Samsung monitor troubles

Hi,
I have a relatively new (few years old) Samsung 225BW syncmaster that has begun acting up over the last month or so. Symptoms:

1. Monitor was working just fine and never had issues going into standby when the computer went into hybernation after a specific time of inactivity overnight. When the computer was awakened, the monitor would also wake up as expected without issue

2. About a month ago, the monitor started refusing to wake and required a dedicated cycle of turning it off/on and hitting multiple panel buttons before it would reluctantly wake up and then work without issue during the work day regardless of whether connected with digital or analog cables. Next morning the process would need to be repeated and also repeated if the monitor were allowed to enter stnadby at any time.

Has anyone here run into a similar situation with the same or similar Samsung monitor model? If yes, what was the root cause and what did you do to fix the problem?

I have done a search for topics in general on this, but have not found anything recent or not related to past issues with needed Windows 7 driver updates which have not been related to the issue I have begun to encounter.

Thanks in advance
Mike

 

I've had exactly the same problem with my old 17" samsung... I dont know the model anymore because it was years ago
I could not resolve my issue on my own (and my warranty had expired). If the monitor is still in warranty I suggest returning it.

P.S. after all those years you are the only one I saw with this kind of problem

 

Hi parsec,
That's what I was worried about when I couldn't find anything specific or new on this in my searches to date. I am well past the warranty so it looks like I may have to move on as monitor prices are just too low right now to justify an expensive repair approach.

Would be nice if all these newer monitors were built like my old trusty NEC that I have had and continues to soldier on despite being over a decade old...

 

I had to always power-cycle my 204B once or twice to get it to power up or come out of standby. It was a few years old at the time.

Many monitors from that period have bad electrolytic caps in their power supply circuitry. Once I replaced them (cost about $10.00) the monitor has been operating flawlessly to date. And that was years ago I did the fix!

Anyways, this monitor is still in service, and I expect it will operate for years to come.

Most people don't bother with these problems, they throw the monitor away. They expect it to fail. All consumer electronics are disposable these days. But an experienced electronics person can blow through the repair within the hour. You can do this too!

Here is a photo-essay of what to expect when doing a job like so --
https://picasaweb.google.com/114688...pacitorReplacement?authuser=0&feat=directlink

 

Hi Keatah,
Bad link...

 

try now

 

Used your search terms to find some stuff specific to capacitor replacement on the 225BW that look promising - thnx

 

Great.. 4 u and others you can read stuff at:
http://www.badcaps.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

In both my abit bx6r2 motherboards and my samsung monitor, some of the caps were swollen and distended on the top. You can simply feel the bulge.

I tend to like to replace capacitors in groups and sets. Because often a strong capacitor will overwhelm the weak ones and unbalance a circuit. So while my monitor had only 2 or 3 bad ones, I did all of them. And I believe in common sense, if one lot of parts is substandard, it's likely they'll all "blow up" eventually.

 

While this appears to be the monitor, I would sure try swapping monitors with another computer before anything else. If the problem follows your monitor to computer 2, you know the problem is with the monitor. But if the problem stays with computer 1 using monitor 2, then you need to look at your computer's graphics solution.

If you don't have another monitor, most TVs in recent years support computer inputs.

 

Hey Bill,
It is the monitor as there are no issues with the other three no matter which video card they are attached to or which order they take in the display lineup.

 

Then if you are technically inclined (and have a good soldering pencil and are skilled at soldering - and desoldering) then replacing the caps, if they are bulging or leaking may be a good route to take, if you can determine the correct replacement parts. And I agree with Keatah to replace them all at once, at least those clustered together.

That said, you said above the monitor was "relatively new (few years old)". That is a contradiction in terms IMO - with "a few" being 3 or more in my mind. That is not new. Not old, but not new. If not technically inclined, I don't believe it is worth taking it to a shop so with there being a bunch of 23-24 inch monitors for under $200 to choose from, it may be time to look for truly "new" one.

And if me, I would not shy away from Samsung, even though you are having a bad experience with this one. Even the best makers can't create perfection 100% of the time.

HOWEVER - I note on this page, that monitor has a 3 year warranty. So make sure "few years" is more than 3 first.

 

I was having a similar problem with an LG monitor. My power options were set for the monitor to turn off after 2 hours of inactivity. The problem was that it wouldn't power back up automatically.

I discovered a solution by accident and I don't understand it. I switched from a wireless mouse to a wired mouse (for unrelated reasons - and yes, the batteries were fine in the wireless mouse) and the monitor promptly fired up as expected each and every time. I bought a new wireless mouse and I started to have the same problem with the monitor.

Sooooooo, without fully understanding why this happens, I am now using a wired mouse, and everything is working just fine. Maybe someone can explain this.

 

Not to run this topic OT, so until Coldmoon returns,

With a new dongle, or were you using the same dongle as with the first mouse?

Nevertheless, that is an odd issue. Typically, it is the other way around - that is, the monitor (and computer) wake up unexpectedly, not stay asleep. That often is caused by unnoticed or imperceptible (to humans) vibrations from heavy footfalls, big trucks driving by, loud music, jet noise, etc. that wiggle the mouse enough to send a signal to wake the computer. Adjusting the sensitivity, or flipping the mouse on its back when walking away fixes that.

And BTW, 2 hours? 15 - 30 minutes makes more sense to me.

 

The monitor (and computer) wake up unexpectedly, not stay asleep. This was happening to me with a WL Mouse, so i unchecked for the mouse to bring anything out of sleep mode. I just press any key on the keyboard now and have no more problems with that.

 

When I got my 204B monitor I was a little dismayed that it failed in about 1-2 year's time. It progressively took longer and longer to get an image on-screen. I.e. warm up.

I kinda forgiven Samsung since the monitor was hi-res and extraordinarily cheap for its time. And the capacitor repair was 10 bucks and 2 hours. So I can't complain really.

I'm also experiencing the beginnings of bad caps in another Samsung product, this is a T260HD monitor/tv. It was also super cheap and otherwise is perfect. Just taking a bit longer to get a full-bright image going. I'd say another 2 years and then I'll do the capacitors in it too. In it's favor, it's now 4 years old and is used quite a lot. But bad capacitors are bad capacitors and companies need to use better quality parts.

 

You say that like this is you thread, but it is not. So to be clear, Coldmoon's problem is the computer, or monitor does not wake up.

That said, there are several "Wake on..." commands in the BIOS. These include Wake on Keyboard, Wake on LAN, and Wake on Mouse. So if your mouse is too sensitive, you can also disable this feature in the BIOS.

 

New dongle.

I have a screensaver that cuts in after 15 minutes - I guess I could bypass screensaver and just have monitor shutdown after 10 minutes.

 

A simple test for the OP.

Let the monitor sit unplugged & power off, disconnected from the PC, for a while. Plug it in and turn it on. You should see some evidence of the backlight turning on and some OSD (mine says analog/digital), something..

If you don't see evidence of this the first time you try it I'm betting capacitors almost 100%.

 

Interesting comment about imperceptible motions affecting the mouse and the computer interpreting that and coming out of screensaver or standby.

I had a mouse that was like that. And changing the surface it worked on fixed that issue.

 

Ummm, no I would have the monitor shutdown after the screensaver kicks in, not before. That said, many - if not most - monitors will automatically go into standby mode when they no longer detect a signal.

I used to do hardware support at a major defense software development company and we worked on a raised "computer floor". Our computers would never go to sleep unless we put the mouse belly up. And even here at home where my office is on the second floor, if the grandkids stomp and run down the hall and my keyboard/mouse tray is extended out from under the desk, the vibration will wake my computer. And I live 1/2 mile from an Air Force base and if a visiting fighter aircraft does an aggressive take off, besides shaking the windows, the computer wakes up! If the grandkids lived here, or if this were a fighter base, I would set the mouse the wake on press button only and disable wake on mouse move.

 

That's what I meant - 10 minutes after screensaver. Bill, just once, can I have the last word?

 

Nope.

 

I need to redact my favorable comment(s) about Samsung products. After reviewing records the past 6 months, we've had a disproportionately high number of product failures.

 

Do you have a link to the report/records ? Thanks.

 

Since Samsung has held the lead in worldwide market share by a considerable percentage for the last 5 or so years, it makes sense there would be more Samsungs that failed. Don't be like the Honda mechanic who thinks Hondas are bad cars because all he sees is broken down Hondas all day.

Surprisingly, Dell makes some pretty good monitors. I just wish I like the company better - but that's probably bias on my part getting in the way.