CCFL wire insulator breaking down

[sixstringartist]

https://imgur.com/a/yjEmFzT

The white spot here is where the wire insulation to the CCFLs has broken down. This monitor has a 2 second to black problem and I can see an arc for a second when powering up the monitor and the backlight is lit.

Is this a common failure pattern? Are there any component failures that are likely to be associated with a fault like this? Can I get by with wrapping the problematic area in electrical tape?

[goontron]

Re: CCFL wire insulator breaking down

Not really, bad insulation, you can try.

[petehall347]

Re: CCFL wire insulator breaking down

i would spray it with insulator spray .. and separate the wires .

[sixstringartist]

Re: CCFL wire insulator breaking down

i would spray it with insulator spray .. and separate the wires .

Like this stuff? https://www.amazon.com/3M-Electrical.../dp/B074T4D93R

[R_J]

Re: CCFL wire insulator breaking down

A couple layers of electrical tape on both wires should work fine.

[Andrew F. Ali]

Re: CCFL wire insulator breaking down

If you have a piece of 3M Hi-voltage splicing rubber tape that would work as well>

[petehall347]

Re: CCFL wire insulator breaking down

Like this stuff? https://www.amazon.com/3M-Electrical.../dp/B074T4D93R

yes .i use a clear one .

[vinceroger69]

Re: CCFL wire insulator breaking down

can you remove that one wire out of the plug? (sometimes you can use a pin and press down on a lug and pull wire out of plug) then i would use some heat shrink tubing.

[sixstringartist]

Re: CCFL wire insulator breaking down

can you remove that one wire out of the plug? (sometimes you can use a pin and press down on a lug and pull wire out of plug) then i would use some heat shrink tubing.

I probably could do that, Ive done similar work in the past and I have the heat shrink tubing. Is the tubing much of an insulator though? Ive always used it as a more professional looking ziptie.

[vinceroger69]

Re: CCFL wire insulator breaking down

Im not 100% sure but i would add two layers on each wire if possible and i think it would work fine i would certainly try it myself if i had this issue.

[sixstringartist]

Re: CCFL wire insulator breaking down

turns out at least 3 of the CCFL bulbs are toast. Fixing the cable is the least of my problems. Buying CCFLs online seems expensive. How to people normally replace these? Ditch the monitor? Pull from a donor? Thanks all for the responses.

[momaka]

Re: CCFL wire insulator breaking down

How did you determine that 3 (or more) of the CCFLs are bad? I think that's very very unlikely. They may be getting old and starting to pull more current, but it's very unlikely all 3 will fail at once.

As for the wire insulation: I suggest using at least several layers of electrical tape and then heat-shrink tubing on top. Most electrical tapes, if I remember correctly, are rated around 300-600V per insulating sheet/layer. So several layers should provide plenty of insulation. The reason I like to put heat-shrink tubing on top is because I often find that electrical tape tends to unwind/undo itself or just get loose and move around. The heat-shrink tubing will keep it all in one place.

Last but not least, as far as replacing CCFLs: if you have a donor monitor of the same size, that should work fine. I've bought discount bulbs before from CCFL warehouse, and they weren't too expensive ($5 per bulb with $5 shipping total). But they didn't come with wires, so I had to re-use the ones from the old bulbs, which is a bit more work - especially when it comes to making sure things are well-insulated. Otherwise, the more expensive bulbs should come with all leads/wires.

That said, what's the brand and model of this monitor, and how important is it to you? If it's just a standard 17/19" monitor, it's probably not worth going through all the hassle of replacing the CCFLs, unless you're doing it just for learning purposes. For bigger and/or some specialty application, it may be worthwhile doing. But again, that all depends on how much you value your time and what you're trying to achieve.