Figured I'd start this to maybe encourage anyone that has or knows someone with a computer monitor or TV that isn't working. This probably isn't earth shattering news but the problem is usually bad capacitors on the power supply. I've successfully repaired four monitors. The latest was a nice 28 inch model that was given to me. I'm now using it as my main monitor and it is nice! Only thing it cost me was some time and 9 little caps. And make sure you have a good digital ESR meter.

Of the four I've repaired, three needed caps. One needed the main 150uF 400v cap replaced. One needed 9 little caps ranging from 1uF to 22 uF replaced. One needed a couple larger caps replaced, I think in the 100uF range but I can't remember. In two of the cases the bad caps were obvious.

On the 28" monitor that needed 9 caps, none of them were obvious. I diagnosed the problem by starting with the caps that were near heatsinks and that would be the most stressed. Often times you can't get a good ESR reading with the cap in place. So I removed them and measured. I eventually found some that were bad. It became obvious that the little caps were more prone to failing so I replaced everything that was small because every one of them measured either low on capacitance or high on ESR. I spot checked caps of 100uF or larger and they were all good so I left them alone.

The fourth monitor needed new fuses for the backlights. They were little SMD fuses, not easy to find. There must have been a manufacturing defect in the fuses the monitor manufacturer used because nothing else was wrong. I replaced the fuses with new (had to order from Mouser) and it has worked for probably close to 2 years. Yes, I had to do SMD work on this one, but it was easy and could be done with a regular decent soldering station and a small tip.

Anyway, if you can fix pinball boards, you can fix monitors and probably score yourself some pretty good deals from friends and families.