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DIY LCD Backlight Repair
Bill Nye (not the science guy) writes to tell us that InventGeek has an interesting article on do it yourself LCD backlight repair. From the overview: "Those of us that have used LCD monitors for a while know that over time the backlight starts to dim and will eventually completely fail. Leaving you with some electronic scrap that you could sell on eBay for 35 bucks or so. Well for less than $20.00 and about a half hour of your time you can replace the backlight and rejuvenate that monitor to as good as new condition."
Time to buy some cheap monitors on ebay!
"pr0n": An anagram of "porn," possibly indicating the use of pornography. - www.microsoft.com
Now we deal with the case lighting. The cold cathode is incased in a plastic case to protect it and defuse the light. We will need to remove the casing very carefully. Most cold cathode tubes have mercury vapor in them this is very dangerous if it was broken. Avoided damaging the bulb at all costs as mercury vapor has been linked to brain damage and cancer. so be careful.... unless your some arch-villain with a diabolical plan.
Wait... complicated instructions that can lead to brain damage and cancer if done improperly, given to me by a guy who can't be bothered to fix your->you're mistakes? Somehow I don't think I'll be trying this fix any time soon.
"The cold cathode is incased in a plastic case to protect it and defuse the light. We will need to remove the casing very carefully. Most cold cathode tubes have mercury vapor in them this is very dangerous if it was broken. Avoided damaging the bulb at all costs as mercury vapor has been linked to brain damage and cancer."
Sounds like fun! I also heard the best way to tell if a wire is live is to lick your finger and touch it. Don't forget to stand on one leg while you do it though! Otherwise you might get hurt.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
how often do they fail on average?
Once.
Think of it as aiding natural selection.
Are you suggesting that it might be a bad idea to uncap one end, fill it with gasoline, and light it...for the purpose of a lightsaber duel?
In another 10 years, I expect that they will call out the HAZMAT team for any reported spills of dihydrogen monoxide.
Who wants to bet on the date of the first DHMO call that actually gets a Hazmat team to respond?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Anyone who uses the phrase "jillions of volts of capacitance" obviously doesn't understand what's inside an LCD monitor, nor how dangerous it is.
Sounds like somebody wishes he was the one who made that comment first. Too late. The comment is out. He's already talked about all the jillions of volts of capacitance that live inside your monitor. You're going to have to talk about something else. Personally, I would have gone for the ultra-dangerous kabillion watt lightening vortex thats in the back of 'em.
There is really nothing dangerous in them, LCD's cathodes don't use more than 1kv, and unlike CRT's, there is no significant capacitor that will remain charged when the monitor is turned off.
Well, yeah, obviously. There's clearly no danger from the cathodes. Their capacitors are all tame. Its the doghodes you have to worry about. Their capacitors are easily excitable, and you have to wake them up just right or they end up escaping from your monitor. Those things'll live in your walls for years while slowly eroding the foundation of your house. The only way to get 'em then is highly toxic, massive bug bombs.
Obviously there would be some risk if you actually worked on the inverter while it was on, which isn't even dangerous if you are careful.
You've never worked with an inverter while its on, have you? It can totally suck you into a temporal vortex if you even look at it while its on. I would never even consider it except under the most dire circumstances.
And if you're that worried about the safety of cutting into a cold cathode, you could always use a shop vac to improvise a fume extraction system, in case you screw it up.
Too risky. You could get sucked up by the vac, and then how would you get out? You wouldn't. Then what good will the monitor be to you?
Or you could order a harder to find cold cathode that does not have the covering mentioned, or salvage one from a scanner.
Okay, that's just nonsense. Everybody knows that all a scanner can do is make people's heads explode.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!