21 inch Gateway LCD acting up

breakspirit · 07-19-2006, 08:24 PM

I'm having a strange issue with my 3 month old 21.3 inch Gateway FPD2185W LCD monitor. I was playing Starcraft the other day, using Fixed Aspect Ratio mode in the nvidia driver control panel(newest drivers), when my monitor started changing its input method by itself, which of course turned my screen blank. It kept doing this for about 10 minutes, even when I alt-tabbed back into Windows. I eventually just turned the whole PC off and went to bed. It stopped doing that the next morning, but now it randomly says something about Auto Mode not being available pretty frequently, even when I'm just at a blank desktop. In addition, the Select button in the OSD for the monitor no longer does anything, although all the other buttons work fine. Also, the USB hub in the monitor stops working every few days for absolutely no reason. Is my monitor borked, or does anyone else know of this happening or what kinds of causes and/or solutions might exist? Thanks guys.

My system specs are as follows:
MSI Nforce4 motherboard
Geforce 7800GTX using the DVI output on the card to the DVI input on the monitor
athlon64 4000
seasonic 500watt PSU
etc

**Joefireline** · 07-20-2006, 11:19 AM

If you test a different monitor on it, or test the monitor on a different computer, then we can narrow it down to weather it is the monitor or PC.

breakspirit · 07-20-2006, 05:31 PM

I've tried that, but it does it so seldom(like just a few times in a whole day) that it's hard to find out whether it'll do it on another PC. I guess I'll just have to adopt a new PC for a few days.

pizzamaker1 · 08-28-2009, 07:19 PM

Folks, my brother in law has this monitor.. On doing some research, I discovered this monitor has bad capacitors in the main power supply that give out within 18 months of new, GATEWAY WILL NOT SERVICE IT OR ACKNOWLEDGE THE PROBLEM. I have found threads describing some success with replacing these 470pf, 25 volt caps, a reasonably easy job after fighting to get into the monitor case and dealing with the delicate interconnect plugs between the LDC and the two internal boards.

This monitor will, without warning, refuse to restart.. just a blue light on the power button, with a black screen.. the cause is the crappy quality capacitors used, they overheat, and bulge on the power control board. Some of the soldering on these boards is shoddy also.

I have it out tonight to service it, and will let you guys know how it works out once I get the parts.. about $8 bucks total to fix the $600 monitor... commercial services charge abut $150 to do this, but is really doable by anyone with basic soldering skills and some patience. I may photograph the process to share...

If your monitor is under a year old, send it back to Gateway for replacement.. do not delay.. it will fail on you within 18 months...

and by the way, it is really a SAMSUNG monitor, makes me wonder if those brand monitors should be avoided when replacing for this reason...

breakspirit · 08-28-2009, 10:17 PM

Dude this thread was over three years old. I've personally long since gotten rid of that monitor and got a 24 inch Dell, which has been the greatest monitor I've ever owned. Dell may make crappy computers, but they know how to make(or rebrand) a good monitor.

07-19-2006, 08:24 PM	#1 (permalink)
breakspirit Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 3 OS: Win XP	21 inch Gateway LCD acting up I'm having a strange issue with my 3 month old 21.3 inch Gateway FPD2185W LCD monitor. I was playing Starcraft the other day, using Fixed Aspect Ratio mode in the nvidia driver control panel(newest drivers), when my monitor started changing its input method by itself, which of course turned my screen blank. It kept doing this for about 10 minutes, even when I alt-tabbed back into Windows. I eventually just turned the whole PC off and went to bed. It stopped doing that the next morning, but now it randomly says something about Auto Mode not being available pretty frequently, even when I'm just at a blank desktop. In addition, the Select button in the OSD for the monitor no longer does anything, although all the other buttons work fine. Also, the USB hub in the monitor stops working every few days for absolutely no reason. Is my monitor borked, or does anyone else know of this happening or what kinds of causes and/or solutions might exist? Thanks guys. My system specs are as follows: MSI Nforce4 motherboard Geforce 7800GTX using the DVI output on the card to the DVI input on the monitor athlon64 4000 seasonic 500watt PSU etc

08-28-2009, 07:19 PM	#4 (permalink)
pizzamaker1 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Crystal River, Fl Posts: 3 OS: xp sp3	Re: 21 inch Gateway LCD acting up Folks, my brother in law has this monitor.. On doing some research, I discovered this monitor has bad capacitors in the main power supply that give out within 18 months of new, GATEWAY WILL NOT SERVICE IT OR ACKNOWLEDGE THE PROBLEM. I have found threads describing some success with replacing these 470pf, 25 volt caps, a reasonably easy job after fighting to get into the monitor case and dealing with the delicate interconnect plugs between the LDC and the two internal boards. This monitor will, without warning, refuse to restart.. just a blue light on the power button, with a black screen.. the cause is the crappy quality capacitors used, they overheat, and bulge on the power control board. Some of the soldering on these boards is shoddy also. I have it out tonight to service it, and will let you guys know how it works out once I get the parts.. about $8 bucks total to fix the $600 monitor... commercial services charge abut $150 to do this, but is really doable by anyone with basic soldering skills and some patience. I may photograph the process to share... If your monitor is under a year old, send it back to Gateway for replacement.. do not delay.. it will fail on you within 18 months... and by the way, it is really a SAMSUNG monitor, makes me wonder if those brand monitors should be avoided when replacing for this reason... Last edited by pizzamaker1; 08-28-2009 at 07:22 PM.

08-28-2009, 10:17 PM	#5 (permalink)
breakspirit Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 3 OS: Win XP	Re: 21 inch Gateway LCD acting up Dude this thread was over three years old. I've personally long since gotten rid of that monitor and got a 24 inch Dell, which has been the greatest monitor I've ever owned. Dell may make crappy computers, but they know how to make(or rebrand) a good monitor.

07-20-2006, 11:19 AM	#2 (permalink)
Joefireline Enthusiastic TSFer~Joseph Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Portishead (Bristol) England Posts: 5,319 OS: Windows 7 64bit(Desktop) / XP Home SP2(laptop) My System	If you test a different monitor on it, or test the monitor on a different computer, then we can narrow it down to weather it is the monitor or PC.

07-20-2006, 05:31 PM	#3 (permalink)
breakspirit Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 3 OS: Win XP	I've tried that, but it does it so seldom(like just a few times in a whole day) that it's hard to find out whether it'll do it on another PC. I guess I'll just have to adopt a new PC for a few days.