"alex" wrote in message
m...
My dad has a 19" pc monitor (4 years old)(not sure of the brand, or
model). It has started to act very strangely when the computer is
starting up and does the same thing at shut down. When windows is
going through all it's warm up proceedures the monitor is black except
for a vertical band about four inches wide. in this band the monitor
displays the normal (but distorted) warm up items (text, graphics...),
then the desktop is visible and the screen is slightly compressed on
the sides (looks like an hourglass), this goes away after a few
minutes of use. when the monitor/computer is warmed up it acts
normaly. at shut down it goes back to the four inch vertical band. If
the computer is restarted after it's all warmed up it still goes
through this process.

Any ideas on how to fix it, or whether it's cost effective to do so?

thanks.

Sounds like a cracked solder joint in the horizontal deflection section, it
should be a relatively easy fix with some soldering.