Help with Monitor and magnet

On 20/05/2004 2:14 PM, Carl Beyer wrote:
> My kid placed a magnet on the front screen of my older Sony 17". It now
> has a weird Dark spot, with a lighter blue spot (poles of the magnet?)
>
> Any ideas on a cure. I have turned the monitor on and off, as well as
> let it sit for 24 hours off...
>

Try "degaussing" the monitor. Many newer Sony TVs and monitors do this
on startup (it's that loud "gung!" when it powers up). If yours has a
degauss switch on the panel, try that. Otherwise, it may have a degauss
that is only available to a tech who can open it up.

On 20/05/2004 2:14 PM, Carl Beyer wrote:

> My kid placed a magnet on the front screen of my older Sony 17". It now
> has a weird Dark spot, with a lighter blue spot (poles of the magnet?)
>
> Any ideas on a cure. I have turned the monitor on and off, as well as
> let it sit for 24 hours off...

Here's a pretty hilarious solution, but not one for the faint of heart:

http://www.woil.ws/fixmonitor/

On 20/05/2004 3:10 PM, Dave Balderstone wrote:

> In article <carlNOSPAMOLA-97EE52.11142820052004 DeleteThis @news.supernews.com>,
> Carl Beyer <carlNOSPAMOLA DeleteThis @cobaltbluefilms.com> wrote:
>
>
>>My kid placed a magnet on the front screen of my older Sony 17". It now
>>has a weird Dark spot, with a lighter blue spot (poles of the magnet?)
>>
>>Any ideas on a cure. I have turned the monitor on and off, as well as
>>let it sit for 24 hours off...
>
>
> Call a repair shop. It needs to be degaussed with a powerful
> electromagnet. It only takes a minute to fix, so shouldn't cost much.

I remember many years ago, when technicians actually came to your house,
a TV repair dude came to fix our colour TV. One had to make that
distinction back then because a lot of TVs still in use were B&W.

Anyway, as part of the repair process he took out a *monster* coil of
copper wire and plugged it into the wall and waved it in front of the
screen. It seemed like magic back then, and my mom was uncertain
whether or not the guy was scamming us and just pretending to "fix" the TV.

I recall that the TV did not last much longer.

Anyway, I'm guessing that no wimpy degauss button will fix a seriously
messed up monitor, and your advice is probably spot on.

Carl Beyer <carlNOSPAMOLA DeleteThis @cobaltbluefilms.com> wrote:

> My kid placed a magnet on the front screen of my older Sony 17". It now
> has a weird Dark spot, with a lighter blue spot (poles of the magnet?)
>
> Any ideas on a cure?

The magnet has magnetised a part of the diffraction mask that's just
behind the glass front, this is redirecting the electrons to where
they're *not* supposed to go.

Sadly, a monitor's built-in degaussing feature usually isn't strong
enough to rectify this, and there's no easy end-user-at-home solution.

You are going to need to speak with a TV technician (or someone who
works a lot with monitors) who has something called a degaussing wand.
This wand is a thick iron core with a big mains-powered coil around it,
forming a giant electromagnet. As the field from the wand is passed over
the front of the tube, it will de-magnetise the mask and get rid of the
'dead' spot.

Ring around your local area for a TV repair shop and explain your
problem, they should be able to fix it up pretty quickly and for not
much money.


Geoffrey

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Thanks to all for the help... Will make a few calls shortly and get
this back up and running...

The drillbit looked interesting, but scary (maybe a different bit would
make me less nervous).

Carl

--
--
http://www.cobaltbluefilms.com

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I realized after all the posts that
I had a Tape Head demagnatizer (1960's electric) floating around.
Plugged it in, took a risk, and after a few tries, it all worked out...
no drill bits, no mallets wacking the screen (I would screw up with the
mallet, for sure).

thanks again go all.. the old monitor lives to see another day.

Carl

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http://www.cobaltbluefilms.com

In article <carlNOSPAMOLA-385E03.16353921052004.DeleteThis@news.supernews.com>,
Carl Beyer <carlNOSPAMOLA.DeleteThis@cobaltbluefilms.com> wrote:

> Thanks to everyone for the advice. I realized after all the posts that
> I had a Tape Head demagnatizer (1960's electric) floating around.
> Plugged it in, took a risk, and after a few tries, it all worked out...
> no drill bits,

I finally got around to googling up the message that refers to drill
bits (It never arrived on my server), and now that I've found it, I
wanted to comment...

That page/set of instructions isn't intended to be funny at all. It just
seems that way. I'd actually call it a downright brilliant low-tech
solution to a high-tech problem.

The magnets spinning on the drill bit do *EXACTLY* what your tape-head
demagnetizer does: Create a rapidly alternating magnetic field. Only
difference is the drill does it by physically spinning the magnets,
while the head demagnetizer lets the AC do the work.

In both cases, the key is to keep the field moving until it's far enough
away to not "lock in" when you power down. If you were to simply "switch
off" the head widget, or let go of the trigger on the drill while it was
still cloe enough to be causing image distortion, you'd almost certainly
do nothing but move the problem spot to a new location on the screen.

--
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I respond to Email as quick as humanly possible. If you Email me and get no
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clvrmnky <clvrmnky-uunet.RemoveThis@coldmail.com.invalid> writes:
>
> Anyway, as part of the repair process he took out a *monster* coil
> of copper wire and plugged it into the wall and waved it in front of
> the screen. It seemed like magic back then, and my mom was
> uncertain whether or not the guy was scamming us and just pretending
> to "fix" the TV.

That's a degauss coil.

Most monitors have this built-in, so you only have to press a button
on the monitor's front-panel to activate it. Some models degauss
themselves when you turn them on.

> Anyway, I'm guessing that no wimpy degauss button will fix a
> seriously messed up monitor, and your advice is probably spot on.

I suppose it's possible that a display got gauused up so badly that
the built-in degauss coil won't work, but that would surprise me.
Still, if the built-in coil doesn't work after 3 or 4 tries, a
repairman should be able to fix it with an external coil.

-- David