It is arcing - either from the flyback or the tube itself. Highly doubtful it will start a fire, but it probably means you monitor is on the way out to pasture

Wow, now, that's devotion!

I was about to snark that what you've heard is the sound of needing an new screen. Also, there's more than one way to have fun with a CRT, have you cosidered dropping it on the street from the upper floor? 😀

I once had my 1997 Hyundai 15" standing under a roof window and it rained on it a little and it kept getting ever less bright and I think I finally disposed of it in 2009...
Friends on LAN parties kept asking why I maxed out the gamma but that was my only chance to see anything indoors on de_dust.

Ten years ago I'd have told you that anyone who can repair a TV can repair a CRT but, well, never mind.

CRTs are a pretty evil 19th century combination of delicate high tech and steampowered mayhem, so yes, not for kids. There at least ist high voltage involved and a vacuum tube.
And, they've alway had a finite life span, the cathode is basically the same as an incandescant light bulb - it slowly burns away. So, those components popping can be the end of those components or just the symptoms of the center of your CRT system turning into a white dwarf.

Also 10 years ago I'd have told you that it's much more likely to find the same device to buy for cheap than to bother with malfunctions.

But by now, you're truly in uncharted territory, good luck with that and I salute you!

maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-03-02, 19:16:

It is arcing - either from the flyback or the tube itself. Highly doubtful it will start a fire, but it probably means you monitor is on the way out to pasture

Thanks a lot for your input. I was afraid someone might say it was arcing based on what I was reading earlier. I think this will be the last CRT I buy and stick with flat panels (To the above poster, I was thinking the same thing... it's the end of an era, and all I would be buying is someone's dying CRT they were fortunate enough to unload.)

Man... This CRT really tied the room together...

Very rarely you will find one that arcs once or twice to burn off some debris and then keeps working indefinitely thereafter. You might get lucky but usually it means bad times coming

Every Sony CRT I've ever owned has eventually done this, and they were all premium models, including the legendary FW900. It even happened during the warranty period on a 19" F400, which ended up scoring me a free upgrade to the 21" F520.

But, basically, it's going to get worse until it just eventually stops working altogether.

https://youtu.be/ohXI3po8hK0?t=27

Thanks everyone...

...and goodbye VX900... I hardly knew ye...

Some of the Sony CRTs do this too. it is the cathode to heater or cathode to one of the focusing elements grew metallic hairs and started to arc over. We had a 32" Sony CRT and it died same way back then and was only 3 years old. Sears replaced it with JVC TV which is way reliable (I used to repair these too and liked them!) that used a RCA CRT in it which lasted with no issues and only needed grey scale adjustment once in middle of life. We donated it to one of neighbour and got Samsung 40" LCD which still works to this day.

This has to do with metallurgy quality control is not as good as old days used to be. Happens to TV's of Zenith CRTs too which often takes out the vertical IC *and* main voltage regulator IC due to zenith proprietary circuit design. After several of these episodes, I put stop order on and refused to repair them due to bad warranty issues and advanced age, quality of CRT after repair was horrible.

Cheers,

There may be life left in the ole' VX900, yet. So far there has been no more popping. And, once I removed the S3 Trio3D to test another video card (ATI Rage 128 GL/Xpert 128), the image stability returned to normal. W00t!

Sounds like Arcing to me due to something pushing it past it's limit, maybe the video card is throwing out something the monitor can't handle and the monitor is "handling" it by throwing some level of excess current off somewhere, say to ground, and that's the POP you hear.

I have a 1989 Mitsubishi CS2720R TV I fixed up. I does pop periodically, it also buzzes when the screen is really bright (signs of power supply degredation, probably looking at a recap if I'm lucky). I notice it does that kind of stuff more often when using strange video sources such as a PC with an old VGA card into a converter. Ive been toying with swapping it with the Magnavox and doing a recap on it during the summer and then finish the degauss job (I did it using passive neodymium magnets, 🤣). Heck, it also sometimes displays color bars in a smaller circle for a brief second when I turn it off indicating a drain capacitor somewhere is not quite right. I keep using it though because all that aside, it looks and runs amazingly well for being a "beater" TV.

creepingnet wrote on 2022-03-04, 20:26:

Sounds like Arcing to me due to something pushing it past it's limit, maybe the video card is throwing out something the monitor can't handle and the monitor is "handling" it by throwing some level of excess current off somewhere, say to ground, and that's the POP you hear.

I have a 1989 Mitsubishi CS2720R TV I fixed up. I does pop periodically, it also buzzes when the screen is really bright (signs of power supply degredation, probably looking at a recap if I'm lucky). I notice it does that kind of stuff more often when using strange video sources such as a PC with an old VGA card into a converter. Ive been toying with swapping it with the Magnavox and doing a recap on it during the summer and then finish the degauss job (I did it using passive neodymium magnets, 🤣). Heck, it also sometimes displays color bars in a smaller circle for a brief second when I turn it off indicating a drain capacitor somewhere is not quite right. I keep using it though because all that aside, it looks and runs amazingly well for being a "beater" TV.

I am keeping note of this post so if my monitor does give up the ghost, I know where to send it for repair!

I also have another CRT, which was brand new out of the box, but after I moved it stopped working. The power button works (shows orange), but nothing happens.