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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Dragster on May 27, 2014, 01:26:07 AM
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Hi all,
Well.. a sad day, it seems...
I bought a Commodore 1960 monitor a few days ago and got it today in the mail... On the way back from worl I picked up the box and got home..
I unpacked it and I thought of doing a quick test just to see if it was working (as it was suposed to)... so I got out my PC laptop from its case, I connected the monitor and tuened it on.. good, it turns on.. so to check the picture I powered it off and connected my laptop's VGA output to the monitor , turned the PC and monitor on and .. so far so good, it showed the PCs picture though it was not centered but moved to the left.. anyway... I let the PC on for a while.. turned my back on the monitor looking for some other stuff and when I checked the monitor again there was no display anymore! Now when I turn it on, the screen doesn't actually turn on and there's a low frequency sound coming out of it...
So the question is... did the PC send a high freq that killed it? Do you think it can be repaired? Any thougs or comments will be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Dragster
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No the PC shouldn't have killed it, does the power light come on? I had one of these back in the day and it had a high pitch noise, but still had a picture.
http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=857
Mentions known faults :-)
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Aaaaargh!!! Bloody phones..... attempt to respond no.7 (I hate phones). Id just give up, but its hard to walk away after putting in the effort that I have already for naught :)
Id be very, very surprised if the video card did any damage. Most of the time any remotely modern pc/os will autodetect and use a supported res and refresh rate. I had a 1960 that ended up as a pc monitor for about a year. After about a decade of being in storage I tried to use it on an a1200. This gave me nothing but a loud constant high pitched squeal, and about an inch of display on far left side of the screen.
Long story short, most likely the monitor already had issues that didnt show up until the screen had been on for a while. While the picture is ok for low res screens Commodore monitors werent great build quality.
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No you will have to take it in for service. Google what happened: Running the monitor higher than it's spec.
Found one:
http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/monfaq.htm (http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/monfaq.htm)
this one applies to you:
http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/monfaq.htm#mondmwhin (http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/monfaq.htm#mondmwhin)
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+1 to the PC should have auto-detected and used the correct refresh rate. I've seen more C= monitors damaged in shipment than anything else. Cold solder joints, dodgy connectors & cables, etc. All it takes is a few shakes in transit to dislodge something. That's why I no longer ship any old monitors. Take it to someone with experience repairing old TV's, etc. (high voltages inside!) and have them take a look inside it.
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+1 on the likelihood of a cold solder joint... I've seen plenty of old CRTs die because of these. It's an inexpensive fix once located though :)
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Back in the day I repaired hundreds of CBM monitors. By far the poorest of the bunch were the 1950's and 1960' (followed by the later version of the 1084S). They will die because it's a Tuesday, because you wore a green shirt, because the moon is half full, because you pressed the amiga key too hard..... The components were cheap and when they would blow, the poor design would take out a fist full of other components. Also the flyback transformers were weak. If that goes out it would be very hard to find a replacement. Honestly I'm surprised someone still has a working one at all these years, but some do exist.
They were so touchy that yes in fact... if it didn't like the frequency of your video card, if it was a bit off from "1960 perfect", it could push those 25 year old components over the edge.
There is always hope. Cold solder is always something to look for on old equipment. The scenario you describe doesn't sound hopeful though. Replacing all the eletrolytic capacitors can often bring things back to life if more serious damage hasn't occured yet. Also make sure all dust is blown out of the case. Dust can cause shorts around the high voltage areas. If you're not experienced with monitor repair, definitely leave it to someone who is. Monitors can give you a nasty burn or even kill.
To anyone else thinking about buying an ancient monitor.... spend your money on a flicker-fixer/new video card and plug in to a new monitor instead.
Plaz
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Back in the day I repaired hundreds of CBM monitors. By far the poorest of the bunch were the 1950's and 1960' (followed by the later version of the 1084S). They will die because it's a Tuesday, because you wore a green shirt, because the moon is half full, because you pressed the amiga key too hard..... The components were cheap and when they would blow, the poor design would take out a fist full of other components. Also the flyback transformers were weak. If that goes out it would be very hard to find a replacement. Honestly I'm surprised someone still has a working one at all these years, but some do exist.
They were so touchy that yes in fact... if it didn't like the frequency of your video card, if it was a bit off from "1960 perfect", it could push those 25 year old components over the edge.
There is always hope. Cold solder is always something to look for on old equipment. The scenario you describe doesn't sound hopeful though. Replacing all the eletrolytic capacitors can often bring things back to life if more serious damage hasn't occured yet. Also make sure all dust is blown out of the case. Dust can cause shorts around the high voltage areas. If you're not experienced with monitor repair, definitely leave it to someone who is. Monitors can give you a nasty burn or even kill.
To anyone else thinking about buying an ancient monitor.... spend your money on a flicker-fixer/new video card and plug in to a new monitor instead.
Plaz
Yeah, agreed on almost all points. The 1950 and 1960 were pretty terrible monitors, and didn't need much of an excuse to fall over dead.
Personally, though, I'd suspect the combination of storage time it had before you bought it, rough handling during shipping, and then the general heat-up of being run for a few hours was what did it in more than any out-of-spec signal. If anything, your PC was probably sending it a more stable signal than an Amiga would. lol
Cold solder joints would seem very likely from the fact it was recently shipped. Although, whistling is a bad sign of possible flyback dead.
and, definitely, +1 on not opening a monitor if you don't know exactly what you're doing. Even after being unplugged for some time, there's still a potential for a LOT of high voltage in there. Hell, I saw a nasty spark from one that I thought was completely discharged. (It wasn't because of a broken connection...) To me, at least, it's not worth it to mess with a monitor, anymore.