfluv.html

[PlainBill]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

As a somewhat cheap test, could I use one of these and test the bulbs? Not sure about the power needed to run my backlights.

http://www.xpcgear.com/dualccfluv.html

These will give an idea, but it's not a foolproof test. Certainly if this inverter fires up the CCFLs you can be sure the CCFLs aren't broken, melted, or otherwise garbage. But you really won't know if they are drawing too much current - or too little (if that's possible).

It really would be nice if we had test adapters to determine how much current and voltage an inverter is producing, as well as verifying the CCFLs are drawing the proper current at the specified voltage. I did come across a CCFL tester. It only had a few drawbacks - it gave only a go / no-go indication, it required an external power supply - and it cost 69 Pounds! The kit you linked to is a bargain!

PlainBill

[EGuevarae]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

These will give an idea, but it's not a foolproof test. Certainly if this inverter fires up the CCFLs you can be sure the CCFLs aren't broken, melted, or otherwise garbage. But you really won't know if they are drawing too much current - or too little (if that's possible).

It really would be nice if we had test adapters to determine how much current and voltage an inverter is producing, as well as verifying the CCFLs are drawing the proper current at the specified voltage. I did come across a CCFL tester. It only had a few drawbacks - it gave only a go / no-go indication, it required an external power supply - and it cost 69 Pounds! The kit you linked to is a bargain!

PlainBill

I did that with the same CCFL kit, but it was a single lamp (the inverter is the same, they either give you one or two lamps).
See this :
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...39&postcount=9

I replaced the sockets with the connector/cables from a dead Proview 700P that was thrashed after a recap failure (board was melted, and I removed any component I saw that wasn't damaged, and the connectors too...).
I use it to test the lamps. It can not tell you if they draw much current, but can tell you if they lit or not. I power it using a modified ATX PSU for that purpouse, but if you get your hands on an old AT PSU (those with the switch), you can use it too, or even get the power from your computer's PSU. I made another one for a friend (the Tester) and he powers it up with an external Power brick used in those USB to IDE/SATA kits (he's limited to two amps and some really long lamps, like some 19" and 20" & up) don't lit, but then he takes them to my place for testing.
Well, you get the idea. It can be done, it is cheap (way less than 69 pounds), and it can save you some troubles ....

[shimjocky]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

To those who have been helping I am still working on getting the stuff to test my back lights. Looking forward to seeing this puppy work again. Thanks again for your troubleshooting expertise.

[EGuevarae]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

To those who have been helping I am still working on getting the stuff to test my back lights. Looking forward to seeing this puppy work again. Thanks again for your troubleshooting expertise.

OK,good. Post any result you get.

[shimjocky]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Howdy folks.
Sorry it's been so long since my last posting. I have been really busy trying to keep up with the ol college schedule.

I recently acquired a small inverter (used for a ring light that was on a fan) and tested each of the 4 bulbs individually. All 4 bulbs would light up a bit short of half way down from the side where the wires go in, and just a bit from the other end. They leave a big dead area in the middle and the light starts off white and peters off to a purple color the closer to the middle of the bulb you get.

Is this a sign of bad bulbs, or does my inverter not have enough power to light them up?

[EGuevarae]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

does my inverter not have enough power to light them up?

[shimjocky]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

I kind of thought that might be the case. Thanks for verifying.

Since they all light up in a similar manner I am inclined to think that the bulbs might be ok. I started looking over the psu/inverter again hoping something would jump out at me. I saw what looked light a hairline crack in what I think is the high voltage transformer. I cleaned it up with alcohol to make sure it wasn't just dirt, but its still there. I don't know much about these little guys, but I thought it might be worth mentioning. You can easily see what I am referring to in the pic.

Can transformers contribute to the symptoms I have, or do they tend to fail totally and suddenly?

[shimjocky]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Since I am looking at the transformer I decided to read up on it a bit. I found a website that sells them, and they also list the specs. They say the primary should have about 0.3 ohms and the secondary about 1.0k.

I got the following.
P1-P2= 0.5
P3-P4=0.5
S1-S2=3.95 K
S3-S4=1.01 K

I did this check with the transformer on the board.

[retiredcaps]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

I found these 2 videos very useful to test the transformers (about 10 minutes in total). Sounds like you followed this same procedure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNuGWBPRGKA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQkSu0JBTTU

Since I am looking at the transformer I decided to read up on it a bit. I found a website that sells them, and they also list the specs. They say the primary should have about 0.3 ohms and the secondary about 1.0k.

I got the following.
P1-P2= 0.5
P3-P4=0.5
S1-S2=3.95 K
S3-S4=1.01 K

I did this check with the transformer on the board.

[shimjocky]

Re: The infamous 2 seconds to black

Yep, looks like I did most of the same checks. I am going to remove the transformer so I can get good readings on the primary as well.

I am curious if the deviation in the secondary readings is acceptable.