Two month ago my old monitor, a Samsung SyncMaster 930BF broke. It is quite old, but I really got used to work with two monitors. At first it took some time before the monitor displayed something after turning it on, or it switched between modes and the green power LED blinked rapidly. After some more days the display stayed black. Id did some research on the internet and found an article describing my problem. If it was true, I may be able to fix that. Today I decided to loosen the screws of the old monitor an look for a bloated capacitor¹⁾.

As the headline assumes, I've been successful! But I've docuemented some of my actions using photos and those I won't keep back.

Looking a the first picture, you'll see the bloated capacitor, after locating the pins on the back, I had to remove it. I've used my soldering iron a used a temperatur around 400°C. The solder on factory soldered circuits can be really tough. To “absorb” the solder I am using a vaccuum pump.

Luckily I had some replacement for the the old capacitor. They used a 1000µF-16v capacitor and so I started to re-solder the replacement. In the final step I cut the legs of the newly installed capacitor and reassembled the monitor, to test it.

I had to re-open it three times, before I got some results, because I've forgotten to reconnect all cables! So check twice, if everything is properly connected and in place.

The last picture shows the result of my work! The display is working again and turned on without any delay!

Here is a warning to everyone who wants to try this, too. You are working with “high voltages”²⁾. Capacitors can hold voltages over a long duration!

UPDATE #1: You should discharge the capacitor before measure it, otherwise it could harm your multimeter and/or your health! You can read the following article about capacitors, to be sure you won't do anything wrong: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/captest.htm

Also there is now guarantee, that this is working for your broken monitor. It also voids the warranty of your device! I only tried to fix it my self, because the monitor is far beyond any warranty claim!

You have been warned, I am not responsible for your mistakes!