eMachines e230h 1080p monitor has gone white

jmasta111 · April 20, 2014

A little over a week ago, I left my computer for about half an hour and when my girlfriend went to go wake up my displays... my main monitor had gone white. I went to inspect it and after a quick test to be sure that it wasn't my video card or DVI cable, I came to the conclusion that something was clearly wrong with the monitor itself. Having encountered this same issue several years prior with a friend's monitor, I knew that the issue may lay with the internal video cable connected to the panel itself. So, after 25 minutes of wedging the casing open with a screwdriver because this monitor had no external screws to get inside (I really hate when companies do that), I finally got the thing apart and wasn't incredibly encouraged by what I saw inside. This monitor has previously died on me a couple years prior (not a white screen, it died with absolutely no life whatsoever) and so I had it sent in to be repaired. I don't know whether the monitor I got back was my original monitor or whether they had just replaced it with a refurbished one, but they had done an absolute terrible job of working on it that's for sure. The insides were loosely held together with this very cheap tape that caused all the parts to wiggle around much more than I would be comfortable with.

I started by removing this tape and replacing it with some gaffers tape (in the words of Ryan Shrout, gaf tape solves all). After that I located the internal video cable, unplugged it, and proceeded to clean it thoroughly to be sure that the connectors were all making good contact. I also used canned air on the female part of the connector to be sure that there wasn't dust or something of the sorts.

I slapped it back together and low and behold... it worked! I realized at the time that this may not have been a permanent fix and several days later I found that the monitor had gone white again, just as I had feared. So, I popped it open again, cleaned the connector and... it worked again. Well, over the past couple days the amount of time between the monitor working and going white has been decreasing until tonight when after I cleaned it, it didn't go back to normal again.

So, I realize the odds of this thing being fixed are low, and I definitely can't spend very much time or money on it... but I wanted to know if any of you had any suggestions before I bite the bullet and replace it. Anything you can think of trying that might help to resolve this issue?

I should also mention that I know that the monitor is actually a rebranded Acer monitor and it's an LG panel on the inside. This information probably doesn't change much, but maybe it could add some context for someone.

Anyway thanks guys, I appreciate your help.

-Julian