Friday, January 29, 2010

CTL 170Lx repair



SYMPTOM: 
NO PICTURE,
FLASHING LED (AMBER & GREEN),
FRUSTRATED USER,
BROKEN LCD DUE TO FRUSTRATED USER


PROBLEM:
I spent hours and hours troubleshooting the electronics on about 6 of these monitors which were brought in for repair. I just couldn't figure out what the heck was wrong with them. And I eventually just attributed it to UNKNOWN and NOT WORTH MESSING W/ ANY LONGER, two commonly used "solutions" here lately. Yes, I've been struck with the equivalent of writers block. The last 3-4 weeks it seems that I can barely get anything done. At first I just said to myself, "NO MATTER HOW GOOD YOU THINK YOU ARE, YOU"LL NEVER BE ABLE TO FIX EVERYTHING." And that led to "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU CAN"T FIX ANYTHING." But today I'm turning it all around. I rediscovered a good source of information that I once heavily relied on:

www.GOOGLE.com

After revisiting these again, and asking my friend GOOGLE, I was able to come up the following solution....


SOLUTION: 
 Monitor Reset Guide
ArticleIf you have a monitor that is blinking Amber and Green that means the monitor needs to be reset. This usually happens when the monitor goes into a failsafe mode to prevent damage when there is a power spike or power drop from its power source.

Only for the 190/170lx and 201LX. For the 171Lx, 191lx, 195uw and 220uw, see instructions at bottom of page.

To reset the 170/190lx monitor first unplug the power from the back of the monitor.

Then you will want to hold down the middle button and the button to the left of the
Middle: O-X-X-O-O

While holding those buttons down plug the power back into the monitor.

The light will flash green to amber and after the third flash you let go of the buttons
Green amber, green amber, green amber, let go.

The light should then stay on and be steady (either solid amber or solid green). The display will come back if it is connected to a computer. The computer may need to be reset to re-sync with the display.

You may need to try this a few times before the reset will work.

You also may need to unplug the VGA/DVI cord from the back of the monitor, some monitors can only be reset when they are not attached to a computer.

Also, rarely, some monitors need you to hold down the reset buttons until the Energy Star symbol appears and the light stays solid.

171Lx / 191Lx 195uw 220uw Procedure:

The reset procedure is the same as the 170lx/190lx except you press down different buttons to perform the reset.

You need to press and hold the buttons on either side of the center power button: O-X-O-X-O

The rest of the reset procedure is the same.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous14/2/10 05:24

    I don't even know how to begin to thank you! It reset properly on the first try, without me having to unplug the DVI cable.

    I recieved the 170lx as a hammy down, and had worked fine until a pleasant little resolution flicker started occuring with a glitched video card. These are moody little monitors. I got a new fancy huge monitor for the holidays and had set up the ctl as secondary until it decided to be moody again the other day. I got a new graphics card yesterday thinking it would magically solve the issue. Well, now I'm happy with my fancy new graphics card...and an operational second monitor!

    Google is just magical isn't it? This was the 3rd entry on the first page, so I didn't even have to google for hours =) I thank you profusely sir, you have made my day.

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  2. You are very welcome.

    At least now I know I'm not doing all this for nothing! :-)

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  3. Anonymous10/3/10 06:24

    I have applied this reset procedure successfully on a 170Lx. Now I have a 191Lx that is being VERY stubborn. I have tried to reset it several times to no avail. I am holding down the two buttons on either side of the power button and applying power. I wait for the LED ... Blue-Amber, Blue-Amber, Blue-Amber, then release. It never resets. Is there a secret that I am missing??

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  4. Anonymous21/4/10 16:19

    I have the same problem with the 191Lx. I fixed a number of them, including different models. However this monitor that blinks blue-Amber is, as you said, VERY stubborn!

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  5. Sometimes you will need to have a video source hooked up to it. Other times it helps to kick it, slap it, punch it, cuss at it, or spit on it.

    It wouldn't surprise me if you had a faulty capacitor inside that was giving you grief either.

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