A tale of two 17" LCDs
I'm currently at my grandparents' place at the seaside. Someone tipped me off about a guy selling a 17" monitor for $17. I called him, and it turns out he had not only one, but two, and he asked the same for each.
A Benq FP71E+ and an AOC LM729. The Benq was described as two seconds to black, but the power LED also turned off when the thing went off. The AOC only displays stripes. Some type of logic board issue, i'm hoping it's just a bad cap after one of the regs like i've had before.
I normally deal only with 19" and larger, but i figured here might still be a market for 17" LCDs, and with the asking price, i might just be able to make a quick buck. So i called a friend and went to grab the monitors. Both have DVI inputs as well as regular VGA, and i also got a free DVI cable, power cable, audio cable, box and manual with the Benq!
The AOC has a nice swiveling foot btw, it can be rotated in landscape mode. I can charge extra for that.
I took apart the Benq first as that seemed to be the easier one. Found nothing wrong. As i was preparing to remove the CCFLs and see if they're bad, i noticed i'd have to take apart the whole panel... which i'd rather not to. So i put it back together and proceeded to test without the LVDS cable connected. Voila, full white screen... and it stays on for quite a few seconds then goes to standby. Normal "no signal" behavior i assumed. Next i unplugged two of the CCFLs. To my amazement, the screen STAYED on with just two lamps lit... I can picture it: "Now we're going to demonstrate the overvoltage protec.......... oops".
So i wired all four lamps back and the LVDS cable. Guess what? Monitor works fine... I wired the DVI cable to my computer, and... it works.
Put it back together, no power. Fiddled with it for a bit, it flashed once, then died again. I then tested and found no voltage on the primary cap... Hey wait a little.
Out of all things, this monitor had an intermittent power cable. Cable which works fine with the other one... go figure. It's not the mains plug, as no amount of wiggling will turn it off once it's on, and another cable worked first time.
The story will continue with the AOC.
A Benq FP71E+ and an AOC LM729. The Benq was described as two seconds to black, but the power LED also turned off when the thing went off. The AOC only displays stripes. Some type of logic board issue, i'm hoping it's just a bad cap after one of the regs like i've had before.
I normally deal only with 19" and larger, but i figured here might still be a market for 17" LCDs, and with the asking price, i might just be able to make a quick buck. So i called a friend and went to grab the monitors. Both have DVI inputs as well as regular VGA, and i also got a free DVI cable, power cable, audio cable, box and manual with the Benq!
The AOC has a nice swiveling foot btw, it can be rotated in landscape mode. I can charge extra for that. I took apart the Benq first as that seemed to be the easier one. Found nothing wrong. As i was preparing to remove the CCFLs and see if they're bad, i noticed i'd have to take apart the whole panel... which i'd rather not to. So i put it back together and proceeded to test without the LVDS cable connected. Voila, full white screen... and it stays on for quite a few seconds then goes to standby. Normal "no signal" behavior i assumed. Next i unplugged two of the CCFLs. To my amazement, the screen STAYED on with just two lamps lit... I can picture it: "Now we're going to demonstrate the overvoltage protec.......... oops".
So i wired all four lamps back and the LVDS cable. Guess what? Monitor works fine... I wired the DVI cable to my computer, and... it works.
Put it back together, no power. Fiddled with it for a bit, it flashed once, then died again. I then tested and found no voltage on the primary cap... Hey wait a little.Out of all things, this monitor had an intermittent power cable. Cable which works fine with the other one... go figure.
It's not the mains plug, as no amount of wiggling will turn it off once it's on, and another cable worked first time.The story will continue with the AOC.
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