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General discussion

buying a monitor

Aug 27, 2004 11:20AM PDT

My monitor has partially gone out, with the red missing (most of the time, and mostly on the right side).

I was thinking maybe getting a LCD next time, so there would be one less thing to worry about. Or would there?

Discussion is locked

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Re: buying a monitor
Aug 28, 2004 12:30AM PDT

CRT [cathode ray tube] monitors have a red, blue and green "guns". If one of the color guns burn out, the color is gone from the entire screen.
If it is gone from part of the screen or otherwise varied, you are magnetized or "gaussed", pulling the red beam off to one side.
Many CRT monitors automatically "degauss" when you turn it on. Some have a button or menu option to manually degauss.
Sometimes the aberration is caused by a strong magnet (speaker) being too close to the screen, playing sounds too loud, therefore large magnetic flux, and color distortion.
LCD monitors don't have this magnetism sensitivity, but little portions on the screen can burn out. Look at the longevity of laptop screens. It's usually the 1st (and most expensive) laptop repair...new screen.
Flat panel LCD monitors don't have enough customer use time yet to see some pattern and longevity to burnout, especially for different brands.

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Re: buying a monitor
Aug 28, 2004 9:36AM PDT

Thanks for your reply. It sounds like there may be hope. Ill make sure the speakers are kept away from the monitor. The presence or absence of red is erratic. I often have red after the machine has rested (after being off or in stand-by). Currently, I do have the red.

I had noticed the degaus feature in the monitor menu. So I can try that as well, if I need to.

I did finally get a note from Samsung saying they would replace it, since it was still under warranty:

"Thank you for contacting us. Based on the given description, this unit is in need of service. If purchased within the last three years, the unit is still under warranty. You may elect to have this unit repaired, or replaced with a reconditioned unit that carries the remainder of your three-year warranty...."

So, if the monitor does turn out to be bad, I do have some recourse. I was afraid the warranty was out.