Hello all. So for the last week or so my trusty Samsung Syncmaster 226bw has been misbehaving, last thing at night i switch it off at the wall, the problem i have is that in the morning it takes around 5min after being powered on to display a picture and it seems to be taking longer each day. The only noticeable thing is that the power light on the monitor flashes slower than it would normally do if the monitor was in sleep mode and the screen seems to flash briefly in sync with the power light. When the picture eventually comes back it will be fine for the rest of the day, almost like its had time to warm up. A similar thing happened a few years ago and i took the display apart, cleaned the electronics with alcohol and all seemed fine until this week, I would like to eke out another year or two before having to buy a new display as i want to wait for Free-Sync / G-Sync monitors. So i would appreciate any suggestions on what i can do to get another year from my aging 226bw, would another cleaning help things, is something inside on it's last legs and could be replaced ?
probably the electrolytic caps are dying. Then you took monitor apart, did you spot any leaking or swollen capacitors?
The last time i took it apart was a few years ago so i can't remember if any caps looked bad. Is replacing caps like for like, i.e same make, model, specs ? Anyone care to suggest a UK retailer if when i take it apart again it is bad caps. EDIT: Question, would just not powering it off at the wall get it to last another year, or if it's the caps would that just speed up its demise. How come it only acts up after being disconnected from power, yet seems fine if it sleeps, or powers down via Windows while still receiving power from the wall.
Same or higher capacity and voltage low esr caps will do and watch the polarity. Don't know any local uk based retailers, but there is always farnell and rs. To answer your question - it could be that then monitor is on standby the psu with failing caps does not power down (failing caps usually show up only during cold start). Keeping it on standby could give you that extra year of service or it could die the next day. On the other hand changing caps is quick and easy (if you know how to solder). In either case till you take it apart this is only a guess.
Thanks so far Xlog as i have never had anything to do with electronics could you explain what "low esr" is or how to know the polarity. I opened up the monitor and some caps do seem to have bulging tops, one even had a small amount of copper colored substance on the top, so I'm guessing they will need replacing. Not sure it maters but the info i got from the caps are that they are all made by CapXon, 5x are 820UF 25V, and one is 330UF 25V. I'm not sure if the other info i wrote down is important, written on the five 820UF caps were c730, p729, c729, the 330UF had p729 on it. All of them had GL 105°C and had the word VENT. If as you say it's quick and easy to replace the caps even for someone with no electronics, or soldering experience I'll get the caps order tomorrow.
They sound fairly standard caps, as stated, RS, Farnell, or Maplin should be able to supply them. If you have no experience, do you know someone who has? Do you have a soldering iron with a small tip? For most standard electrolytic caps (can shape with a stripe at one of the pins) you don't need too much skill but it would be worth practicing beforehand, and having a solder sucker for getting the old ones off is very handy. just as mentioned before, watch the polarity of the caps - most boards will have this marked anyway if it's not too crowded (a powerboard shouldn't be) just make sure the cap goes in the right way - it's easy to get confused or forget this if you're not used to these components.
All about capacitors ESR But just to keep you sane, then you open datasheet of a capacitor and it says "low esr" or "low impendance" on the front page it will be good enough. Your old caps datasheet. After quick search Panasonic FM series should be a good replacement (farnell). Other brands will work as well. As for dificulty in changing - if this is you first time soldering/desoldering I would advise practising on throwaway pcb prior to doing this. There are also tons of videos on youtube on how to change caps in monitors.
@blackerthanblack, yea i have a soldering iron with a 4mm tip, I'll order a solder sucker along with some solder (that i thought i already had). Thanks for the advise on getting the polarity of the caps right, I'll make sure i mark the way they are when i take them off. @Xlog, Thanks for the links, I'll have a proper read tomorrow when i have more time, and when it comes to actually soldering/desoldering i will make sure i practice on something first. Thanks all +rep.
try and get teh parts from cpc@ farnell - all the bigger parts suppliers want minimum orders of 20 quid. Last time I had to fix one of my monitors, cost about 7 quid for all the caps. If you get scared/don't want to trash your boards, just send the pcb's and caps to me and I'll fix them up for you
Do let us know how you get on with this Corky. After doing something similar with my TV a few months ago I'd be interested in the result.
Will do Ordered the stuff i needed from farnell this morning, was a bit bummed that the minimum order from farnell was £20, so treated myself to a new iron
This is exactly what happened to my 226BW last year. The caps went and it started to take progressively longer to start up each day, before eventually giving up the ghost entirely. I toyed with the idea of replacing the caps myself but in the end I decided not to and bought a shiny U2412M instead Let us know how you get on
Just a quick update. The order from farnell's arrived yesterday morning so i set about replacing the caps in the afternoon. The solder sucker was invaluable, although i still needed to persuade the old caps away from the small amount of left overs. In hind sight i wish I'd added some electronics grade/size pointed nose pliers to the order or some other tools designed for electronics work instead of electrical work, size does matter. I did make a couple of mistakes with the desoldering even with the components clearly marked on both sides of the board, i managed to confuse the legs from two caps so ended up desoldering a couple of the wrong things. Other than that everything went fairly well, i made sure i got the polarity right by keeping hold of the old cap as it came of the board, and picking up the new in the same orientation, i.e having the positive thumb side, and negative index finger side, as each new cap found it's home i bent the legs over to hold it in place while i moved onto the next one. Once all the new caps were in place i started to solder them in place, maybe it wasn't the tidiest of jobs but as there was good spacing between tracks and components i didn't have to be super careful of accidentally soldering something i shouldn't. Everything back in place i tentatively plugged the power back in half expecting something to go bang, but i was pleasantly relived that everything still worked, i hadn't just destroyed my monitor. The real test came this morning, would it power on immediately, or would i have to wait ten minutes for a picture. Well I'm happy to report that i was greeted with the BIOS POST screens and Windows loading screens this morning, so thanks to you guys i now have a working monitor. TL;DR It's fixed now.
Great to know that's something else saved from the scrapheap. A methodical approach always works wonders!
