Samsung 214T - buzzing/defective lcd panel

[JustAskJack]

Hey all,

I tracked down and purchased a Samsung 214T for my cab project. Received it last night, and plugged it in, powered it on... after about 5-7 seconds the screen lit up, showed the Input window, made a fairly audible buzzing noise, flickered and went black. The power led started blinking slowly.

I set the rear power switch to off, unplugged the power cable from the back, plugged it back in, flipped the switch to on, then pressed the front power button. Same behavior, 5-7 seconds of nothing, then a flickering image, a buzzing, then shut off. tried with a different power cable, then different outlet, same behavior.

I disassembled the unit to check the power board/inverter etc. All the caps are in pristine condition, no leaks, no bulges. I tried to pinpoint where the buzzing was coming from so was slowly taking things off... eventually got the board and everything separated... and realized the buzzing was coming from the lcd panel itself. As soon as it lights up, which is clearly visible via the small circle in the center of the back of the enclosure, the buzzing starts... lasts about 2 seconds then the screen goes dark and shuts off.

I haven't encountered this with an LCD before, I've only dealt with the leaking caps repairs.

Does this sound familiar to anyone, and if it does, is it repairable or should I start my hunt again?

Thanks in advance for any assistance

Jack

[DLinkOZ]

I had a buzzing LCD recently, it was the lower ccfl for the backlighting.

[JustAskJack]

Wow... I'm having bad luck with these monitors...

I went ahead and purchased another one, advertised with a "perfect picture".... just unboxed and hooked it up, and it has a large, moldy looking dark spot on the left side:

It doesn't look like dead pixels to me (I could be wrong), looks kind of like a bruise...

Does this look like something that is repairable or did I get another lemon?

Thanks in advance

[yotsuya]

Ugh. I hope you can return it.

[DLinkOZ]

Definitely try to return it.  Was it shipped?  If so, maybe the panel got hit in that area.  If you can't return it, is it the same model as your other one?  Might be able to mix and match parts to get one good monitor.

[JustAskJack]

In contact with the seller now.

DlinkOZ, I did contemplate that... although I'm not sure what I would swap between the 2 units... you had mentioned earlier it sounded like a lower CCFL backlight... I am not familiar with that type of repair, and some google-fu didn't reveal much.

Could you provide me a little more detail what you think I could swap?

Thanks again 

 

[lilshawn]

the dark spot looks like a dead CFL on that side. disassembling LCDs are a real beotch. but if you are feeling adventureous, and since you can't use either one, give the swap a try. but, by the sounds of it you might have a bad CFL transformer on the one panel and a bad lamp (or even possibly transformer on the other. try swapping the inverters if compatible.

if it does end up being the lamps, there are some how to's on a site we sometimes buy replacement inverters from. they also sell CFLS and what nots. http://lcdparts.net/howto/default.aspx if you get one going by scabbing parts from the other, you can order some new CFL from them (if that was the issue) for about 15 bucks each.

[JustAskJack]

Bah... well I took them both down to components and tried to Frankenstein one good unit. the buzzing panel one kept buzzing and shutting off even with pretty much every piece I could unscrew and remove from the working one. The working one has the bruise on the actual panel... so that one's dinner too.

So no luck on that front. Got a refund for the bruised one, so now I'm back to hunting for another one to order... I hope the third ones the charm...

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions, appreciate it