Maintenance on 1084S monitor

[AmigaBruno]

I've recently bought an Amiga 1084S monitor, although I haven't collected it in person yet.

I plan to check it before bringing it home. I hope it will continue to work for the foreseeable future, but I wonder if anyone has any advice on how to keep it running.

My original 1084S monitor let me down after about 6.5 years. The problem was that one of the colours red, green, or blue stopped working. I got someone to make up a new lead, which seemed to work at first, but after only a few minutes the same fault recurred. I never managed to get it repaired. I then had a custom lead made up for an old monitor I had lying around.

What can I do to get the most out of my new old 1084S monitor?

[AmigaBruno]

Well, I picked up the monitor in person 2 days ago now and it's working OK.

Interestingly enough, although it says 1084S on the front of the monitor, it's not the same model I bought with my original Amiga A500 years ago. I used to own the second one pictured on the page below, but the one I've just bought is the third or forth model on the page, which is listed as a 1084ST or 1084S-D1. Is this a later model?

http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=850

[AmigaBruno]

You mean the high pitched whine?  Probably the flyback transformer.  Typical in old CRT devices.  With my LCD I don't miss that at all!  

This whine was very noticeable and annoying on my original 1084S Philips monitor, but I didn't hear it on any other monitors, including the same model in the shops. What stopped the whine was me moving out and having the monitor transported across London in a small van. It never whined after that!

[AmigaBruno]

That's typical problem and often thought to be because of the cable, but it's actually the connector on the monitor. It's really easy to fix if you open the monitor and re-solder the connector... those pins just get loose by time. Just be careful where to touch if you open monitor... no danger around that connector though

Unfortunately, my knowledge of electronics doesn't extend that far. I bought an electronics projects kit with a breadboard in February, but I haven't managed to build even the first project, which is an LED with a dimmer switch. Some years ago, I saw a series on TV which included information that TV sets and monitors contain one or more components which store high voltages even when they're turned off and unplugged. This means that unless you know exactly what you're doing you can easily kill yourself by attempting to repair one.  The extortionate prices charged even just to look at a monitor to diagnose the fault prevented me from having it repaired.

[AmigaBruno]

to make the 1084s last forever you must do 2 steps

1: resolder all the board with good tin....(manufacturer used buggy tin in this monitor)
2: replace all those buggy chinese capxon caps and insert good japanese caps...ie chemicon, rubycon or panasonic

Thanks! This seems to be exactly what I needed to know. I couldn't do it myself, though.

[AmigaBruno]

This operation is way easier than you think. You don't need to know where you can touch, the connector is there so visible and easily reached. Hardest part is to figure out how to open the monitor case, but it isn't that difficult afterall. I didn't do any background work myself, just got the case open and then used soldering iron to melt the existing solder little.. I didn't even add any myself. Just touch with hot iron there on few pins and monitor has worked just fine after it.

I'm afraid I wouldn't attempt it unless I knew what components not to touch. Can anyone tell me what they are? Obviously, posting some pics would help.

As for my progress with this monitor, I finally got an audio lead and plugged it in, although I had some problems finding out which two of the four RCA sockets I needed to plug into. Using my A500 Plus and Relokick 1.4, I downgraded to Kickstart 1.3 , but then found that pressing a mouse button didn't switch to NTSC mode, just made the monitor flicker. I ended up adjusting the picture height on the monitor to avoid having the lower 56 lines blank. I played Barbarian by Palace, Lemmings, and some demos. I plan to try my Amiga A1200 with this monitor today and select NTSC from the boot menu.

Some more serious problems are the power lead and the on/off switch. The power lead supplied is very short and has been causing problems by lifting my extension lead off the floor. Last night, while sitting down on the sofa for a few minutes, instead of on a chair in front of the Amiga, I managed to accidentally pull the extension lead out of the mains socket! This turned off the monitor and the Amiga, but not the hard drive. I wondered what to do, but luckily I just plugged it back in and everything was OK. I wonder if there's anything special about this power lead or if it's just a standard kettle lead? As for the on/off switch, it seems hard to turn it off. I suppose this is better than not being able to turn it on, though. What should I do about this? I don't think just plugging and unplugging the monitor from the mains will do it much good.

[AmigaBruno]

Unfortunately, the monitor on/off button has started playing up! I found I had problems turning it on because I couldn't get the button to stay in the on position. Since then, I've resorted to leaving it in the on position and just plugging or unplugging it at the mains through an extension lead. Can anyone tell me of an alternative?

[AmigaBruno]

You could power it through a switched power strip....

Can you give me an example of this? Where would I get one? Can you post a link? The lead that came with it is also quite short and should be replaced. It also has to work on 230V 50Hz.

[AmigaBruno]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_strip

I've only just found this reply!

I've never heard it called a "power strip" before. To me it's an extension lead, which I'm already using. Most extension leads have more than one socket. To make matters worse, the switch on the wall socket is stuck in the ON position!