Personal computing discussed

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The Swamp
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Samsung 244T LCD, Now with PICS!

Mon Jun 03, 2013 8:04 pm

I have been gifted a Samsung 244T LCD display. Very nice monitor, but with one little problem. Or one big problem. The inverter and board caps are bad. I know less than zero about soldering.

Anyone know where I can score some parts for this LCD, like a replacement board and inverter? I really hate to just throw away a 24" LCD.
Last edited by The Swamp on Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
I wish I had gone to med school.
 
JohnC
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Re: Samsung 244T LCD

Mon Jun 03, 2013 8:32 pm

Well, then learn about it. Watch videos on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFsO-Qz0MGE&sns=em
Get a cheap soldering iron:
http://www.amazon.com/60-Watts-Solderin ... ering+iron
Some Rosin core:
http://www.amazon.com/Alpha-AT-31604-60 ... _hi_text_y
And a capacitor kit for this monitor:
http://www.amazon.com/Repair-Samsung-Mo ... B0053CZN5C

Will be a good learning experience and much cheaper than buying $60-100 controller boards...
Gifter of Nvidia Titans and countless Twitch donation extraordinaire, nothing makes me more happy in life than randomly helping random people
 
The Swamp
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Re: Samsung 244T LCD

Mon Jun 03, 2013 8:45 pm

Thanks John for the links. If the inverter is bad, is that also because of cap failure as well? Or is the inverter a part of the main logic board?

I do have a soldering iron. I just don't have any solder-fu.
I wish I had gone to med school.
 
The Swamp
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Re: Samsung 244T LCD

Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:08 pm

I pulled of the back cover and was able to expose the man logic board. I examined all of the caps up close, but didn't see any that were obviously bulging. From what I was told, the problem with my monitor is the inverter. The symptoms were not that the unit would not turn on, but would turn on and the colors would be all wonky. Lots of bright yellows, distorted image, that sort of thing. But the unit did power on. When I first saw what was happening, I had thought it was a bad video card. I've seen some cards display images that were all crazy. I took some shots of the boards. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Behold:

Image

Image

Inverter:

Image

I'm a bit stumped on this one.
I wish I had gone to med school.
 
just brew it!
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Re: Samsung 244T LCD, Now with PICS!

Sat Jun 15, 2013 10:50 am

Can you give us a picture of the image you get on the screen?

I agree, the caps look OK (but that still isn't a 100% guarantee that they're good).

Do other people who have had failed inverters report similar symptoms? I would expect a failed inverter to cause problems with the backlight, not the sort of symptoms you're reporting. Failed caps in the logic power supply could definitely cause wonky colors and image distortion though.

It could be a bad connection (failed solder joint or corroded connector) somewhere inside the monitor. You can sometimes determine whether this is the case by striking the top or side of the monitor with the palm of your hand while the monitor is on. If vibration causes a visible change in the image, it's likely there's a bad connection. If you get results with this method, the next step is to operate the monitor with the circuit board exposed, if possible (careful, the inverter can produce potentially lethal voltages; if you haven't worked with high voltage equipment before, you should probably pass on this). Then you gently tap on each component and connector with an insulated (plastic) object until you find the one that causes the image to change when touched.
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The Swamp
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Re: Samsung 244T LCD, Now with PICS!

Sat Jun 15, 2013 1:09 pm

Thanks Brew!

It's been a while since I've powered the monitor up, so I'm going from memory. What would happen is when you turned on the monitor, the display would be garbled. There was an image, but you could not make it out. After the monitor would be on for about 10 minutes, the display would clear and you could use it all day. But if the power save function came on or there was a blank screen, it would distort again and you'd have to wait the ten minutes.

Sometimes, the colors would be all messed up, like a lot of yellow in the picture. That would clear up too in a few minutes. However, the screen picture became more unstable over the months I used it, until I just got a new monitor and put this one in the closet for when I had time to see if I could salvage it. I don't recall hitting it having any effect. The best way to describe it is to say it looked like failing memory on a video card, with the corruption and all. Only, it wasn't the video card.

This monitor model (244T) seems to have had a notorious issue across the board with cap failure. The caps they used were super cheap and sub-par, and they seemed to fail anywhere from about 2-6 years. This monitor lasted about 3 years, I think, before the issues started. The primary symptom for most of the monitors seems to be that the monitor would only have the LED on the switch work, but no picture. When examining the board on those units, the cap fail was visible and fairly obvious. But I do know caps can fail, but still look fine on the outside.

Brew, what are your thoughts?
I wish I had gone to med school.
 
just brew it!
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Re: Samsung 244T LCD, Now with PICS!

Sat Jun 15, 2013 2:57 pm

If you want to learn how to solder you could try replacing the caps just to see if it helps (I would start with the ones in the logic power supply, not the inverter). Not sure how much replacement boards would cost (assuming you can find them); if they're cheap that might be your best bet, given that it isn't obviously a cap problem.
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The Swamp
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Re: Samsung 244T LCD, Now with PICS!

Sat Jun 15, 2013 3:23 pm

I've done some digging around but haven't seen any boards for this monitor. I'm pretty sure Samsung doesn't make any parts anymore for this model.
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JohnC
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Re: Samsung 244T LCD, Now with PICS!

Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:31 pm

Samsung doesn't make parts for this anymore - you can only find "refurbished" boards on eBay or elsewhere:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-244T-24 ... 0982680385
http://www.dhgate.com/pslf101401a-bn96- ... c205a.html
They are expensive, might not last very long and blindly replacing these might not fix anything. Like I said, your best bet is to try cap replacement - caps are cheap so if you won't fix it you won't lose much $$$ and will gain a useful soldering experience :wink:
Gifter of Nvidia Titans and countless Twitch donation extraordinaire, nothing makes me more happy in life than randomly helping random people
 
The Swamp
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Re: Samsung 244T LCD, Now with PICS!

Sun Jun 30, 2013 6:02 pm

I think what I am going to do is get the parts, then try to bribe Just Brew It into fixing me up.

I have access to Louisiana micro brews, like Abita, Tin Roof, and Bayou Teche. He just might score some, for his mad skillz with the soldering iron...
I wish I had gone to med school.

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