electronics repair

[Dr_Evil]

Anybody else here repair their own stuff?

I have three 19" monitors that are basically the same. The caps on the PSUs are a common failure. I've had to repalce some on each one so far. Not only was it chaper, but it is hard to find monitors that I like. For PC purposes, I like 4:3 or 5:4 ratio monitors. Most new monitors are widescreen which I can't stand for computer use. They are fine for watching movies though.

Right now I'm waiting on some caps to hopefully fix a TV at work. One of these days I'll try replacing some surface mount stuff. There are some small things that I can work with while others drive me insane.

 

[Things]

Yeah, I've got 2 19" 4:3 LG flatron slim's for my system, I prefer them over the widescreen monitors too. Since most of what I do is reading forums/IRC etc, and VERY rarely watching movies (Maybe once every 2 years or so ), I don't have a need for widescreen, and you can fix a lot more text on a 4:3 monitor in comparison.

My main LG flatron slim is quite old, in fact I think it's the first LCD monitor my father purchased. A few years ago it's power supply died (it uses an external 12V power supply), so all I did was stick a molex connector on the end of the cable, and power it from my PC power supply, simple

 

[Dr_Evil]

Seems like you're like me when it comes to computer use. I do play video games to but the lower 5:4 res doesn't bother me. I have two Viewsonic VX924s and one VX922. They look the same externally. I can only use two ATM. I had an XFX 7970 but it had issues that kept getting worse. I never had the correct cable to run the third monitor since I apparently need a displyport or micro displayport to dvi cable instead of a hdmi to dvi cable.

 

[ped]

Well I happen to be a RTEEB accredited repair technician , so yeah I repair my own stuff (and everyone elses, its my daytime job).

I have an old dell 23.9 W/S monitor which has the best picture I've seen on a PC monitor, so if it breaks down I will fix it, but generally I bin them and get a new one.

 

[djQUAN]

I repair (and make) my own stuff and sometimes for others too but I don't accept much for others these days. I don't have the time to do all that. I still have my day job.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Heh, only one cap replacement?

Got it done three times on my main PC monitor so far.

Say, what makes you dislike widescreens? It's pretty much a standard for me, I have this 16:10 as my main monitor, and 4:3 as secondary, and that one always appears a little... narrow. Just good enough for a secondary monitor to keep open my Skype or browser or diagnostics when playing games or whatever on primary.

I would die for a 27" 16:9 Full HD monitor. I had the most pleasure to assemble a high end computer for somebody, they said "Hey I have this budget, get me the best you can" and we settled for a lot of high end components because budget was quite damn good. In it all was 27" monitor and it was freaking glorious. I so, SO want one.

I got a RAM module as payment for assembling the computer Nice upgrade for my old rig.

On topic, if I had a dollar for every set of Christmas lights I've repaired so far, I could afford that damn monitor.

 

[Things]

That's the thing, playing games on your primary. I don't usually play games (except for minecraft), and basically never watch movies, so a widescreen monitor just seems an odd format for mostly reading text.

 

[Meatball]

You do read text from left to right don't you?

I would think a vertical reading (Like Chinese maybe?) would suffer on the 16:9 screens.

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

Some content is easier to read on a taller screen.

All three of my home monitors are bad ones I collected and recapped.

One man's trash...

 

[Sigurthr]

I repair pretty much any analog through hole stuff I can. Digital stuff is my bane.

My pc monitor died last year and I traced the failure to the main display controller; the cheap Chinese caps were all spotless. I tore it down and salvaged the caps and trafos. I hate when digital components go bust as it basically scraps a lot of perfectly good analog tech.

 

[Cyparagon]

You do read text from left to right don't you?

Text is actually more difficult to read when it the block is wider. This is partly because you need to trace back over the line you just read and move down, but also because if the column is short enough, you can read downwards instead of zig-zagging on the page. Notice how newspapers are printed, for an example.

 

[Things]

Yeah, I find it a lot easier to skip down lines than read across a long line. I dunno, I use IRC a lot and it definitely works better in a 4:3 format, seeing as most lines are very brief anyway, a widescreen monitor would just be 3/4 wasted space.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Huh, must be a matter of personal preference because I'd disagree with Cyparagon (and I can't believe I just said that). It's much easier for me when the text is on wider screen, than narrower. It's easier to zip across the line left-to-right real fast, than to repeat small zips a gazillion times.

:/

Must be related to with what you grew up with and what you're accustomed to I guess.

 

[Meatball]

^^It must then be a matter of finding the balance between the number and length of the lines that you prefer to read through.

If I have a few very wide rows of text, its easier to read straight through since there are few row beginnings to jump back to, and since most of the text is spread out, its easy to mentally keep track of what lines you've finished. My point of reference then has few options to move between - and next line selection is simple.

I do not in fact like reading newspapers since you have every line chopped up so much - and then you're left with lots of lines to keep track of as you read your way down the column.

Just keeping things as linear as possible makes the most sense to me!

It might be why they have a continuous scroll of text running along the bottom of a news program on the television - instead of a long column along the side - you can read more - faster.

 

[Cyparagon]

Of course there is personal preference to consider. But the idea is that you use some peripheral vision, so you don't keep track of lines at all. Your eyes go straight down the column instead of the constant Z-shape you may be accustomed to using. It's far more efficient in theory, but it is also an acquired skill.

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

Haven't any of you tried diagonal reading? Horizontal and vertical text alignment is soooo last millennium.