Listen to the IT person, please
So before I create follow-up posts with different stories from my last job (where I worked tech support), I'll share a little something that just happened right now that makes me wonder why a person will question everything that a professional in the field will say.

A person I know has just had a monitor go bad. Everyone's been there. It's a new TFT monitor, he tells me the symptoms (monitor turns on, whines, then turns off). I tell him it's shot, get a new one. He mentions it later the next day (today), other people start telling him to repair it.

Now as an aside, I must tell everyone here that you should never, EVER, EVER work on the internals of a monitor (regardless of type) or power supply. To do so can result in death. It is incredibly easy to electrocute yourself while working with these electronic devices, even if turned off and unplugged from the wall (no joke). I work in IT and I would *never* try to fix one of these.

Now, I stepped in and informed the guy that if he wanted to fix his monitor, he should have good health insurance and life insurance. Barring that, he should either toss the monitor or have a certified repair technician look at it.

Apologies for the lack of un-funny, there might be some of that going around.

PS: If anyone has a clip of The Screen Savers where Kevin discharged a monitor in front of the audience, please shoot me a link. Trying to find it so I can show these people what kind of dangers there are.
(Magus Zeal reloading since, Sun 27 Sep 2009, 22:54, 8 replies)

Budgets are tight...

If you get a noisy fan in a PSU, you replace it. Not advisable, but provided you know what a capacitor looks like, not really that dangerous.

I've heard you can adequately discharge them by yanking the power cord whilst tehy're running. I've not poked one to see if this is true. Either way - if you leave them unplugged for a few days, there's no charge left, and can be worked on in perfect safety.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Mon 28 Sep 2009, 1:28, closed)

TFT monitors do not hold a significant charge
as everything works off 12 volts (bar the power supply, if it's internal).

The only exception is the power supply for the backlight (a flourescent tube) which is a couple of thousand volts, but no significant current. It can sting you, but nothing more.
(Flap Burger hasn't really got a burger made of flaps, Mon 28 Sep 2009, 8:47, closed)

Cheers for this
I may have been considering taking apart mine to see what had happened to it.
I don't think I will now.
(Evilweevil is covered in bees, Mon 28 Sep 2009, 9:16, closed)

Pah!
Looks like all the IT bods nowadays are cissies. What happened to opening the case of a piece of equipment, sticking screwdrivers in the safety cutout switches and watching for the where the problem was?

Even when working on good old fashioned CRTs, where a discharge probe (fnarr) was essential, it wasn't really that dangerous. 14KV isn't that bad. Just follow a few simple rules and you'll be right as rain. Only ever use one hand at a time in the guts of a monitor, that way, if you do get a shock, it's unlikely to bang from one hand to the other, going across your heart in the process. Lose anything metallic that could touch the gubbins inside, one colleague forgot to take his wedding ring off, he had a shock arc across it leaving him with burns on top and bottom of hie ring finger, if you're working on kit with big volts, try and use tools that are well insulated, good lengths of plastic sleeving or even plastic tools.

C'mon, have some balls and stop being a pansy, get your hand inside and fix things. Oh, and if all else fails, there's always the big hammer.
(lardyboy Next stop, Fissplap Central, Mon 28 Sep 2009, 10:47, closed)

TFT?
Not really. I've swapped PSUs from these units plenty of times. They don't hold a significant charge long after they are unplugged.

CRT? Different story. Wouldn't go near one.
(dchurch bah, Mon 28 Sep 2009, 14:53, closed)

Don't take apart your digital camera either.
I learned that the hard way.
(TheWonderfulWombat It came to me in a dream., Mon 28 Sep 2009, 22:26, closed)

(headDesk)
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

This is the way you teach children to stay indoors with the curtains drawn and the lights off becasue the real world is scary and dangerous.

Yes, the inside of a power supply can hurt you, even kill you if you do something _stupid_ like poke it with a fork or lick it to see what the electrons taste like.

If you've got the requisite knowledge to perform an effective repair:-
1) half an ounce of sense
2) some idea of what a power capacitor looks like
3) A piece of resistance wire, a dead toaster, a lightbulb, etc...
4) respect for voltages that will bite you

you'll be fine. You'll save yourself a lot of mony and avoid throwing useable toys into the landfill becasue some scaremonger says "oooh dangerous. Not for baby!!!"

Grr Snarl etc.
( DukeEuphoria Comes highly reccomended, Wed 30 Sep 2009, 15:08, closed)

TFT's
I've repaired dozens of LCD screens and they're pretty safe.

That said I have given myself a 400v shock from the invertor, which turned my finger black but I was fine really.

That said, most parts inside are not user serviceable so not much point in taking it apart unless you actually know what you're doing and plan to solder replacement components into the circuit boards.
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Wed 30 Sep 2009, 16:54, closed)