Monitor no longer degaussing :(

indstr · Post by **indstr** » Fri May 30, 2008 3:57 am

I think my monitor may have died or be dying ...

It's a 21" viewsonic G810. I had tated and un-tated it in quick succession a couple of times tonight (within 10 minutes it went from tate, yoko, tate, yoko again). (hey, I couldn't make up my mind...) On the last turn to horizontal, my degauss function is no longer working

When I hit degauss, the monitor is not wiggling or making a BRWONG or anything. It just makes a click like it wants to degauss but it isn't working.

During the course of typing this message, I tried it again and it like halfway wants to work, but not a full, strong degauss.

Did I kill my monitor? I guess I will turn it off tonight and see how it is in the morning

I love this monitor and wasn't planning on replacing it for at least a few more years

I may have to get a big magnet or whatever like some do

indstr · Post by **indstr** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:06 am

Update: I left it off for 5 minutes and now it's reoriented itself with horizontal so the colours are normal. But I put it into tate, tried degaussing and it's still not working. Must have ruined the degaussing coil or whatever it is.

So now I guess either have to wait 5 minutes every time I want to tate/untate this , hook my ps2 up to another other monitor, or get a degaussing magnet. Unless there is an easy/cheap way to fix this? (Doubtful?)

How much is one of those degaussing magnets?

indstr · Post by **indstr** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:10 am

Wikipedia...

"In most commercial equipment the current surge to the degauss coil is regulated by a simple PTC thermistor device which initially has a low resistance but quickly changes to a high resistance due to the heating effect of the current flow. Such devices are designed for a one-off transition from cold to hot at power up, so 'experimenting' with the degauss effect by repeatedly switching the device on and off is not recommended as it may cause this component to fail."

Yeah, I killed it ...

fuck

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:52 am

Degaussing wand?

Udderdude · Post by **Udderdude** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:57 am

R.I.P. 21" viewsonic G810

indstr · Post by **indstr** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:29 pm

this isn't too expensive..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Handy-TV-CRT-Pictur ... dZViewItem

Is that what I would need?

Although I'm looking at it, "degaussing time: less than 3 minutes". well if it takes 3 minutes, I might as well just turn off my monitor. I'm going to do some testing tonight to see exactly how long it takes

dpful · Post by **dpful** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:10 pm

If the monitor gets better at all with time, it means the degaussing coil is still working. Maybe the coil still works, (it usually activates when you first turn on the monitor), but the manual switch is broken? Either way, you should be able to turn it on over and over again until it's cooled down.

Search the hardware forum for other solutions if it end up broken, there's lots of info there.

indstr · Post by **indstr** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:33 am

I left it off all day today and it seems to be degaussing just fine tonight.

Maybe I overreacted. I was just worried about my baby!

*sigh of relief*

benstylus · Post by **benstylus** » Sat May 31, 2008 1:04 pm

The degauss button on those monitors usually means you need to leave time in between presses for the degauss component to recharge before it will work again. Usually this takes a few minutes to do.

The "component failure" thing on wikipedia is a more than misleading. Yes, it fails to degauss, but no, it's not broken. It just fails because there's not enough power. It's like on those cheap old cameras, the flash needs a few seconds to recharge before you take another picture.

In any event, I would always recommend turning your monitor off before you rotate it, and off again before you bring it back to yoko.

dpful · Post by **dpful** » Sat May 31, 2008 1:33 pm

Exactly what you said, but rather than a recharging element, it is a cooling down element.
The coil gets VERY hot when on- that thermistor thing is a component that won't let it run again unless it's cool.

Technically, as you press it over and over, and it gets warm, your thermistor lets less and less juice through- ideally, none until it's cool enough to handle the full voltage again. I guess the wikipedia article was saying that if you over stress the thermistor's function, It might fail. Without the thermistor, the coil would fail in 20 seconds- light on fire. I degauss my monitors with a naked coil with just a switch on it that I've ripped from an old TV (it gets hot fast).