# Samsung 214T - Worth it to repair?



## Frick (Nov 1, 2013)

I bought this monitor for a few bucks quite some time ago with dead caps on the PSU and the "two seconds to black" syndrome (meaning it turns on screen gets black after a few seconds). Caps was replaced, but it was still not working, so I left it at that.

Now it turns out one set of the CCFL tubes is broken. Quite broken, so I assume someone's been poking around in there, causing trouble. I did plug in some lamps from another monitor when it was in parts, and that worked, but they didn't quite fit.


So the question is: Would you consider it worth the money to get a new set of lamps? This site has a set for a whopping $60 with shipping, TWO sets can be had on ebay for roughly €35ish. One of the reasons is that it's bound to be better than the monitor I have now, aaaaaand a larger combined working area is not to be sneezed at.

Yes I could scavange lamps from various monitors (a friend of mine is a good scavanger ), but if I'm gonna use it I want the backlight to be somewhat consistent.

So, what is your opinion?


Some specs:
21.3 inches
S-PVA panel, 1600x1200
8ms gtg
Contrast 900:1
Pivot, and S-VHS which I would find extremely useful

and so on

Thanks for looking!


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## CounterZeus (Nov 2, 2013)

I think it's a bit much to fix an old small monitor. I bought my 24" benq for €40 second hand, so I think a good deal on a used monitor might be better. Still, if you like to fix things, €35 is a small price to pay for your hobby


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## Frick (Nov 2, 2013)

CounterZeus said:


> I think it's a bit much to fix an old small monitor. I bought my 24" benq for €40 second hand, so I think a good deal on a used monitor might be better. Still, if you like to fix things, €35 is a small price to pay for your hobby



Problem is there are no such good deal to be found. I payed about €35 with shipping for my current monitor, and the only reason it was so cheap is that the seller was new (swedish ebay) and it didn't have a stand. Also the past couple of years used monitors have gotten crazy expensive for some reason. Normal 19 inchers gets sold for €30-40, HD monitors are rarely seen at all and if they are they go for €90 and upwards. And I live in a small place in northern sweden, most of the good trading goes on locally in metropolises rolleyes in the south. I see nice items sometimes, but plenty of people don't want to ship the monitors.

Also, this is supposed to have a decent image quality, the only general problem is inconsistent backlight, which would be solved with new lamps (and a recapped PSU, it seems that was a MAJOR issue with this thing).


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## Brusfantomet (Nov 20, 2013)

I would have fixed it, a 1600 x 1200 monitor is just ridiculously expensive new, and getting a working monitor for 35€ is not bad (and it is for 35€, unless you can get the money you spent on it up to this point back)


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## itsakjt (Nov 20, 2013)

Get some suitably sized LED strips and replace all the CCFLs with those. Embed an adapter inside of a suitable voltage good enough to drive the LEDs and you should get the monitor better than new.


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## Frick (Nov 20, 2013)

@Brusfantomet: Turns out it'll be closer to €50 (damn that shipping). But as I bought the monitor for less than €20 I would end up with more money if I ever sold it.

@itsakjt: Yeah been thinking about that as well. Will have to look around.


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## McSteel (Nov 20, 2013)

itsakjt said:


> Get some suitably sized LED strips and replace all the CCFLs with those. Embed an adapter inside of a suitable voltage good enough to drive the LEDs and you should get the monitor better than new.



You shouldn't ignore the fact that color gamut and reproduction accuracy depend directly on the backlight. There are other factors, sure, but taking bog-standard "white" LEDs (which are actually blue LEDs with yellow filter coating) will net a color gamut and accuracy of a typical $350 Compaq laptop...

*shudder*


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## itsakjt (Nov 20, 2013)

McSteel said:


> You shouldn't ignore the fact that color gamut and reproduction accuracy depend directly on the backlight. There are other factors, sure, but taking bog-standard "white" LEDs (which are actually blue LEDs with yellow filter coating) will net a color gamut and accuracy of a typical $350 Compaq laptop...
> 
> *shudder*



Of course. Better the LEDs, better the backlight and hence color gamut and accuracy. 
@Frick - You can also try to get a broken glass similar sized panel and salvage the CCFL units from there.


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## AsRock (Nov 21, 2013)

Hard option although i believe i am leaning more to no..  I have a 204B here and as long as your looking at it head on it's sweet all so have a cheap ASUS one here and it's no were near the quality ( just every things bad compared ) of the 204B and that cost then again $140 aint cheap for a display that cannot hit over 1440.


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## Frick (Nov 21, 2013)

AsRock said:


> Hard option although i believe i am leaning more to no..  I have a 204B here and as long as your looking at it head on it's sweet all so have a cheap ASUS one here and it's no were near the quality ( just every things bad compared ) of the 204B and that cost then again $140 aint cheap for a display that cannot hit over 1440.



Had it been a normal TN panel I would probably not have got it in the first place, but it's a PVA panel. I will probably buy some tubes when I can spare the money.


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