Is my monitor dying?

[Darkmatter]

Over the past 6 months I've started to notice a dark smudge near the middle of my screen, as well as near the top and the right side. At first I thought it was just a buildup of dirt but when I cleaned the screen it didn't come off. Under normal use its actually almost invisible, but it becomes easier to see if the monitor is displaying darker colours. I used photoshop to make a solid image of the colour that surrounds this text box and took a picture of it. I was hoping someone could take a look at it.

BTW, because I turned off all the lights in my room and tweaked the photo a bit, the overal screen is brighter then in real life, and the dark smudges show up a LOT darker then they do in real life. They're maybe 10-20% of what you see in the picture.

The thing I don't understand is even though my monitor is several years old I always used features like powersave that would turn my monitor off if it was idle for to long, so I'm not sure why it looks like I have "burnt in" images.

Is there anything I can do about this other then buying a new monitor?

Thanks!


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/Fireflyx76/Mon.jpg

[TheKeck]

When I first glanced at this thread I thought it say "Is my mother dying?"

I'm very glad to be mistaken.

(I have no useful answers to your actual situation. )

[biosc1]

Always check your cables first. Cheapest solution is usually the best

[fitbabits]

It's an evil spirit, clearly.

(Or a fucked monitor. Doesn't look cable-related to me.)

[BabyJesus]

I think you need a new monitor, my 5 year old Sharp tv is doing the same thing. Fricken sucks. At least LCD TV's and monitors are fairly inexpensive now.

[Krispy]

You need a new monitor. The LCD panel is coming loose from its fixture. This happens with cheap LCD panels.

[carnage11]

Originally Posted by TheKeck

When I first glanced at this thread I thought it say "Is my mother dying?"

I'm very glad to be mistaken.

(I have no useful answers to your actual situation. )

I saw the same thing! Was thinking, this probably isn't the best forum to help answer that question.

[Darkmatter]

What if my mother was a cyborg?

Thanks for the info. Can I fix the back coming loose if I open the case up? This actually wasn't a cheap monitor, it was pretty much top of the line back when I got it. That was... hmm... more then 5 years ago. Its a BenQ fp241wz (24 inch 19x12).

[carnage11]

Is it LCD or Plasma?

Quoted from another site :

I'm the IT manager for a company that sells TV's and so on. Don't worry it's not your PC. The black fuzzy spots are natural. It's usually caused by the plasma trying to compensate for black areas that it can't quite reach.
Where you will notice it most is when an image switches from very bright scenes to total darkness. The plasma just can't keep up sometimes. But it won't do any harm.
Although If you see these black fuzzy spots over light areas then there could be a problem with the set itself.

My other thought, after looking at your picture, is that you pressed a little too hard when cleaning it? I've seen that happen and the dark spots will eventually get bigger and worse. I don't think there's any fixing that.

[Krispy]

Originally Posted by Darkmatter

What if my mother was a cyborg?

Thanks for the info. Can I fix the back coming loose if I open the case up? This actually wasn't a cheap monitor, it was pretty much top of the line back when I got it. That was... hmm... more then 5 years ago. Its a BenQ fp241wz (24 inch 19x12).

It's LCD and no you can't. Once you open that sucker it is contaminated. I should rephrase! The monitor manufacturer could be top of the line, but the actual LCD panels could come from a cheap plant and then you get defects like this over time. This was the case for a Westinghouse I had a while back. OR, you could have a bad apple. OR, your LCD could only be rated for ~5 years. I dunno.

Bottom line is you need to replace it.

But look at it this way, monitor tech has gotten vastly cheaper in the meantime. You can replace it with something better for a fraction of the cost.

[Darkmatter]

Well it looks like it came out in late '06 so I probably got it early '07. Considering this thing was probably used pretty much every day I think I got my moneys worth.

Thanks for the replies.