Monitor is dying, need help with picking replacement 24".

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jimnms

Gawd
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Mar 15, 2003
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My monitor is dying, and I don't think it's going to last much longer. I don't know if the backlight is going out or some other electronics inside, but a few days ago I noticed I was no longer seeing the POST screen when I turned the computer on. Each day it's taking longer for it to come on. Now the computer boots up to the desktop and I still have to wait a little before it comes alive. The power led turns blue to indicate that it's on, but I can tell the backlight isn't on. Today when I turned it on, the power light was blinking and it took a really long time, I don't really know how long because I left the room and it was on when I came back. Once it comes on it's fine. It's not dim or flickering, and the colors look normal.

Knowing it was going out I did start to look around over the weekend, but I hoped I had longer to look. I hate to make a rushed decision on something like this. All previous monitors I have bought as an upgrade and researched for days/weeks to find the right one.

My current monitor is a 22" 1680x1050. I use it for gaming, internet and movies. I'm looking at finding a 24" with 1920x1200, but those are hard to find so I can live with 1920x1080. In my searching I've found two that stand out so far. The Dell U2412M, which is 1920x1200 eIPS panel. It has good reviews, but I found some people say that the anti-glare coating makes the image look dirty. The other one that sticks out to me is the ASUS VS248H-P. It's a TN panel (as is my current one), but reviews rave about the colors and gaming performance.

Like I said, my current monitor is a TN panel. The one before it was a 20" TN panel, and I had no problems with it. When I upgraded to this 22" TN, I do notice color distortion due to the bad vertical viewing angles. However, the dimensions of the ASUS being 24" 16:9 compared to the dimensions of my 22" 16:10 shows it at the same height just wider, so that may not be a problem.

I did a search of this forum and found the lengthy post on the Dell U2412M, but I don't find anything on the ASUS VS248H-P. I'm open to suggestions, but I think I'm going to need to order something tomorrow, if this monitor will even turn on again.
 
I highly recommend the Samsung S24B350H. It's a very high quality TN panel. However, you're going to be going from 22" 16:10 to a 24" 16:9, so surface area won't be much larger than you currently have now. You may want to consider a 27". At that size, 1080p vs. 1440p is a matter of preference. I chose 1080p due to having a mid-range gpu. Pixelization is not a problem for me on this screen.

I also upgraded from a 22" 1050p monitor.
 
The monitor eventually turned on today, but it took a long time, so I have to pull the trigger on something today. I don't want to go to a 27" or larger, especially if it's a TN panel. As I said, when I went from a 20" TN to a 22" TN, the color changes from the vertical viewing are more noticeable. I looked at the sizes of some 24" 16:9 monitors and they are the same height as my 22" 16:10 and a little over 2" of extra width, so a 24" 16:9 TN panel will not be any different than what I'm used to. I also will be mounting it to a monitor arm, and even an LED 27" monitor would be pushing the weight limit of the arm. I think a 24" is going to be the sweet spot for me.

I was leaning toward the Dell, but I've been reading more on it and now I think I'm leaning toward the ASUS. I don't think the anti-glare coating will bother me since my previous monitor had a matte display with an anti-glare coating, and it didn't bother me. I kind of remember what it looked like, so I think I know what people are complaining about. When playing a game or watching movies it's not noticeable, and I barely noticed it on a white screen with text. It was only really noticeable when close and did make the screen look like it had dust on it. My current 22" has a glossy screen, and I like the matte screen better. I have to turn the big light out in my room to watch a movie or play a game that has dark scenes or all I see is my reflection.

What's changing my mind on the Dell's is the LED backlight use pulse width modulation to dim the backlight. PWM is common even to CCFL backlit panels, but seems to be more noticeable on LED backlit panels. I found some user reviews and videos showing the flicker. Either the ASUS doesn't use PWM or it's not noticeable because I haven't found any mention of flickering on it.

I believe my monitor's power supply is to blame for its problem. I found some forum posts and articles on similar problems which all say it's due to bad capacitors in the PSU. A few posted pictures and video on taking them apart and replacing. I'm decent with a soldering iron, so I could probably do it if my local Radio Shack or electronics store has the right capacitors in stock. I still don't want to attempt to do it until I have a backup monitor. I thought about going to Walmart and buying the cheapest ~20" LCD they had and return it if I fix mine or find something better, but all they had in stock was a 19" 1366x768.

I'll just keep looking and reading, and I guess I'll go with the ASUS tonight if I don't see anything else grab my attention. After I get the new monitor I'm still going to attempt surgery on this one. If I fix it, I can run dual monitors or just have it on hand as a spare. If I don't fix it, it's no big deal it was going to end up being recycled anyway.
 
Then I'm going to once again strongly recommend the Samsung S24B350HL (currently on sale for $199.99 at Newegg, was $249.99 yesterday). In my experience, visual quality and color shift are better on Samsung monitors than Asus equivalents. I've used 2 different versions of this monitor so far and in both cases there was no noticeable back light bleed or uniformity issues. I've been very happy with mine.

I'm confident that after you see how good the color shift (or lack thereof) is, you may want to exchange yours for the 27" version, but babysteps :)
 
The Samsung doesn't have a VESA mount so it won't wont work with my monitor arm.
 
jimnms said:
The Samsung doesn't have a VESA mount so it won't wont work with my monitor arm.
Click to expand...

The consider the 500-series version:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001552&Tpk=S23B550V

Only differences between the 350 and 550 series is the inclusion of 2x5W speakers, an audio DAC, a second HDMI port (that is MHL compliant), and VESA mounting holes. Keep in mind that the DAC is horroble (16/24-bit but caps at 48khz and limited to 2 channel), and it WILL give background noise view headphones or the internal speakers if brightness is left below 96%. This is all moot if you bypass the DAC and use your own soundcard/device, of course.

Outstanding monitor, just not sure it's worth an additional $70 for your needs. I had the 27" version (actually, two) before I found out the speaker/DAC issue was common in this series and not just one bad model. So, I saved $90 by turning it back in and taking the 350 version (which arrives Thursday).
 
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