Samsung Syncmaster 225BW

[Courtial]

I apologize in advance if this particular problem has been hashed out to death. However, I want to make sure it really is the caps and not some other component before I place any orders (more on that later).

The monitor flickers heavily for perhaps 30-60 seconds or so on startup before it goes black. After that, if I turn it off and then on again, the screen will appear for a split second before it goes black. Also, I should note that when this happens, if I look closely at the monitor, I can actually see the image, it's just very dim - too dim to be of any use. When this first started happening, my solution was to just turn the monitor off and on repeatedly for anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes until it eventually stayed on. But as I was researching the problem, I learned that if I turned the brightness down to the minimum level, the image would typically stick after only a few power cycles. After a few minutes, I can usually then turn the brightness back up without issue.

I actually came across this board and learned of the bad caps problem earlier, but after I discovered the brightness trick, I decided to just live with it. However, I will soon be visiting my folks for a weekend, and my father is a former electrician with tools and a lot of experience. So I thought I'd perhaps bring down my monitor with me, and the two of us could attempt to repair it.

The issue is that, as I understand it, the caps are not always the culprit. Sometimes it's the inverter or the backlight lamp or what have you? Basically I guess my question boils down to whether this sounds like a caps problem, given the symptoms. I would pry open the monitor to check the caps, but I have neither the tools nor the expertise. Also, if I wanted the caps to arrive in time for me to work on it next weekend, I'd probably have to order them very soon.

So, does it sound like the caps are responsible? Thanks for your help.

[RethoricalCheese]

Re: Samsung Syncmaster 225BW

I´d say the culprit in this case is the backlight lamp.

But I can´t say for sure. You have to check it out yourself using the 2 sec to black guide.

Atleast my 225bw had a broken lamp.

[selldoor]

Re: Samsung Syncmaster 225BW

When this first started happening, my solution was to just turn the monitor off and on repeatedly for anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes until it eventually stayed on. .

At that point the problem probably was caps and if you had changed them then
that may have been the only problem. Not changing them could have put stressed out other components.
So whatever, if this is to be a one time chance at a fix you will ned to change all the caps except the big one.
Problem could still be bulbs or inverter transformer but if you dont have a multimeter or spare bulbs you are stuck. As it is Easter weekend there may be less people on line able to help ( although there could be more )

[euromatlox]

Re: Samsung Syncmaster 225BW

Look inside if any bulged electrolyte capacitors can be seen. Caps can be faulty also without any visible sign. The following url has some capacitors mentioned, which you can replace and try again. As it shows, in many cases, the caps don't need to be exactly the same capacitance value as original ones, usually a slightly bigger cap will do fine and be even better solution.

http://www.audiodude.nl/?p=288

[rothelen]

Re: Samsung Syncmaster 225BW

I literally JUST fixed this problem on my 225BW. The longer you wait to fix it the longer it takes to turn on, and its frustrating to have to push the power button a hundred times in 20 minutes. The problem was the capacitors, on mine I had 6 caps that were bad, one was to the point of leaking. On the schematics it shows 3 caps near the transformer so I ordered 4, but when I opened mine up it was slightly different, with a total of 5 820uf25v caps and 1 320euf25v(I think this was the other one) that had blown out. So definitely open it up before you order parts so you can see what you need.