Does the monitor still have raster when the picture disappears? A quick way to check this is to crank up the brightness until black becomes gray, that way you can see if it's just the picture blanking out or you're losing raster entirely.

If you're losing raster it could be the horizontal deflection shutting down due to cold solder joints and the like. Try percussive maintenance and see if you can make it lose raster on purpose.

If you're not losing raster it could be a sync problem, some monitors blank the video as soon as sync is lost to avoid showing a rolling/distorted picture to the user (like when the PC is switching video modes). If the cable tested good check the solder joints around the sync processor IC.

King_Corduroy wrote:

Wtf. 🤣 How can you live with icons scattered everywhere like that?! 🤣

'Mind mapping' ? 😎

With certain program types grouped in their designated area/location. And most used ones getting a prominent position, etc etc...

My desktop is MUCH worse than that.... (having higher resolution/more space to play with)

Wow I don't do that at all. I keep everything lined up neatly along the left side, also as few shortcuts on the desktop as possible. So my desktops always are reminiscant of the way Win 95 and 98 come by default in terms of icon organization. Even under linux.

My Computer
My Documents
Recycle Bin
Network Neighborhood
Program Link 1
Program Link 2

And that's usually it. 🤣

Yesterday I discovered my Eizo can display 2800x2100... 😳
This also appears to be the maximum VGA resolution of my graphics card.

133MHz wrote:

Does the monitor still have raster when the picture disappears? A quick way to check this is to crank up the brightness until black becomes gray, that way you can see if it's just the picture blanking out or you're losing raster entirely.

If you're losing raster it could be the horizontal deflection shutting down due to cold solder joints and the like. Try percussive maintenance and see if you can make it lose raster on purpose.

If you're not losing raster it could be a sync problem, some monitors blank the video as soon as sync is lost to avoid showing a rolling/distorted picture to the user (like when the PC is switching video modes). If the cable tested good check the solder joints around the sync processor IC.

What happens is when a VGA input is plugged into it, it doesn't 'detect' anything and goes straight into sleep mode. Unplugged the VGA cable will make it flash the striped test screen (as the monitor will normally display that when nothing is plugged in). But then it flashes away afterwards. So it would seem as if the monitoring is behaving that it can't 'see' anything.

King_Corduroy wrote:

Wtf. 🤣 How can you live with icons scattered everywhere like that?! 🤣

Oh that's not that bad at all. My P1's desktop has changed a lot, I don't have as much stuff on it anymore (that was when I finally first got that computer again and was trying out everything on it).

-

jwt27 wrote:

Yesterday I discovered my Eizo can display 2800x2100... 😳
This also appears to be the maximum VGA resolution of my graphics card.

Would love to see the desktop realestate at that resolution 😀

PeterLI wrote:

EIZOs are the Rolls Royce of monitors. 😀 I love EIZO. I remember having a 20" EIZO CRT in the 1990s and being the envy of everyone at LAN parties. 🤣

Was it an F930, by any chance? Maybe I have your old monitor now 🤣

kixs wrote:

jwt27 wrote:

Yesterday I discovered my Eizo can display 2800x2100... 😳
This also appears to be the maximum VGA resolution of my graphics card.

Would love to see the desktop realestate at that resolution 😀

It looks like this:

Compare with 2048x1536:

Don't know why Vogons turned out blue in these pics. Normally it looks purple.

Text is still surprisingly readable, I had expected everything would turn into big blurry lines: http://i.imgur.com/Sx3bXjO.jpg
The whole screen shakes a bit at this resolution so the picture came out a bit more blurry than it is IRL. Might be caused by the graphics card since I had a similar problem with my previous card at 160Hz.
Compare 2048: http://i.imgur.com/0bk1lUx.jpg

How many windows can we fit in there: http://i.imgur.com/I45DHt0.jpg (ugly pic, sorry)
After switching back to 2048: http://i.imgur.com/zRQLQND.jpg

Unfortunately this is all 60Hz which melts my eyes. I'll just stick to 2048x1536 at 80Hz (until... maybe, I can find an F980 😳)

Holy Toledo! That's got to be the highest end CRT I've ever seen! I've over clocked the dot pitch on the one I had but it can't do beyond 1080p unless it's below 60hz. 2048x1536 @ 80hz is insane! Let alone 2800x2100; that's weird to be honest. Very nice piece of equipment you got there. Isn't that like 3k or something?

It definitely is the best CRT I've ever had. This tube is the primary reason I hate LCDs 😀
I have another one that comes pretty close but it's busted (h-deflection suddenly disappeared), a Philips 201P10 that can do 2048 at 75Hz. Unfortunately it's a P model (trinitron), the anti-glare coating is scratched, and I already use this Eizo, so I don't really have a reason to fix it.

There's one even better monitor that I know the existence of (although I've never seen one, let alone for sale), which is the Eizo F980. This behemoth can display up to 85Hz at 2048x1536, and has an even better horizontal dot pitch of 0.20mm. Then there's the F931 which is an F930 with a flat screen, so there might be an F981 too.

I might be able to crank the refresh rate up a bit by minimizing the blanking intervals, but I don't think it's worth it since the dot pitch is simply too large for 2800x2100, you'll always end up losing some detail. And even if I could get it up to 65Hz, I still wouldn't want to look at that for too long either 🤣
The F980, on the other hand... I think 2560x1920 would be a usable resolution on that one.

...by the way, here's a video of that Hercules glitch I was talking about earlier: https://app.box.com/s/gzp6p6eg054yvh29oadv
Not really doing anything here, just mashing random buttons. The glitchy effect provides a very nice visual feedback to button mashing 🤣

Would a Philips 20B be worth buying for 10€?

Unfortunately while reviewing what capacitors to purchase for the IBM 6325, I noticed the PCB has been utterly scorched near some resistors eating the traces with it-- I'm not sure if this affected anything, or, is the actual cause for the screen distortion:

So... I'll have to just recycle the CRT *sigh*. Sooo so soo very sad, it has a very high quality Panasonic tube with so many features I like, and a sharp screen. I could fix the traces, redo the resistors, rebuild everything... but honestly that's a mess. All of the scorching I can't tell what traces go where etc.

raymangold wrote:

I'm not sure if this affected anything, or, is the actual cause for the screen distortion:

It might very well be the cause of your problems as you say. Maybe it's the picture but it doesn't look so bad to me, I've saved monitors with PCBs so scorched they had holes I could poke a pencil through, by replacing the burn out traces with thick wire jumpers.

A weak solder joint on a high current trace could end up scorching the board like this due to the heat stress and arcing caused by the intermittent high resistance that has developed in the joint, this means it's likely that the component itself is good and resoldering/reinforcing the bad connection would sort things out.

I totally get your feeling of not wanting to invest a lot of time and resources on something that might never quite work OK or that might not last much longer anyway, but to me it looks like there's hope and you should at least try to redo those joints before calling the whole thing off - there's a good possibility that it'll fix the problem without the need to replace capacitors and such. I'd try the following:

• Clean the board of dust and grime so that you can see the traces clearly.
• Take detailed photos so you know where the traces go in case they come right off when soldering.
• Remove bad solder from the holes using a desoldering pump. If the traces delaminate while doing this (very likely), you'll have to replace them with thick wire jumpers later.
• Clean the component leads and PCB pads using something abrasive, the idea is to restore good electrical conductivity. Everything should be shiny instead of dull. Try to remove carbon residue from the board by scratching it off with a flathead screwdriver since it might have become conductive.
• Resolder the affected components and repair damaged traces using thick wire. Even if they didn't delaminate it's wise to run jumper wires anyway.

Fortunately the damage doesn't look too extensive and the traces seem to be large and easy to follow, so it shouldn't be too daunting of a task. After that test the monitor and you might be in for a good surprise. If not, at least you've tried. 😉

raymangold wrote:

Unfortunately while reviewing what capacitors to purchase for the IBM 6325, I noticed the PCB has been utterly scorched near some resistors eating the traces with it-- I'm not sure if this affected anything, or, is the actual cause for the screen distortion:

So... I'll have to just recycle the CRT *sigh*.

Sometimes traces aren't as bad as they appear. It looks really bad on the pic, but if soldering doesn't stress you out and you got spare resistors (or whatever cooked) try them out.

If worse comes to worse, try selling the tube on ebay or arcade forum. It doesn't make sense to recycle a good tube if someone might be willing to pay $150.00+ for one.

Holering wrote:

Sometimes traces aren't as bad as they appear. It looks really bad on the pic, but if soldering doesn't stress you out and you got spare resistors (or whatever cooked) try them out.

If worse comes to worse, try selling the tube on ebay or arcade forum. It doesn't make sense to recycle a good tube if someone might be willing to pay $150.00+ for one.

The traces are pretty cooked! I was able to scrape stuff off with a pen tip. They're likely still making some sort of contact, but not a very good one. I'll try seeing if I can jumper it with some wire.

I don't think $150 would be fair to sell a panasonic 15" tube for. It's not a nice thing to overcharge for old components-- regardless of the rarity. It's also a lot of effort to pack and ship things like that off, much easier to just recycle.

I didn't mean sell the entire CRT in its entirety. Some of those arcade guys build mame cabinets with CRT monitors. There's some diehard builders that stick to CRTs and are willing to swap tubes (really isn't as bad as it sounds) to restore their Wells Gardner or whatever brand their chassis is. I'm sure there's quite a few chassis out there with panasonic tubes, I'm just not sure how many of them are actually used for mame cabinets or whatever else. Wells Gardner monitors were sure damn expensive and they don't look crisp like a PC monitor, but I guess a tube for $150.00 is alot. I'm just saying there's some guys out there that are willing to spend that kind of money to have their mame cabinet with a nice CRT (without a worn out tube).

Well, the only CRT I have left in home is now a JVC living room TV (very common in the late 90s, don't know the model number).
My dad picked up the 3 barely working to the local recycling center.
One was a tiny Philips VCR combi, which got a faulty VCR tape stuck in, and we were unable to get it out (even with the upsidedown method)
The other was a silver Salora TV from mid '00s, which I wanted to move, but it fell face forwards on the floor even though it was on a flat surface. The plastic surrounding the tube was ripped open, and there was something loose inside, so I assumed it was dead.
The other HP monitor (2001) worked fine all the time, until it started warping the image (I have very sensitive ears, so I could hear the pitch changing), and when I rushed to turn it off, it left a burning smell. I have never pushed it out of it's boundaries, it just randomly happened.

Luckily I have a few LCD/LEDs to replace them.

I have four CRTs left in this house, although I want one for my Packard Bell. My Commodore 64 came with an 1802 monitor, I have a tiny sharp TV I use to watch VHS movies and play video consoles on, My PCjr has a proprietary CRT monitor and I have a 1976 Zenith Portable B&W TV that I use occasionally to play pong.

I just grabbed a 9" Sony PVM-9054QM for my workbench.

Noice.

I'd imagine that'd be the equivalent of a, "Weird Sword of the Sky", though a couple daggers TBH.