Stored Dell 2007WFP, now has psu problem.

[zukikat]

First, sorry for the length and thanks for your patience!!!

To avoid thread duplication I DID search and read all the way through many of the threads on here by other users reporting several common problems with Dell 2007WFP monitors and didn't find anyone with this particular problem or a solution for it so I decided to post.

A bit of background to help clarify that this Dell 2007WFP monitor did NOT ever "fail" during its' many years of regular use, unlike what so many of this model seemed to do.

It got heavy use and worked properly for over 6 years, was still working when removed from service (for a 27" 1080p monitor upgrade), and while sitting in a corner of the room for around 6-9 months it developed a power problem...

I bought this monitor new from Dell in summer of 2006.

It was always left "on", either in use (green) or in stand-by mode (amber), it was never "turned off" or unplugged the whole time it was in service and always worked properly.
The Sound-bar port/feature was never used.
The USB hub ran a webcam and got used randomly by my old Sony DSC.
The Composite Video port was also used (rarely) for basic TV/video stuff.
For at least 2-3 years the VGA port was used due to a VGA/PS2 KVM.
Eventually the 2nd PC and KVM were retired and I moved to the DVI port.

In the summer of 2012 I got a great deal on a brand new Samsung 27" 1080p business-class PC Monitor/HDTV so the 20" Dell got unplugged and set aside.

About 9 months later I needed to troubleshoot a friend's crashed windows PC so I grabbed my Dell 2007WFP and set everything up to begin the job.

I connected his PC to the VGA port of my 2007WFP monitor and plugged in the power cord and the monitor's power button wouldn't light up at all. Next I pressed the power button but still nothing happened.

After maybe a minute while checking cables I noticed the power button go green, the screen light up, the blue on-screen DELL logo started to appear one letter at a time as normal, but then before it could finish drawing the logo everything went off like I'd pulled the plug even though I wasn't touching anything when all of this happened.
Then moments later it happened again, and again, and again...

After leaving it plugged in for a few minutes this pattern began repeating more and more frequently, sometimes even making it to the point where the monitor would go all the way through its' "boot sequence" (showing its' on-screen DELL logo) and go into stand-by with the power light switching to "amber" for a few seconds before going totally out and "rebooting" itself again, and again.

After being left plugged into power all night, it will finally stay in "stand-by" mode and will "wake-up" and show a PC's display content for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes before "rebooting" itself again once or twice and then go back to showing the PC's display content for random periods before the monitor "rebooting" itself again.

The longer I leave it plugged into power the less often it "reboots" itself, to the point that if I leave it fully "on" all night (showing a PC display with the PC's screen saver image active all night) I can usually use this monitor to work on a PC for at least a few minutes before this monitor starts acting up again although at some point it gets really annoying having to wait for this monitor to finish its' next random "reboot" before I can see what I was doing on the PC again.

It's obviously not something overheating since the longer I leave it plugged in the less problematic it becomes.

It was 100% working with no issues at all for over 6 years when it was retired from service and this problem resulted from sitting unplugged for several months...

I assume it's leaky power supply capacitors or logic board capacitors that got tired during the 6 years of constant on/standby operation and finally died once it was left sitting unplugged and out of service, but I couldn't find anyone selling a "capacitor kit" for this model and I don't know where to begin.
I can use a soldering iron and did some basic TV/Stereo repair work many years ago, although my component level troubleshooting skills are pretty rusty these days and my SM component soldering skills aren't the best so far.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[Rtech]

Re: Stored Dell 2007WFP, now has psu problem.

First requirement would be photos use Go Advanced and Manage attachments.The more the better, you can see the quality some posters provide.

[zukikat]

Re: Stored Dell 2007WFP, now has psu problem.

Hi Rtech, thanks for the speedy response but for my monitor's problem I have to ask...
Pictures of what? Still pics can't show the power and standby light blinking or the process of this monitor randomly rebooting itself.
There are threads with pics of the internals of this exact model already posted in other threads about other problems with this model of monitor, I guess I could link to those threads since I haven't opened mine up yet.

Side note, it's definitely capacitor problems although I don't know if it's the power board, the USB board, the logic board, or more than one of them.

I say it's capacitors because I've left it plugged into power since I first posted, left it in stand-by mode (amber lit power button) instead of "turning it off" whenever I wasn't trying to use it for PC work, and after more than a week of being continually plugged into power and either left in stand-by or randomly trying to use it for PC work this monitor is behaving completely normal again.
I can now fire up a PC that's connected to it and use it continuously for several hours and there's no unexpected "rebooting" at all, it just works continuously as expected now.
So far I've had it running for nearly 8 hours of continuous use and it stayed working the whole time, and it went to stand-by as usual when I shut down the PC which is how I left it rather than pressing the power button to "turn it off", plus I've used it several times since then for 2-3 hours at a time, walked away and let the PC's power features do their thing (monitor to stand-by) and came back randomly to resume work and this monitor came back on and worked normally as needed.

I'm sure that it may get intermittent again at some point, and I'm sure that if I unplug it from power for a while the issue will return but for now it's working as it should so for now I'm leaving it plugged into power and letting it go to and sit in stand-by mode when I'm not using the PC it's connected to.

If anyone gets one of these monitors and plugs it into power and tries pressing the power button and nothing happens, just leave it plugged into power for a while.
There's a good chance that after a few minutes it'll start flickering the power button's stand-by (amber) light, then eventually turn itself on (green power button light) and soon after it'll begin trying to "boot" (draw the DELL logo on the screen) over and over again, then eventually stabilize to the point of making it to the PC's desktop screen, although mine would still randomly reboot frequently while viewing the desktop for several days before it finally stabilized.

After sitting unplugged for several months it took this monitor being connected to a video port (but PC not on) and plugged into power for 10-20 minutes before the power button and lights began flickering on and off, then another 10-20 minutes before it began trying to "boot" (draw the DELL logo on-screen), but ultimately it took at least 2-3 days of being plugged into power and left in stand-by (amber power button) before it really returned to stable normal operation.

I hope someone else discovers that leaving a previously working but now allegedly dead one of these monitors plugged into power for a while may bring it back to a usable state of operation and that this discovery leads them to discover which circuit the capacitor problems are in that's causing this "rebooting" issue with this model whenever it gets left unplugged for extended periods of time.

[Rtech]

Re: Stored Dell 2007WFP, now has psu problem.

Monitors which have the same Model number ,regularly have totally different internal Boards,no doubt due to the Manufacturer doing different production runs,and getting the cheapest internal parts they can,usually from different Board producers.
Why are photos required for your Boards ?? well you cannot expect those that want to help (which are many),to trawl theough other posts and identify, where you should look by component number,conector number, cap number etc.And there may well be subtle differences in numbering etc which have occurred over time.
Don't the Chinese have a saying...that a picture is worth a Thousamd words..in this case it would certainly get you help towards solving your problem.

[Lumberjack777]

Re: Stored Dell 2007WFP, now has psu problem.

Don't the Chinese have a saying...that a picture is worth a Thousand words..in this case it would certainly get you help towards solving your problem.

Well Rtech. It looks like he's used about a thousand words per picture not posted.

Sorry zukikat. I couldn't resist. Please post some pictures and I'm sure we could help you out

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Stored Dell 2007WFP, now has psu problem.

Sounds like it's power cycling because of a bad solder joint on the primary side or the secondary side of the power board.

(Maybe bad caps.)

I dunno if it's even possible for there to be bad caps within just 9 months of sitting. Even though bad caps seem to be real common on 2006 LCD monitors.
(If it was even made during the same year.)