monitor = goosed?

The cheap-as-chips 15" TFT monitor running my main PC might have finally died on me. I was using it this morning with no problems, then after about half an hour, the picture began to distort. It would shrink a bit and flicker and wrap vertically, and black lines would appear over the screen, like television static. Now, when I switch it on, there's hardly any picture at all. You can see it very faintly, but dark colours won't show up at all (and quite a few colours are classed as "dark "). The monitor's OSD does this too, even when the VGA cable is disconnected to the graphics card. (My GTO is safe ) Last time I saw this happen was on a laptop, where the power inverter was kicking in at the wrong time. Does this mean my monitor can be fixed? Or is it gone forever?

 

Hi,
I usually drop the monitor in to my favourite television repairers and ask for them to quote the repair cost. If nothing appears on the screen, unless it is a good one, I don't bother.

If you want to try and see what the symptoms may indicate and ask for a price on the replacements part/s or how bad the problem may be, Sam's site may help you:
http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/monfaq.htm
Read the warning, don't poke around inside the monitor yourself, there are high voltages even after several days without power.

Consider the repair cost against that money put toward a new monitor (and remember, being a "budget" brand, some other part may fail soon after).

Matt