"William R. Walsh" m wrote in message news:cRurc.36068$gr.3587897@attbi_s52...
Hi!

While your monitor's problem could be due to an actual failure of something
inside, it is very possible for a monitor's focus to drift over time. I
recently fixed an HP Pavilion 17" monitor to "better than new" focus as per
its owner by carefully adjusting the focus control on the flyback
transformer. I've also done this to quite a few other monitors and for the
ones that it has worked for, none have needed any other repair.

However, before you do anything, be sure you are confident in your abilities
and that you can be safe while you are doing this. Monitors contain high
voltages that can cause painful injury or even death. This is true even when
they are unplugged and left sitting around. They also contain AC-line
connected parts which are very likely to cause death more than injury if
accidently contacted. There is also the hazard of tube implosion if you
scratch or impact the picture tube. Stay away from the wire coming out of
the flyback, use ONLY a nonconductive tool for making any adjustments and do
not wear jewelry, a watch or other conductive items that could dangle inside
the monitor and give you a nasty surprise. Most importantly of all, if you
do not feel comfortable working inside your monitor for any reason, don't do
so. Refer it to a qualified shop or get another. It is not worth your life
or well being for a monitor or any other device.

So...if you have nothing to lose by trying, remove the cover from your
monitor, locate the flyback (large, usually black, with a wire coming out
and going to a sort of 'suction cup' on the CRT) and look for a FOCUS
control. There may be two of them. Display something on the monitor and use
a nonconductive tool to make adjustments. Watch the screen as you do. When
you have the focus fixed, remove your tool, turn the monitor off, be sure
it's unplugged and put it back together.

William


With new monitors being available now almost dirt cheap (I bought
an HP MX70 17" flat screen monitor about a year ago at Best Buy for
$80 or so after a factory rebate), I don't see the sense in poking
around in a defective one. I had a monitor on my computer that first
looked like it had power supply trouble (bends in the raster, etc.)and
deflection problems (it eventually started showing a thin white
vertical line on the screen), then the thing eventually went
completely dead. I didn't mess with it. (Power supply probably quit.)
The monitor went out on a Saturday night; the next day I went to the
local Best Buy and purchased the MX70 monitor I have now. Dirt cheap,
as I said, and I was able to get my computer back online in a matter
of a few hours with no poking around inside the old monitor. I worked
with TVs for years before getting into computers in 1992, so I am well
aware of the high-voltage shock hazard. However, again, I do not feel
that any computer monitor out of warranty is worth attempting a repair
of any kind. I would suggest that you ditch the old monitor and get a
new one. Today's flat-screen CRT monitors are great (I really like the
sharp display and onscreen controls on my HP MX70); they are dirt
cheap and really easy to find, as they are being phased out to make
room for the new flat-panel monitors by Viewsonic, MAG Innovision (is
this company any relation to today's Philips Magnavox?) and others. I
saw an ad in a flyer in my Sunday newspaper which showed an emachines
17" monitor for a final price of just under $100, after instant
savings and a $100 mail-in rebate.

If you want to spend $200+ for a fancy flat-panel monitor you can, of
course, but as cheap as the CRT types are now, I'd grab one before
they are gone. CRT monitors are all I've used with every computer I've
ever owned, and I've been pleased with the color rendition, image
quality, etc. of the monitors I have used with the two Windows
computers I've owned over the last seven years (an 8mb, 166 MHz Win95
system to start with in 1997, followed by my present installation, an
IBM Aptiva 595 128mb, 600-MHz minitower running Win98SE).

Kind regards,

Jeff, WB8NHV (mailto: )
Fairport Harbor, Ohio USA