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Is CRT Burn-In Still a Problem?
coloth asks: "We've all been told for many years that monitor burn-in is a thing of the past, that CRTs use a different kind of phosphor now, and that screensavers are more toys than practical safeguards. After a few minutes with Google, nearly every PC advice site I found said as much. Well, I just realized tonight that I've got burn-in from the Seti@Home screensaver on my Dell P991. I took a picture with my digital camera. (disregard the bar of interference) I added the arrows with PhotoShop and enhanced the image a bit, but the burn in is clear. Here is the image of the "screensaver" to compare the pattern. Is my monitor sub-par? Is the conventional wisdom about burn-in untrue? Are most people doing anything specific to avoid burn-in?"
Now I'm going to have to turn off my monitor all the time. Thanks for making me paranoid again!! (I never did trust screensavers. If your computer crashed you would have the nice screen saver image burned into your screen.. black is the only way!)
You must do something about that terrible black arrows on your monitor!
I've seen the line "PowerMenu has shut off the screen to prevent burn in" (paraphrased) burned into each of the 25 text lines on a monitor. The program moved the text between lines to prevent burning in one line, and burned in 25 lines instead.
Top two images most often burned into monitors: WinNT/Win2k "Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete for a secure login." and the BSOD. :-)
My desktop monitor has the outline of the /. main page burnt on it. o_O~
What, and risk the brighter image causing burn-in?
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
They should put a button on the front of the monitor that would make the screen turn off. It would save electricity and prevent any screen burn in too!
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
If you really want to burn something in to a monitor, follow these instruction.
:)
NOTE: These instructions should not be done by anyone with an IQ under 100. This will damage your monitor! That's the whole point! Permanantly! In fact, no one should ever do this. Except maybe cats. Cats are weird like that.
1. Boot into a console (or DOS on a differently-abled system) I think you Mac users are out of luck (yet again), seeing as you can't exit your GUI.
2. Write a batch file or script or something that clears the screen and puts out ANSI codes for high intensity white, and your message wherever you want it on the screen.
3. Open up your monitor*. Find the flyback transformer. It has a big red wire coming out of the top of it most likely. That red wire has 20,000 or so volts running through it, be careful, it bites.
4. That transformer likely has two adjustment knobs on the side of it, which probably have screwheads for phillips head screwdriver. They are called focus and screen adjustments, they are variable resistors.
5. Use whiteout to carefully mark the original position of the focus and screen. If you don't know which is which, it's OK, you will find out as soon as you turn one of them.
6. Slowly and carefully turn one of them while the monitor is running*, and make sure you can see the screen. If it goes out of focus, you have the wrong one. Slowly turn it back to your white-out marked position. If it gets brighter or darker, that's the one you want.
7. Turn up the front panel brightness all the way. Then turn the screen knob up slowly until the black part is pretty light too. The white text should be extremely bright right now, and may bloom some. Don't turn the knob up so much that the X-ray protection kicks in*. If the CRT turns off, you went too far, dipshit. Try rebooting the monitor if you didn't fry anything.
8. Once you have the black level so it is pretty bright, and the text is nice and bright but not blurred out completely, let that thing sit for a few hours. Keep an eye on it, but don't hang out in front of it, X-rays, remember?
9. Try turning the monitor off and see if the phosphers are cooked yet. If you can see the text with the monitor off, then you have succeeded.
10. Undo all the changes you made to the settings. Put the cover back on. Any leftover screws are a bonus from the Gods. Sell the monitor to your enemy, etc.
*In case you havn't noticed, if you screw up, you might die. This whole thing is dangerous for someone who doesn't know their way around electricity. Don't be a dipshit, and don't do this on a monitor you don't want to destroy. In fact, just don't do this... ever!
Oh BTW... to the original poster, you can't reverse burn in by displaying a reverse image. All you will do is burn the rest of the phosphers to the same darkness as the burned ones, and your monitor will get too dark to use sooner.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Let me get this straight.
Until recently you didn't believe in CRT burn-in, but you became a believer while looking for freaking space-men?
Your system of beliefs is totally fucked.
-Peter