Monitor Woes

I have an Acer 19inch wide screen flat panel..

It took a dump on me the other day.. It makes a loud hum when it is on and the screen is very dark and flickery.. then turns itself off after about 30 secs.
Any ideas?

Right now I have it hooked up a la S-Video to my 32 inch flat wide screen(Not flat panel) and it is not so sexy, but works for the moment.

The hum could be a few things, it could be the power brick (put your ear near it to see if it gets louder or more intense to see if that's the cause.)

If it's not your power brick it could be some of the components behind the actual panel.

If you want, take it apart and post a picture of everything and I'll see if I can give it a visual to see if there is something wrong.

It could be something simple like a blown capacitor.

My first thought was power.. Is there a fan on it that could be damaged or something in the way?

I don't quite know what you mean by putting my ear up to it.. of course it is a bit louder the closer I get.. that's just physics :)

I have no idea how to open the panel. I put a light to the screw holes and there seems to be no notches in the screw head. I don't know what would unscrew these :(

Power bricks don't usually fan fans in them.

The problem is that if a capacitor blows (because of gas leaking out)they squeal and that'll cause a similar problem to what you're experiencing.

So I ordered a new monitor and some other goodies:

Acer 20" Backlit LCD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009256

Western Digital Elements 1.5TB External HDD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136505

Rosewill Wireless Network Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166022

All of that was $217 shipped.

I also got a Fujifilm FinePix JV100 for $51 on E-Bay(With a 4GB SD card and a case!).. I know the camera has its faults from reviews, but the price point, good pic quality, 720p video capability, shutter speed(had another cam that took like 2.5 secs after button was pressed to snap a pic) and its general design(playing with one at Best Buy, i really enjoyed the button layout and ergonomics. There was a Kodak one that had messy buttons that were not intuitive).

Please leave me some feedback on this stuff. I enjoy hearing that I made smart choices, but also like to hear constructive criticism if any of you have had any probs with any of this.

It's usually not the camera that takes bad photos, but the photographer and setup.

Lighting and a steady hand can make amazing show

Tator Tot wrote:It's usually not the camera that takes bad photos, but the photographer and setup.

Lighting and a steady hand can make amazing show

Agreed =P I don't have the steadiest hand, but I have a decent eye for photography.. About as good as anyone who hasn't taken classes or been under the tutelage of a pro.

I have also had some crappy cameras because I had been buying the cheapest one at the store at the time =P This Logitech one that doubled as a webcam was just plain awful.. I'll have to dig up a pic from it(it will feature a much younger Cthulhu and Alunia.. Freshman year of college). My last camera was a Fujifilm and I liked it, other than the long delay after pressing the button for it to actually snap the photo. They make good cameras. I'll have to make an HD video of me doing something stupid and possibly illegal(at the very least, immoral).