LCD monitors
 

What's everyone's experience with LCD monitors with regard to longevity. The GF had a Westinghouse..........lasted 12 months........bought an Optiquest..........lasted 18 months and the power input apparently as an intermittent fault.

It seems ridiculous to spend $150. on these things every 12-18 months.

Do you need to pay more for a better unit?

My NEC is going on 3 years old and I have never had a problem with it. NEC's are not cheap...

I currently have a 24" LG at home, but it's less than a year old so I don't know about lifespan. About $250 at bestbuy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824002359&cm_re=NEC-_-24-002-359-_-Product
Here is a good one.

I paid about $200 for my 17in.

Samsung, LG, Sharp, etc. There are also many "rebranded" panels that are good. I haven't had any trouble with any of my Dell monitors (they were either LG or Samsung panels). :)

I've lost quite a few, I have 6.

Had 3 die and one repaired under warranty.

Have 2 of the dead one's here now - weren't more than 4 years old.

I do use mine a lot, a real lot. but all running behind good surge or full UPSs.


So I don't see them demonstrating nearly the longevity of our monitors. I have a 19" that must be 12 years only and trashed (recycled) several that were perfectly good and 6 to 10 years old. Swapping out for the LCDs.

Note also I have 2 TVs here that are 25 years old work fine.

I usually recommend Samsung, LG, or NEC Displays to people who are shopping for a new monitor. I have a Samsung LCD thats 4 years old and still working perfect.

I've bought a lot of sony and dell lcd monitors and they have been very reliable. Some are going on 6 years in service.

As an aside, I just switched my workstation from dual 21” CRT to dual 24” LCD monitors. The old eyes love the change!

Viewsonic, LG, Sony, Acer......are brands I use. Most of the monitors my family currently use are Acer....my 20" is 2.5 years old with heavy use....0 issues. Have never had one die.

My dad used his 15" viewsonic for about 5.5 years before he upgraded to a 23" Acer.....the viewsonic still works fine, I use it in our sever closet.

Viewsonic and Acer are not cheap though, especially viewsonic. But you get what you pay for.

Follow up on my earlier note.

I have 4 HannsG monitors, 3 are dead, one has already been replaced under warranty.

I have disassembled one and believe it is bad capacitors on the power supply.
I have found numerous reports on the web regarding bad capacitors plaguing the electronics industry.

All 4 were produced very close to the same date.

It looks like I can replace all of the caps for 10 bucks or so for all 3 monitors and have enough left over for the 4th one when it dies. Figure its worth the shot for less than 20 bucks to get 3 monitors back, even 19" regulars

I have had good luck with the Spectre monitors.

I've seen the capacitor issues in other devices (mostly power supplies)

You can save a few $.01 by using a lower-voltage rated capacitor, the only consequence is sometimes the item fails earlier- And if it takes longer then 6m or a year to fail, you (the manufacturer) can legally skate out of any warranty issues...and either leave the retailer or the customer holding the bag.
Shiznitty business if you ask me, but without taking everything apart and looking at the side of each can...)

-John

Samsung SyncMaster 225, 3 years, not a hitch.

This isn't worth the pennies.

I have identified 2 of the 5 CAPs I need, I need to remove the others to fully read the markings. I am replacing ALL of that type even the ones that aren't showing any bulging.

The most expensive one is 20 cents, I need 4 x 4 monitors, the other is a penny each, I only need 2 per monitor.

I will end up ordering more as they sell them in 10 lots.


Another fun project on my plate. If nothing else the satisfaction of not dumping them into the recycle bin makes me feel good.
Assuming I can repair them.;)

So far my ViewSonic is doing just fine, bought it two days before vista was released in the stores, I forget how long ago that was, near $200.

Experience with Viewsoni /Optiquest
 

I've been a Viewsonic user for years . Their CRT's were some of the best but they have not had great longevity with their LCD units.
I have three of their 17" Viewsionics and all have been relaced under warranty , one twice, for the same power supply issue.
I have 1 Optiquest that is still going strong after 3 years , Optiquest is "supposed" to be the higher end Viewsonic line.

VS is very unfriendly to warranty claims. I had a real problem when the "repaired" 17" LCD died after 14 days and they dicked around about repairing it, told me it was damaged in shipping, etc. Finally a nastygram to the Pres. of VS got me a refurb that worked.

Trouble is ALL the LCD units are sourced from 3 companies in China and 99% of the troubles are the power supplies or main boards. It appears that they cannot take the heat of constant use but then a lot of folks do not turn their screens off at all, they just leave the CPU running all the time.

At work I have to leave my HP CPU running 24/7 but turn off the LCD, we have kept a watch and this seems to lengthen the life by 100% to 5 to 6 years (std CPU is a Dell as are the screens but due to huge AutoCad files and load I use a HP monster.)

For our 24" LCD units we have considered installing an aux fan venting the power supply area, IT is looking into it now. We had 2 new Dell 24's die quick which could mean Dell is back to crap suppliers again as a cost measure.

I know they did not support their LCD TV line at all as they suffered massive power supply issues and Dell dropped the whole line and screwed all their customers.

Typical Dell!