Two dead Princeton VL1916 monitors

[Frh1]

I have two Princeton VL1916 LCD Monitors. The one on my wife's computer stopped working a couple of years ago. I assumed the power supply was bad. I replaced them both of them with larger 21" monitors, but occasionally used the one in my home office with a laptop computer. When we moved, I put both monitors and power supplies in a box.

Yesterday I decided to figure out which one works. I tried both monitors with both 12V 4.0A power supply blocks. The one that I thought was good is a little larger and not quite as heavy as the other one but neither monitor would power on with it. When I plugged the smaller power block into an AC cord (while not plugged into a monitor) the green light went on for a brief moment, then went out. Neither of the monitors would power on with it either.

What concerns me is something like bad capacitors in one of the monitors might have caused both of the power supplies to burn out. If that were the case, replacing a power supply without knowing which monitor is bad could be a total waste of money.

Any suggestions (other than throwing both of them out and buying a replacement to occasionally use with my laptop)?

(I might add that I am not competent with a soldering iron, and the only thing I have to test a 12V circuit is a probe with a light in it for checking the light and brake circuits on my utility trailer.)

[PlainBill]

Re: Two dead Princeton VL1916 monitors

If you can't solder, and don't have a DMM (or even a VOM), the best approach may be to sell them on Craigslist at $15 each or 2 for $25. I would suspect bad caps in both the power supplies and the monitors; certainly in the power supplies.

The other option is to buy a power supply (or two). They are going for as low as $8.59 (with free shipping) on eBay.

PlainBill

[Frh1]

Re: Two dead Princeton VL1916 monitors

Thanks for the reply PlainBill. I opened the larger of the two power supplies today. The inside of it was encased in tin that I did not try to remove. Several capacitors were visible and were not bulging. Given the low cost of replacing it, I would not even consider trying to repair the power supplies.

When last used, one of the monitors worked just fine and buying a replacement power supply would make sense. That is, unless hooking it up to a bad monitor could make the new power supply fail? If that could happen, buying a replacement power supply might not be a smart thing to do. If it's safe to buy a new power supply, perhaps even attempting to repair one of the monitors might make sense.

Another possibility might be to take or send them to a repair shop. The Badcaps website has pricing for repairing motherboards, but I could not find pricing for monitors.

But, I noticed you are in the Phoenix area. I was unable to edit my User Profile, but I'm in Queen Creek (south east valley). I seem to recall a company in Mesa or Chandler advertising monitor repair a while back. Perhaps you might be able to point me to a local company that could check them out?

[retiredcaps]

Re: Two dead Princeton VL1916 monitors

Another possibility might be to take or send them to a repair shop. The Badcaps website has pricing for repairing motherboards, but I could not find pricing for monitors.

Most repair shops are "board swappers" today. Very few do component level repair. Even if they did do component level repair, the cost would easily surpass $50 which makes it questionable.

The owner here, AFAIK, only does motherboard repair.

[PlainBill]

Re: Two dead Princeton VL1916 monitors

Thanks for the reply PlainBill. I opened the larger of the two power supplies today. The inside of it was encased in tin that I did not try to remove. Several capacitors were visible and were not bulging. Given the low cost of replacing it, I would not even consider trying to repair the power supplies.

When last used, one of the monitors worked just fine and buying a replacement power supply would make sense. That is, unless hooking it up to a bad monitor could make the new power supply fail? If that could happen, buying a replacement power supply might not be a smart thing to do. If it's safe to buy a new power supply, perhaps even attempting to repair one of the monitors might make sense.

Another possibility might be to take or send them to a repair shop. The Badcaps website has pricing for repairing motherboards, but I could not find pricing for monitors.

But, I noticed you are in the Phoenix area. I was unable to edit my User Profile, but I'm in Queen Creek (south east valley). I seem to recall a company in Mesa or Chandler advertising monitor repair a while back. Perhaps you might be able to point me to a local company that could check them out?

I'd be glad to check them out, but I'm more than half way across the valley from you (Near the Frys on Thunderbird). While I HAVE driven to Queen Creek (and beyond!) in search of a bargain non-working TV, I am less than eager to do so in this case.

Here's my thoughts on this situation. Current SMPS design should allow a power supply of this type to survive being hooked to any reasonable load, including a dead short. One common failure of SMPS supplies results in them failing to start when AC power is applied. If they had constant AC power they could work for years in this state. So it is unlikely that you 'killed' a power brick by connecting it to a bad monitor.

Given the cost of a replacement power supply, I would suggest ordering one, verifying it works with the 'good' monitor, then trying it on the 'bad' monitor. Or contact me via PM. I'm always up for what promises to be an easy repair.

PlainBill