My monitor is dying a slow, slow death.

It’s becoming more and more difficult to get on the computer and that’s not a result of my busy schedule.   For the past few weeks my monitor has been on the fritz.  I couldn’t figure out why when I turned it on the picture would come up for a split second then go away.  I would turn it on and off and on and off and get the same result.  Sometimes it would come up after a while of playing around with it and sometimes it wouldn’t — I thought it was random.   However, I noticed a pattern.  If I turned it on and left it on (just at a black screen not seemingly showing any input) it would work after 15-20 minutes.   It appears that my monitor (A 22” widescreen LCD) now requires a “warm up” period of approx. 15-20 minutes before it will work.  That time is slowly increasing and the picture quality of my monitor is going way down.

I thought that warm up time was a CRT thing, but I guess it’s an LCD thing too?  I bought my monitor at the same time Vanguard launched, so that was in 2007.  About 2.5 years of use now, I think?  Seems like I should have been able to get more time out of the thing.  Anyway, I expect it to die on me any time now.  If any of you are monitor gurus and have a better idea of what’s going on other than my “needs a warm up period” theory then please let me know.   I’ll suffer through the wonky color quality and the warm up period for as long as I can.

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  • I was having the same problem I think.

    Does the monitor shut off? Like, power button turn orange/red?

    The thing that caused mine was overworked graphics card/driver.

  • It doesn’t power off. Functions normally, or so it seems to think. The input on it just shuts off until after the warmup period.

  • Make sure it’s not a problem with a wire. It certainly worth replacing it and see if it fixed a problem before investing into a new monitor.

  • You’re right in thinking that 2.5 years is too short of a time. Most LCD and Plasma TV screens are advertised with a half-life of 60,000+ hours.

    That’s 6.8 years of continuous use before the screen emits *half* the brightness that it did when new.

    My guess is that it’s one of two things. Stephen suggested the backlight which would be worth checking. I suggest that it could be something wrong with the power supply. It sounds like the sort of intermittent fault that is normally associated with the PS systems.

    It may be worth taking it in for repair, but since it’s a 22″ monitor, it might be more cost effective to just buy a new one. They tend to be fairly cheap these days.

    Who knows you might be able to upgrade to a bigger version? (I have a 27″. It’s marvellous.)

  • I’ve been fortunate enough not to have an LCD monitor die since my first one turned six. Since then I’ve upgraded long before they hit old age.

  • I had the same problem long ago: when I came back from a lan, my screen would sometimes turn itself off, and after some twitching with it, it always turned on again.
    The solution: I had to switch power cables, as the one I started using didn’t seem to fit properly (I thought they all had the same size, but clearly, they don’t).

  • The LCD backlight is definately stuffed. It should be covered under warranty, unless you’ve bought an exceptionally cheap model.

  • If it’s any of the big moniter companies then it will have a three year waranty unless it is a hp even if you don’t have the reciept they can usually tell by the model number. Good luck.

  • I feel with you Keen; i had the exact same issue. luckily I still had my warranty, but the gits at the store sent em the wrong replacement. In the end i had to wait almost two weeks to get a proper replacement, but it didnt cost me a penny.

  • Strange, and definitely not normal for LCDs. I’ve had mine for almost a decade and it still works without any issues of the sort.

    Good luck fixing the issue/finding a new monitor.

  • Exact same thing happened to me. I found that having anything bright on my screen made it more vulnerable to crash back to black. It’s time to buy a new monitor.

    I managed to make it about a month with mine when it started doing that. The ‘bandaid’ fix for me was to find the darkest desktop I could and lower my brightness settings… then when I tried to turn the monitor on it would “catch” more frequently and stay on until I turned it off again.

  • To make sure it’s not a graphics card issue, I recommend testing it on another computer if you have one or can borrow a friends.

    If it does the same thing, then it’s the monitor.

    Would love to know the brand and model number of this monitor. It may be a known quirk with a possible fix.

  • I know my brother had issues with his monitor and he thought it was some type of overheating issue (I don’t remember the details) but his was related to his HDMI cable. He noticed one day that that part of the cable that connects to the montoir was burning hot. So he bought a heavy duty cable and I believe it has fixed his problem. (Well he hasn’t beotched about it lately anyway! ahahha)

  • I had the exact same problem with a Dell 22″ monitor. Turned out it was the monitor’s power supply that crapped out. I would almost be willing to bet that this is your problem.

  • I had the same problem with my 19″samsung years ago after about 3 years it finally went dark for good. 🙁 I think its the internal power supply that dies on them but is too costly to bother fixing than just buying new.

    On the bright side I needed an upgrade anyhow by that time 🙂

  • Time to buy a new monitor! 🙂 You can get some decent ones pretty cheaply now.

    Question: do people prefer widescreen or 4:3? I’ve always preferred 4:3 because there are still quite a few games out there that don’t support widescreen. Plus they tend to make websites look tiny.

  • It’s a Samsung 225bw that I ordered off of Newegg. I have no idea if it is under a warranty or not. I could probably contact Samsung about it.

    It makes a very high pitch, sometimes very hard to even hear, noise when it is powered off for long periods of time.

    I prefer 16:10 widescreen LCD, at least 22″

  • Samsung have a decent warranty, so all you’ll need is the receipt with the date of purchase to make a warranty claim within three years. If you can’t find the paper receipt, Newegg should be able to help you out with another copy.

    All you need to do call Samsung’s warranty line, give the person your details and if its under warranty they’ll ship you a refurbished/repaired model and pick up your broken monitor at no charge. At least that’s how things work with Samsung AU, Samsung US may do things slightly different.

    If you find yourself needing to buy a new monitor, most of the 22″ models have moved to 16:9 panels (1920×1080) and usually support full HD video.

  • I have the 226CW from Samsung. Have you tried going through the monitor setup thing? On the monitor yourself?

  • The monitor setup won’t even work when the display won’t come up. The monitor power turns on (power button turns blue) but the display does not even come up – not even the backlight works – until after the warm up period of ~20 minutes.

  • I have a samsung also. Same thing happened to me. I went to their web site and filled out a form. Then I called them on the phone. They looked at the serial number and said it was under warranty. They sent me a refurbished one free and exchanged the old one for it at the ups store. It went smoothly, so I’ll be buying Samsung from now on.

  • Your monitor only lasted two years? That is dissapointing…I bought a 21 inch Gateway monitor almost 5 years ago and it was still working fine when I recently upgraded to a slightly bigger monitor (the move from 21 inches to 24 inches seems suprisingly bigger).

    Sorry for the premature loss of your monitor, I got an Acer H243H, really good monitor.