PC Monitor life span?

[MameMaster!]

Greets all...

While I'm sure CRT monitors will be around for many more years as they slowly get replaced by LCDs....if my two monitors that are in my cabs should die....can they be fixed like a regular TV if necessary?

I'm assuming so...but I was just wondering if any knew for sure.

Thanks!
MameMaster!  

[SirPeale]

Good question.

I've got a Gateway E900 monitor that I salvaged.  It worked fine when I got it, but doesn't work anymore.  It was so much better than the tiny 15" I use.

It was weird the way it died;  First it wouldn't get a picture until it had been on for a few minutes, and that time slowly stretched out.  Finally it stopped coming on all together.

I'd love to fix it; other than the fact that it was free it had a good picture when it did work.  I've briefly looked @ the docs on the sci.repair FAQ but didn't find anything to help.  But then, I don't know what I'm looking for.

[Buddabing]

....if my two monitors that are in my cabs should die....can they be fixed like a regular TV if necessary?

Sure. As monitor prices fall, however, you may find that it's worthwhile just to pitch the old monitor and get a new one. I suppose that's not environmentally friendly, though.

The monitor shop near my house charges a flat $75.00 to fix a monitor, parts and labor. If you have the time and the courage, you could probably learn to fix them yourself.

B.

[Tailgunner]

PC monitor chassis are a bit more involved than an arcade monitor, but they're still fixable.

http://www.monitor-repair.com/

Monitor repair course, and a forum about fixing them.

[MameMaster!]

...thanks for the feedback.

Hopefully I'll get many more years out of the the two monitors. One of them is only a 3 year old top of the line 19" Mitsubisi (spelling?) monitor that I paid almost $500. for. But my Sony Trinitron monitor that I got for free (!) is dated 1992!....so I'm more concerned about that one.

Oh well, one of three things will happen....the monitors will last but I'll "outgrow" my arcade games (will I want to play these games when they're pushing 30? and me 40?)......someone will get all of the games working perfectly in mame with all LCD monitors (and I'll upgrade).....or finally any broken monitor fixed/replaced it they're still available.

....sigh...I'm going to miss the beautiful glass curves of my monitors someday!.....who know, maybe eventually all video games cabs will have LCD screens....that means Happ will have to make flat bezels!

MameMaster!  

[JoeB]

Don't count CRT's out yet.. believe it or not, its the one technology with the most life in it!

LCD screens
- have pixel burn out problems
- are bad at reporducing a lot of colors (especially black)
- have terrible refresh rate
- unable to made bigger than ~40"

PLASMA
- have burn out problems (is same picture for extended time) similar to CRT, but I believe occurs much faster.
- Get very VERY hot
- Plasma burns out over time

Projection
- bulbs need to be replaced very often
- bulbs very expensive
- rear projection have a lot of convergence problems

CRT
- proven technology
- dirt cheap
- cheapest to fix
- very color accurate and capable of reporducing true black

[MameMaster!]

....maybe...but I'll bet you they'll be flat screens!  

[OSCAR]

Your original reply was regarding using a TV tube to replace a PC monitor tube?  A PC tube is a different animal than a TV tube, and I don't believe that a PC chassis will work on a TV tube.

However, using a TV tube to replace an arcade monitor tube is definitely possible.  In fact, I just did this not long ago.  I had a perfectly good monitor chassis, but the tube was going bad.  The colors were very weak on the tube (Ken, if you read this, this is that Eygo/Orion combo you sent me the info on!).  I had thought that the chassis just needed a cap kit, but that didn't improve the colors.  So I found a TV with the same neck pinout, but it didn't have a compatible yoke resistance.  What I did was take the yoke off the arcade tube and installed it on the TV tube so I could use the arcade monitor chassis on it.

After the tube swap, I connected a jamma board to it and it was beautiful, essentially a brand new monitor that didn't cost me anything other than the time to do the swap!  BTW, before anyone tries this, research swapping yokes on RGVAC before you do anything.  It is important that you use care when swapping yokes because if you don't do it properly, you can spend HOURS getting the convergence set correctly again!  Here's a photo of my tube swap:






##edit##

oops!

I just saw that you said "fix like a regular tv", not "fix with a regular tv".
Oh well, maybe someone will find some sort of use out of my misguided post anyway.  

[MameMaster!]

....that's OK. Ultimately I'm too chicken to try such a complex task anyway.

But leave it to Kelsey to have figured out a way to do a "brain transplant" on a TV!!!! :- )

MameMaster!

[krick]

What I did was take the yoke off the arcade tube and installed it on the TV tube so I could use the arcade monitor chassis on it.

After the tube swap, I connected a jamma board to it and it was beautiful, essentially a brand new monitor that didn't cost me anything other than the time to do the swap!

Amazing.  I _thought_ that might be possible but I didn't think anyone acually did it.  I have an old 25" Zenith System III TV that was given to me because it has a flaky tuner.  The picture is perfect.  hmmm...  where exactly do you live?   ;-)

[paigeoliver]

PC monitors like any other display might last a couple of years, might last 30.

They can also be fixed just like any other CRT based display. ALthough the older the monitor the easier it is to fix. Early VGA displays are much easier to repair than the stuff they are making now.

I also don't see CRT based display technology going away, ever. Everything else has limitations that CRT monitors don't have.