Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

10

Time Required

                          30 minutes

Sections

1

  • Repairing LCD monitor Dell 17"
  • 10 steps

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Introduction

  1. remove plinth from monitor by pressing the button on the back of the screen

  2. Remove four black screws that attach back bezel to inside of monitor

  3. Flip the monitor over so the screen is facing you and start prying up the front bezel moving the flat bladed screwdriver along as you pop open the top bezel.

4 once the bezel is loose you can leave the front bezel in place and remove the back cover leaving the front bezel in situ.

  1. You will see two shiny shields fixed with two screws, remove the screws and you can pop/slide the shields off.

  2. Once they are removed, you will see one connecting to the screen which has two levers either side, press those in and wiggle the ribbon cable out.

  3. on the other side you’ll see a smaller ribbon cable which simply pulls out. You’ll also see the high tension plugs which were under one of the RF shields they are usually pink and blue, make a note of which goes into where and unplug

  4. You’re now ready to remove the screws around the edge of the LCD screen and it should come off as one unit.

  5. You’ll see two boards with one of them which has a black non shorting cover held on by one screw, remove the cover, then proceed to remove the other three screws.

  6. Locate where the power is usually plugged in and you’ll see two screws either side of the power socket remove those.

  7. You should see that the power supply board is now loose and can be wiggled free making sure you don’t damage the berg strip connector which attaches it to the other board. it usually comes out at a slight angle quite easily.

  8. Once out flip it over and examine the tops of the brown capacitors you’ll see that two have vented, and gone pyramid shaped, they’ve blown…. In my experience and I’ve repaired hundreds of these monitors it is only ever these two that have gone, but if you find others that have vented replace those as well, making sure you observe polarity and type correctly with the replacement capacitors.

What you need

Step 1

              Repairing LCD monitor Dell 17"
    1. remove plinth from monitor by pressing the button on the back of the screen

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Step 2

              Remove screen surround
  • Best to do this with the screen facing down so you don’t rip out the ribbon cable that attaches to the buttons on the front of the screen, start in the middle of the bezel to get purchase then slip a screwdriver underneath to gently prize up the bezel working along until its released, the edges are stubborn but do release with patience

Best to do this with the screen facing down so you don’t rip out the ribbon cable that attaches to the buttons on the front of the screen, start in the middle of the bezel to get purchase then slip a screwdriver underneath to gently prize up the bezel working along until its released, the edges are stubborn but do release with patience

Step 3

              remove back of monitor
  • remove back of monitor and remove the shiny steel RF shields one screw each then then simply slide off

remove back of monitor and remove the shiny steel RF shields one screw each then then simply slide off

Step 4

              Remove both ribbon cables
  • The small ribbon cable is easy to remove gently pull (see picture), the larger ribbon cable can be stubborn I tend to use two screwdrivers one to push in the release catch and the other flat bladed one to gently wiggle it out, same procedure for the other side, if you get image corruption after the repair this is the cable that is the culprit

The small ribbon cable is easy to remove gently pull (see picture), the larger ribbon cable can be stubborn I tend to use two screwdrivers one to push in the release catch and the other flat bladed one to gently wiggle it out, same procedure for the other side, if you get image corruption after the repair this is the cable that is the culprit

Step 5

              Remove HT cables
  • There are 4 of them

There are 4 of them

Step 6

              remove back panel off the LCD screen
  • 4 screws one in each corner attaches the electronics cradle to the back of the LCD screen

4 screws one in each corner attaches the electronics cradle to the back of the LCD screen

Step 7

              Remove circuit boards from each other
  • remove the 4 screws one is bigger than the rest then undo the screws that hold the power cable socket in place, once the power socket screws and the top board screws are removed put your thumb over the power socket and pop the board out sideways you don’t need a great deal of force to remove the PSU board just loosen gently

remove the 4 screws one is bigger than the rest then undo the screws that hold the power cable socket in place, once the power socket screws and the top board screws are removed put your thumb over the power socket and pop the board out sideways you don’t need a great deal of force to remove the PSU board just loosen gently

Step 8

              slide the two boards apart
  • take note of the berg strip and make sure you don’t damage the pins when removing flip the board over and you’re ready to remove the capacitors, when re-assembling make sure the berg strip lines up correctly before pushing the boards together

take note of the berg strip and make sure you don’t damage the pins when removing flip the board over and you’re ready to remove the capacitors, when re-assembling make sure the berg strip lines up correctly before pushing the boards together

Step 9

              This is what a successfully repaired monitor should look like
  • After re-inserting the ribbon cables a small one for the buttons at the front of the bezel and the main one that carries the data to the display, once you have reconnected successfully you should get a clean bouncing screen saver moving around the screen, if there are any screen anomalies it is always the thicker data cable that needs reseating

After re-inserting the ribbon cables a small one for the buttons at the front of the bezel and the main one that carries the data to the display, once you have reconnected successfully you should get a clean bouncing screen saver moving around the screen, if there are any screen anomalies it is always the thicker data cable that needs reseating

Step 10

              Put the back cover back on
  • it’s best to test the monitor before you put the back cover on the screen, as invariably the larger of the two ribbon cables has not seated correctly, once you’re happy your screen works put everything back together and you’re good to go

it’s best to test the monitor before you put the back cover on the screen, as invariably the larger of the two ribbon cables has not seated correctly, once you’re happy your screen works put everything back together and you’re good to go

Reassemble in reverse order taking time to re-fit the ribbon connector which can be a bit fiddly but you can test it

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                                                                                      15 other people completed this guide.

Author

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                    Derek Brabrook

Member since: 02/16/2014

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Gary Ogilvie - Jan 6, 2020

Reply

Thanks for this post! I am having an issue with the VGA input on this monitor. The monitor turns on no problem, but doesn’t get a signal from a VGA input. I have confirmed that this is an issue with the monitor and not the cable. Will this resolve the issue?

Derek Brabrook - Jan 6, 2020

Reply

This fix is specifically for the issue where the monitor switches on and has a green light on the front but there is a black display OR it can manifest as the display briefly coming on but then switching off and staying off after about 2 or 3 seconds

if it’s your vga logic board then see Step 7 that logic board is the one to the bottom left of the picture with the ribbon cable attached that is the board that deals with the signal coming from the computer VGA output, if you remove that board and heat an oven up to around 180C and put it in for no longer than 8 minutes with the components face up enough to reflow the solder then remove from the oven (carefully because any sudden movements could dislodge the components as the solder will be liquid)

that may fix the problem, no guarantees mind that’s a last ditch thing to try if all else has failed…

hope that helps :)

let me know how you get on :)

Derek

Gary Ogilvie - Jan 7, 2020

Fantastic really appreciate the reply! Will have a look at what you have said and keep you posted :)

Derek Brabrook - Apr 8, 2020

Reply

I honestly don’t know where the other editors of this guide sprang from, none of them contributed to it, most of them removed things that you’d need like two 470uf capacitors and they’d remove one capacitor, this circuit board always blows both capacitors, or very minor picky changes….

I wrote it as I intended it to be read….

So if you don’t know what you’re talking about don’t edit my guide when I know its 100% correct

Thank you!!!

If you keep doing it, I’ll just delete the whole thing

Charles LaBarbara - Aug 16, 2020

Reply

Hi @draconis - Hope you are safe and well!

I’ve have a Dell 2408WFP, which has worked perfectly until I had to move it to another location.

It’s never been unplugged from power and is on a UPS.

After I plugged it back in, the power button LED lit up, immediately went out, and the power button did nothing from that point.

If I cycle the power connection a few times, I can get the backlight to come on with no power LED, but the power button still does nothing.

If I do this a few more times, the power button LED will come on, stay on, and the screen comes on and displays video.

Once it’s in this state, I can then turn it off/on with the power button normally.

However, if I unplug power again, it’s back to the failed state.

While old, it’s still a great monitor and I would like to try and fix it.

I called a few shops, and they all basically said it’s not worth repairing.

If it’s just replacing a couple of caps on the power supply board, I am fully capable of doing that, and it would be worth it to me.

Thoughts? Thank you!