Asus VW222S making a high-pitched sound

[Deses]

Hello!

Recently my trusty monitor from 2007 (wow!) started making a high-pitched sound while off or stand-by. When it's powered the sound disappears and the monitor works fine. I've also noticed that the colors are also very washed out compared to my new monitor, but I don't know if that's related.

I disassembled the monitor and saw one Elite cap very slightly bulged.
I took pictures of everything so you can recommend on what to do.
Dropbox Album.

I also have lots of questions :P:
- Would it be better to just replace one cap or replace all the similar ones for better quality caps?
- Will that restore the image quality?
- Can I replace the caps with aluminium caps (aka solid caps) or is not worth it?
- I know I have to match the capacitance of the caps, but is it OK to get a higher voltage cap?

That's all, thank you for your assistance!

[momaka]

Re: Asus VW222S making a high-pitched sound

I disassembled the monitor and saw one Elite cap very slightly bulged.

That cap is gone.

- Would it be better to just replace one cap or replace all the similar ones for better quality caps?

Yes.

In fact, I would say replace all of the electrolytic caps with the exception of the big 450V cap and the brown 10V 1000 uF cap with "KY" text and Y-vent (that one is made by Chemicon and is good quality).

- Will that restore the image quality?

I can't say for sure. It may or may not be a related problem to the caps. You should re-check the monitor's color settings once you fix it.

- Can I replace the caps with aluminium caps (aka solid caps) or is not worth it?

Solid/polymer capacitors are usually not suitable for switching power supplies (not everywhere, at least). Most LCD PSUs are flyback topology, so they may sometimes work with solid caps, but I personally wouldn't recommend it. They can also make the PSU produce very loud high-pitched whining.

- I know I have to match the capacitance of the caps, but is it OK to get a higher voltage cap?

Yes, you can get a higher voltage cap. However, beware that the caps will be physically larger (possibly taller).
You also CAN go slightly higher in capacitance if you can't find the capacitance you need in stock. For example, you can use a 1200 uF cap in place of 1000 uF without problems.

Lastly, make sure to get high quality caps. Avoid eBay if this is your first time buying caps - lots of people selling counterfeit capacitors, especially sellers based in China and Hong Kong. And local stores may not have what you need (or they may have the same junk that is sold on eBay). It's best to get Japanese caps from a reputable online store. There is Digikey, Mouser, Farnell, RSComponents, and probably a few other places. Badcaps.net/store also might have the capacitors you need. And I think member behemot on this forum also sells caps (he's in Poland), so sending him a PM is another option.

[Deses]

Re: Asus VW222S making a high-pitched sound

That cap is gone.

R.I.P.

I can't say for sure. It may or may not be a related problem to the caps. You should re-check the monitor's color settings once you fix it.

I think I noticed the drop in image quality and the high-pitched sound at the same time, it may be connected or I may be totally wrong.

Solid/polymer capacitors are usually not suitable for switching power supplies (not everywhere, at least). Most LCD PSUs are flyback topology, so they may sometimes work with solid caps, but I personally wouldn't recommend it. They can also make the PSU produce very loud high-pitched whining.

In that case I'll stick with electrolyte caps, are those the types I need? I don't want caps that produce noise when I just want to fix that hehehe.

Lastly, make sure to get high quality caps. Avoid eBay if this is your first time buying caps - lots of people selling counterfeit capacitors, especially sellers based in China and Hong Kong. And local stores may not have what you need (or they may have the same junk that is sold on eBay). It's best to get Japanese caps from a reputable online store. There is Digikey, Mouser, Farnell, RSComponents, and probably a few other places. Badcaps.net/store also might have the capacitors you need. And I think member behemot on this forum also sells caps (he's in Poland), so sending him a PM is another option.

I'm going to order from rs-online.com because the shipping to Spain is 5€ vs 18€ from DigiKey.

I'm now going to list the parts I'll need:

Elite caps:

• 3x 1000uF 16v (10mm dia x 20mm height) - Rubycon 16YXF1000M10X20
• 5x 330uF 35v (10mm dia x 16mm height) - Panasonic EEUFR1V331U or Rubycon 35ZLJ330M8X20
• 2x 220uF 25v (8mm dia x 14mm height) - Nippon Chemi-Con EKY-250ELL221MHB5D

Unknown caps (possibly FDA? FOAI? FOAR? i dunno. I took more pictures):

• 3x 47uF 50v (5mm dia x 15mm height) - Panasonic EEUFR1H470
• 1x 10uF 50v (5mm dia x 15mm height) - Panasonic EEUFR1H100

And more questions!

• Should I get the ones that have the highest lifetime expectancy? Or it doesn't matter because they won't get to 105 ºC?
• The store lists some caps as 35V and other as 35 Vdc, does it matter?

[momaka]

Re: Asus VW222S making a high-pitched sound

In that case I'll stick with electrolyte caps, are those the types I need?

Yes.
Often, they go by the name aluminum electrolytic, aluminum wet, a combination of those words, or just electrolytic.

I'm now going to list the parts I'll need:

Elite caps:

• 3x 1000uF 16v (10mm dia x 20mm height) - Rubycon 16YXF1000M10X20
• 5x 330uF 35v (10mm dia x 16mm height) - Panasonic EEUFR1V331U or Rubycon 35ZLJ330M8X20
• 2x 220uF 25v (8mm dia x 14mm height) - Nippon Chemi-Con EKY-250ELL221MHB5D

Unknown caps (possibly FDA? FOAI? FOAR? i dunno. I took more pictures):

• 3x 47uF 50v (5mm dia x 15mm height) - Panasonic EEUFR1H470
• 1x 10uF 50v (5mm dia x 15mm height) - Panasonic EEUFR1H100

That list looks very good.
Don't worry about the "unknown caps". The Panasonic FR caps you picked will work just fine.

Also, when you are done recapping it, let us know how it works and if the color problems have disappeared too.

Should I get the ones that have the highest lifetime expectancy? Or it doesn't matter because they won't get to 105 ºC?

Aha, excellent question. Looks like you came well prepared to BCN.
Yes, because the caps likely won't run all the way up to 105C, the endurance time (often mis-interpreted as the cap's total lifetime) is not too critical. In general, it is good to get caps with higher endurance rating, especially for LCD monitors where they do get quite hot. However, I wouldn't sweat over it. As long as you pick good quality Japanese caps rated for 105C (like you did), there is a good chance this monitor will become functionally obsolete long before the caps in it die again.

The store lists some caps as 35V and other as 35 Vdc, does it matter?

Not really - not in your application anyways.
This difference is likely due to the search engine also including some bi-polar (a.k.a. non-polar) caps in the search. Either that, or whoever listed the caps wasn't very detail-oriented. I've seen this happen on Mouser.

[Deses]

Re: Asus VW222S making a high-pitched sound

Hi again! Thank you for your complete rundown of all my questions.

I placed the order and I should have the caps by Friday... This Saturday will be "recap" day!

As soon as I'm done I'll update you and post pictures.

Aha, excellent question. Looks like you came well prepared to BCN.

That's all thanks to the excellent faqs on this forum!

[thelole]

Re: Asus VW222S making a high-pitched sound

thanks for the solution!

[Deses]

Re: Asus VW222S making a high-pitched sound

thanks for the solution!

Are you also facing this problem?

[Deses]

Re: Asus VW222S making a high-pitched sound

Hi all!

I just replaced three of the caps, the soldering iron is still hot!

Here are some pictures of the replaced caps and my first attempt at solder... how does it look? Too much, right? I'm now going to plug it and see if the procedure was successful.