# Monitor - Dead Backlight or Inverter?



## Jade Den (Sep 16, 2010)

I use two monitors in a dual monitor setup. They're both Hanns-G HW192D's. The monitor on the left went completely black sometime last night (a thunderstorm started after I fell asleep, so I left them on -- not sure if that's relevant), but the one on the right is still working.

I had a bad capacitor in the (currently working) one on the right about 6 months ago, and I successfully replaced _all_ of the capacitors so they wouldn't fail in the future (even though it was my first time soldering on a PCB). When the capacitor failed, it would work for 2-3 seconds and then go black with the backlight still lit.

This is different. I see nothing at all unless I shine a flashlight right against the screen -- in which case I can see everything including cursor movement. I shut off the monitor and went to mono-monitor setup to save power since I can't see the left one.

I don't know too much about the operation of motherboards, but my warranty is expired anyway. After a bit of searching, I'm guessing my backlight is bad, or my inverter board has failed. The problem is, I don't know where either of those are located, or how to determine which has gone bad. I do have a multimeter if I need to use it to determine some voltages. Could anyone help me out?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

it looks like the backlight


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## Jade Den (Sep 16, 2010)

Thanks for the reply. I've looked at some very thorough guides at replacing cold cathode bulbs, but I could always use some extra assistance or tips if you have them...? Also, if you know of any particularly good guides for replacing the backlight, please let me know.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

pm'd someone that works in this area


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

Hi 
first I must say that it's rare for the light to fail .. it happens but normally it's the inverter boards that fail .. or the capacitors on the power supply that feeds the inverter board. I'd suggest since you already have the experience of replacing capacitors, to visually check & replace the capacitors like you did before. If that doesn't help then look for a way to swap the power supply / inverter boards between good and bad units.

that way you'll know whether its a board of light failure


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## Jade Den (Sep 16, 2010)

Thanks, Done_Fishin. Hanns-G is known for bad capacitors, so you have a very good point here. I have a bunch of leftover capacitors from replacing them before, so I'll replace them all (even the ones that haven't failed/leaked) and post the results.


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

Good Luck .. wait to hear from you


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## Jade Den (Sep 16, 2010)

Well, after about 2 months, I finally got around to fixing this. For anyone else that's having this problem: it was my capacitors. Several of them were leaking/bulging, so I replaced all the 470uf capacitors on the power supply board. Works perfectly now.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

glad you have it sorted and posting back with the cause and the fix


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