Acer 20″ LCD Monitor- Display Shutdown and Distorted Picture Problem
The initial complaint was display shutdown after few seconds. As usual one has to open up the cover in order to see the fault. When the power supply was exposed I saw two bulged electrolytic capacitors as seen from the photo below:
In order to remove the power supply for easy troubleshooting I have to remove all the cables connected to the casing. I had to remove the Flexible Flat Cable (FFC cable), backlight cables and the control panel cable. The value of the bad capacitors was 470uf 35 volts. I did not stop there as I wanted to check on other e-caps too just to make sure there are no marginal capacitors in the power supply section. I found the other e-caps to be in good condition.
I replaced the two e-caps and put all the cables back to their original position and powered On. I saw the display and no more shutting down but the problem with the display now was color problem. The color was uneven and seems to have distortion as seen from the photo below.
The moment I pressed on the FFC cable connector (picture below) the display seems to go back to normal but with lesser distortion.
I knew it was the contact problem and nothing to do with the power supply, mainboard and etc. I took out the FFC cable and found some tainted marks on the golden coated contacts.
I used the Staedlar eraser on the contact surface.
After cleaning it I sprayed the connector with contact cleaner. I then put back the FFC cable into the connector and powered On. Guess what? The vibrant display of the Monitor came back. I tried pressing on the connector and it did not show any distorted display. I knew I have solved the problem. I let the LCD Monitor to test run for couple of days and the display was totally stable.
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Anwar Shiekh
October 13, 2014 at 9:19 pm
In cases like that I use silicone oil to prevent reoccurrence
Jestine Yong
October 13, 2014 at 9:30 pm
Hi Anwar,
Thanks for sharing!
Jestine
Shaddrach K Tarutia
October 14, 2014 at 11:42 am
Hi Jestine,
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Emmanuel
October 16, 2014 at 10:16 pm
Thanks jestine for sharing your great knowledge with us who are in the same lime with you. I like you so mach anyway. Bless
beh
October 13, 2014 at 9:25 pm
Hi JESTINE
thanks for this useful article and thanks god the internet problem of blog is solved
Jestine Yong
October 13, 2014 at 9:31 pm
HI Beh,
Thanks. In fact I'm testing out and hopefully no problem.
Jestine
ANAND
October 13, 2014 at 10:01 pm
OK. But any IC has damaged how it will be changed.
Jestine Yong
October 13, 2014 at 10:28 pm
Hi Anand,
If IC is damaged then you need to compare with a same working unit or find the exact schematic to look for the damaged ic part number.
Jestine
MOHAMED KRAYANI
October 15, 2014 at 3:26 am
THANKS MR JESTINE YONG ITS VERY VERY GOOD
Jestine Yong
October 15, 2014 at 5:23 pm
HI Mohamed,
You are welcome!
Jestine
Humberto
October 13, 2014 at 10:02 pm
Good repair Mr. Jestine, but good idea too in cleanning the golden contacts with STAEDTLER eraser.
Jestine Yong
October 13, 2014 at 10:08 pm
HI Humberto,
Thanks.
Jestine
Andre Gopee
October 13, 2014 at 10:07 pm
Great article... As usual your articles are always very interesting to read. Thank you for sharing.
Jestine Yong
October 13, 2014 at 10:26 pm
Hi Andre,
Thanks.
Jestine
John
October 13, 2014 at 10:15 pm
Always interesting to read these repair articles, thanks.
Jestine Yong
October 13, 2014 at 10:26 pm
Hi John,
Thanks.
Jestine
Merlin Marquardt
October 13, 2014 at 10:48 pm
Perfect.
Albert Hoekman
October 13, 2014 at 11:12 pm
For cleaning contacts I'm using an ordinairy combi-piece of eraser. One side is for pencil. The other side is for (ballpoint)ink, there is some fine grinded glass in it. I use it for PCB/FFC-contacts. Any kind contactcleaning- or oiling-stuff does harm the PCB or FFC-cable! Beware of it. For cleaning I use Isopropyl alcohol.
Jestine Yong
October 14, 2014 at 10:01 am
HI Albert,
A big like for you!
Jestine
j.esmaeili
October 13, 2014 at 11:56 pm
Hi JESTINE
thanks for this useful repair
neeraj yadav
October 13, 2014 at 11:59 pm
I am always read your articals.Very useful for all repairer. Thanks sir.
Roberto S.
October 14, 2014 at 12:08 am
Interesting, good work!
Jestine Yong
October 14, 2014 at 10:01 am
Thanks to all!
Jestine
Robert
October 14, 2014 at 12:11 am
Nice Job Mr. Yong. Thanks for the article. I'm glad the website is working again!
Ali
October 14, 2014 at 12:26 am
What a McGyver genius !
Jestine Yong
October 14, 2014 at 10:07 am
Hi Ali,
I'm just a normal guy like you all that love electronics repair.
Jestine
Yogesh Panchal
October 14, 2014 at 12:32 am
Good article.
Sir i have one question,Normally we use eraser for cleaning the golden Contacts on pcb which are made from synthetic rubber mixed with pvc which develop Static chargeon rubbing which may damage low voltage parts.so what type of eraser is safe?.
Jestine Yong
October 14, 2014 at 10:11 am
Hi Yogesh,
That was interesting. In fact I had been using normal eraser since early 90's on VGA cards,sound card, parallel/serial cards and so far never heard of static causing problem to those cards. Will do some research on this eraser-static.
Jestine
Waleed Rishmawi
October 14, 2014 at 12:40 am
good article..thanks for sharing. today I repaired an LCD computer monitor and it has about 5 capacitors that were bulged. I still get plenty of work in my shop but working a night job and day job is really hard and I am still getting used to it.
Jestine Yong
October 14, 2014 at 10:00 am
Hi Waleed,
Good to hear plenty of work in your shop. Take good care of your health since you are working on two jobs.
Jestine
Oscar
October 14, 2014 at 12:45 am
Good advice, but why STAEDTLER eraser
Jestine Yong
October 14, 2014 at 10:06 am
Hi Oscar,
Good question. In fact in can be any eraser. I use this STAEDTLER eraser because I bought it from a mobile phone repair supplier and they use it to clean the contact in mobile phone.
Jestine
Joshua Oloo
October 14, 2014 at 1:50 am
Thanks Mr. Yong for the Article more so introducing the eraser for ribbon cables.keep it up sir.
Jestine Yong
October 14, 2014 at 10:04 am
Hi Joshua,
You are welcome!
Jestine
Corriete
October 14, 2014 at 4:22 am
thanks so much for this piece.wonderfully done.
Abdul
October 14, 2014 at 7:39 am
Thank you Jestine,
I always loved to read your articles full of ideas and informations.
Abdul(Singapore)
moshe
October 14, 2014 at 8:30 am
thanks for sharing Jestine!
Anwar Shiekh
October 14, 2014 at 8:35 am
Might be worth reiterating that not any 470uf 35 volts capacitors will do, but they should be low ESR, and there is little sense saving a few pennies on cheap capacitors.
Jestine Yong
October 14, 2014 at 10:16 am
Hi Anwar,
Thanks for pointing it out. Usually a branded cap will have low ESR value and good quality. There was a time many years ago I returned a batch of 1uf 450 volt cap to the supplier because it was low quality with slightly high ESR value as compare to others. The moment you put in the cap and power on, the cap will explode with a loud "bang". The new replacement cap worked perfectly fine.
Jestine
arun
October 14, 2014 at 11:35 am
Sir
Thanks
atul
October 14, 2014 at 11:58 am
Excellent sir.its very useful.
Mohamed Sittiq M
October 14, 2014 at 1:08 pm
Dear Sir,
Thanks for valuable information
Thanks
Mohamed Sittiq M
Phumlani
October 14, 2014 at 1:48 pm
Thanks Mr Yong for sharing such a useful article
Tony
October 14, 2014 at 2:24 pm
You will be surprise how many circuit boards will work after you cleaned the golden fingers at the bottom of the board.You will find these problems on the computer boards,before you try to find the problem on the circuit with the test scope or volt meter after you ran a diag. test, the first thing you should do is clean the golden contacts or fingers of the board before you plug it back into the backplane or a card slot. Oh by the way, I got the same lcd monitor that was shown on the picture.It the "Acer" monitor ,it the same model,model no# X193W .This is great,I will download this article just in case if my monitor will go bad. Thank for the acticle,Jestine,great job!
Jestine Yong
October 14, 2014 at 4:33 pm
HI Tony,
Thanks for the suggestion. The model is X203h.
Jestine
Tony
October 18, 2014 at 3:22 pm
It me again. My monitor is one inch less than your.I just want to let you know that Jestine.You see,you have the 20" and mine is 19",but the picture of your monitor look the same as mine anyway. Thank again that you brought this up,Jestine.
Vasile Petrica
October 14, 2014 at 3:20 pm
Thank you.Good presentation !
mahmoud
October 14, 2014 at 3:23 pm
Hello
I took km versus repair screen
Mark Tembo
October 14, 2014 at 3:56 pm
Yes, such problems (though may look simple) will give you night mares especially if ignored. Thanks for sharing!
Mehmet Kanal
October 14, 2014 at 6:05 pm
Hi Jestine,
Great Article. Thank you for sharing.
Oswald Fraser
October 14, 2014 at 8:20 pm
Grate article thanks for sharing.
Salim Khan
October 14, 2014 at 9:07 pm
Can i use isopropyl alcohol to clean FFC?
Thanks.
Jestine Yong
October 14, 2014 at 9:09 pm
Hi Salim,
Yes you can.
Jestine
mick helsdon
October 14, 2014 at 11:31 pm
Hello Jestine ,an interesting write-up. I thought the point of having gold plated contact is to reduce resistance and increase reliability as gold does not tarnish! So why did they need to be cleaned ?
Just a thought! Keep up the good work!
Jestine Yong
October 16, 2014 at 10:30 am
Hi Mick,
Those are not genuine real gold besides there are other factors like dirt/dust/moisture etc that contributed to the tainted surface.
Jestine
Leon
October 15, 2014 at 12:38 am
I always learn from your articles. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us.
Dan
October 15, 2014 at 1:16 am
That is inspiring to see that an eraser help solved the stubborn metallic discoloration I love the pictures you provided to: most informative.Thanks again.
Jestine Yong
October 15, 2014 at 5:23 pm
HI Dan,
You are welcome!
Jestine
bernard
October 15, 2014 at 2:56 am
HI Justine , just a line to say I have been also using the eraser method to clean contacts on Vga cards and esp memory (RAM) chips, thats where I first learnt about it , also do you not have any Girls interested in this field ? our classes have two girls who are technically interested and good with their hands, also have seen at many assembly factories, its mostly Girls & ladies that do most of the assembly and fabrication .... just a note ... bye !!
bernard/~ 8-)~
Jestine Yong
October 16, 2014 at 10:27 am
Hi Bernard,
Yes there are but very very less as compare to guys.
Jestine
Nelson
October 16, 2014 at 7:28 pm
Good idea, but its been a old school, we used to do that on any TV remote controls,flixeable wire connectors on Laser disc,CD,Betamax,VHS and Video Cameras in the old days.We even use paper money to clean video heads of VCR's.
carlos guilherme
October 16, 2014 at 11:59 pm
Hi Mr. Jestine Yong,
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us and God Bless you
Rudi Wijaya
October 18, 2014 at 12:53 am
This eraser always do the job very well. Sometimes I use it to clean my motherboard RAM if I have problem with PC. Btw sir Jestine, you can use eraser to clean sticker glue residue on electronics case too, it'll looks neat and clean. Thank you for the articles.
Jestine Yong
October 18, 2014 at 9:13 am
Hi Rudi,
You are welcome!
Jestine
raymundo saura
October 21, 2014 at 8:54 pm
thanks sir
marcos aurelio
October 26, 2014 at 11:32 am
I am very grateful. the article and email .gosto much the way are apressentados and commented defects . my English is not very good and is easy to read but . tanks .
Mahmoud
November 5, 2014 at 10:17 pm
Excellent work Mr.jestine .its very useful article
Taring K Arioka
November 25, 2014 at 9:58 am
Hi Jestine
It is so good to learn new lessons from you all the time.
Thank you again
Jenson Joseph
February 3, 2015 at 5:59 pm
Thanks Mr.Jestine Yong,your sharing knowledge
Jestine Yong
February 3, 2015 at 7:40 pm
HI Jenson,
You are welcome!
Jestine
sarah
November 13, 2017 at 11:59 am
Related to this article..my LCD/LED LG 32 is not showing pictures. the sound is okay but no picture, once you press the power button it blinks like 2 times and nothing...what could be the problem
Jestine Yong
November 13, 2017 at 9:12 pm
Hi Sarah,
You may have to search for the manual to find out the meaning of the two times blinking. Before that I suggest that you check and make sure the mainboard is getting good dc voltages to all the different sections in the mainboard. A corrupted firmware can also cause the power LED to blink.
Jestine