[MacNN Staff]

[This letter was sent to MacNN by a reader and does not necessarily represent the views of MacNN.]

hello all, i'm writing this letter to the mac sites that i visit every day, the ones who seem to care, not just about promoting the macintosh, but also about making sure that mac users get a fair shake when mother apple screws up.

over the last few days, i'd noticed my graphite 17" studio display acting strangely - i would hear a 'pop' sound, very similar to a static discharge, and the display would zoom in and dim at the same time, and then resolve itself. the first few times it happened, i figured 'no big deal' as it's winter here, the air is dry, and it seems i can't even scratch my head without getting a little static pop.

yesterday (sunday, jan 22), the frequency of this popping increased tremendously. so much so that i decided to investigate and see if anyone else had experienced this and what, if anything, could be done to fix the problem.

turns out that apple's display discussion forum is filled with people suffering this very same problem. (i should say, the forums are filled when apple isn't busy deleting posts.) the general run of the complaints are that these 17" studio displays start this popping and then crap out entirely, around 2 to 6 months after their 1-year warranty has expired. no acknowledgement of the problem by apple, thus far. no solution offered from apple technical support as yet. typical cost of out-of-warranty repair, for those that have gone that route, is around $300 USD.

this is actually my second attempt to write this letter - halfway through the first draft, my 15 month-old 17" studio display let out a half-dozen pops and the screen went dark, and stayed that way. i shut down and hooked up the 17" display that i bought with my quadra 840av (now an 8100). that display lasted me six years until i bought my new system. after over a year in a box in the basement, it is still performing perfectly.

i paid $750 CDN for the studio display - is it so unreasonable to expect this monitor, which cost so much more than comparable products from other companies, to compensate for the extra expense with more than just a good-looking casing? i guess i expected something resembling durability. in ten years as a mac user, i've never bought an extended apple warranty. never needed one. until now.

it seems obvious there's a widespread, unacknowledged problem here - and with our warranties expired, it seems there's not a lot we can do in terms of leveraging a solution from apple. one fellow in the uk managed, after a few weeks, to get a replacement - useless to him as the new series come with that ADC connector. now THAT'S service -

i'm not really sure what you folks can do to help - i figured that i'd put the information in your hands and see if you feel it's worth reporting. i guess i'm cynical enough to believe that apple might respond if they feel it's in their own best interest - avoiding bad publicity - rather than trying to appeal to their better nature, in an effort to get them to do the right thing.

best regards

neilKennedy
in canada

I too had the same experience with my B&W 17" Studio Display. The monitor would randomly "pop" and seemingly degauss. Needless to say, it was extremely annoying. It would not happen too often initially, but got to the point of being an hourly ritual. I had a Dell monitor next to my Apple monitor on my desk and initially (and incorrectly) thought it was interference between the two. After many rearrangements of my desk, I concluded that the interference was not the problem.

I also made the mistake of calling the Apple help number and as is always, their universal answer was to reinstall the system software! After that fiasco, I finally gave up on pursuing it with Apple because the monitor was out of warranty (doesn't it seem like that is always the case!) and thought it was a faulty power supply. Because I needed a monitor ASAP, I just broke down and bought a ViewSonic monitor. If anybody does have an easy fix for this I would be interested. I really liked that monitor but it is ridiculous to assume that we will HAVE to purchase an extended warranty to cover products that should last for at least 5 years if not more!

Oddly enough, I've seen something similar on my blue & white apple studio 17". Thing is it is almost 3 yrs old now and it had the odd popping noises, flickers, fade outs, and dims occurred every so often, and then for a short while they happened just about all the time... And now they've suddenly disappeared.

Hmm... I've also been putting my display to sleep a lot more.

Quite honestly I don't have a clue what's going on. I'm just wondering when I'm going to have to buy a new one.

We had the same problem with some old Sony Multiscan HG monitors!
They are very old but the same thing happened, they start to pop, sometimes with the screen going dim and sometimes without the dimeffect.

so i think this is either a sony related thing or it's a common bad built hardware thing...


Petter

This is the exact same behavior my iMac DV SE (Fall 99) had a couple of months ago. It needed the analog video board replaced (I think). I don't think the problem is limited to the external displays...

I too had that problem with my 17" Studio Display" but the last "pop" ended its life. Fortunately it was still under warranty and Apple repaired it. It works perfectly now. On the other hand my second display has been working flawlessly for several years without a "pop".

[dav]

i've noticed the "popping" in my B/W 17" apple monitor as well. it's erratic, at most 6 times over the past year and a half, but it's distressing to know that the condition could get more frequent and worse (monitor failure). i never thought much of it before (kind of like a degauss/reset) but now i'm concerned.

[vatin]

I also had the same problem a year ago. Luckily, the monitor was only 6 months old so I had a warranty of it. Now it appears it is working fine. When the problem occurred I blamed some thunder storms sometimes. But other times I think it was a heat problem because one day someone used my computer with all the monitor vents covered with a towel... and from that day the popping seemed to increase.

MacNN,
Recently having had a problem with my 17 inch B&W studio display, I thought
I'd post a message on the Apple Support Discussion at Apple.com. However after
seeing that at least 1/3 - 1/2
of the posts on the board were about the very same problem with none of them
being responded to by apple, I became alittle peeved (after all, one can expect to
encounter a problem every now and again from complicated equipment, but a
widespread problem not being acknowledged gets me hot under the collar). Any
way I posted the following onto the 17 inch studio display discussion. After 3 days
it was pulled off the board----Vanished without a trace. The posts all around it are
still there. It was a little critical (I've included a copy for you) But so are many of
the others on this site . I know my message was received by Apple and it would be
good if more people with the same problem were a little more vocal about it. Even
Ford and Sysco recall products occasionally, even if it means losing face and/or a
big chunk of change

Chad

Post Message in the following discussion:
���17 studio scam
by: Chad Battles
I have owned an Apple studio display for almost two Years and the monitor will put itself to sleep(?) all the time now. It seems that it is some sort of heat problem even though the monitor is in a well ventilated area. After a short (approx. 1 Hour) amount of time the light on it goes Red (orange?) and it ceases to display anything! My monitor is the blue & white model. A friend of mine has a 17 inch grey monitor that does the same thing and now is unusable. I am now out of my warranty period and so is my friend. It sure seems like a scam to buy hardware reputed to be the best in the world and have it go on the fritz just after your warranty expires!!! Apple, you need to address this problem promptly!

Followup post
Chad here...I just got off the phone with a customer relations rep at apple who is telling me that he has never heard of this problem and that they have many of these displays where he is located and none of them have ever displayed the overheating/power blinking problem. Hmm, thats funny, I only know two people with 17 inch studio displays and both of them are on the "blink". Must be nice to have a tech department to wisk away malfuncioning equipment and replace it without even having to worry about your $500 monitor suddenly costing an extra $150. Quality and customer service has definately fallen since the days of my performa 6400. Not sure that Apple will be my choice of computer next time. At least software problems (ala Microsoft) do usually not cost you hard cash. Between myself and my friend Randall we have stock in apple and are responsible for the sale of 12 iMac DV's(to one of our employers) , 1 powerbook wallstreet (which required a new LCD after about a year and had two dead keys), A powermac G4, Powermac G3, A 520lc, and a performa 6400, plus many, many, OS upgrades. By simply multiplying even half of these sales by half of the people on this forum with the same problem, that $150 deflection Board would not seem like such a bad investment for apple to make to keep people happy.

and in answer to another post
(((I have a B&W G3/400 REv A I think with the U2W SCSI card....

Yesterday out of the blue the monitor turned itself off, the blank display then flickered for about a minute and then it turned itself on for another minute before this repeated itself. I turned the machine and monitor off for a few minutes and then the display worked properly for about 90 minutes. Then the process repeated itself.

This whole problem is compltely repeatable. I think it is a power supply problem in the monitor.

Can anyone perhaps confirm this suspicion and is it possible to replace the PSU myslef. I am quite capable of doing this, if I can find out how to take the case apart. )))�
[Subscribe] [Add to favorites]

I Wrote�
� Jay,
Apple will not respond to this message other than to say "contact apple support". I did exactly that and was told because my warranty is over I have to shell out $15 for a repair. In turn I told them that this is happening a to a lot of people (see the 17 inch studio scam thread on this forum). As far as getting into your display, which you must realize is extremely hazardous to your health, Apple occasionally takes the lid off of the cookie jar of tech manuals (watch MacNN), making them available for download (complete with disassembly instructions). However, unless you are an authorized service tech for apple, I really doubt you will be able to obtain the parts you require. Even if you have a degree in electronics (which I do) you can probably forget it. I think we are screwed unless your warranty is still in effect. It does seem as though this problem usually does not occur whene the monitor is new, but many months later. �

[bobsie]

[B]We had the same problem with some old Sony Multiscan HG monitors!
...
so i think this is either a sony related thing or it's a common bad built hardware thing...

Don't be too quick to blame Sony. I get this too with my blue/white that has the Mitsubishi screen. However, it hasn't popped, but does the zooming and dimming jig once in a while.

[Jakefowler]

This has been happening to my monitor, a B&W 17" studio display, as well. It does not occur very often, but I have wondered what causes it. I am greatly disturbed to find that it may be a hardware problem. Older Apple hardware has had a reputation for lasting forever.

I guess I know now what I have to look forward to. Our only hope is that Apple will deal with this issue in an appropriate manner.

I don't have an Apple studio display. I have not owned an Apple display except once, a 16" Apple display I bought with my Duo Dock and Duo 230 about 8 years ago. Nevertheless, I have seen similar problems with other monitors.
<p>
I believe the popping sound is an electricty arc that momentarilly happens. I have noticed that my 2 Mitsubishi/DEC 21" monitors start to do this once in a while when they get dusty. The dust allowing the electrity to arc between two close points, providing a conductance path. When this happens once, I turn the monitor off and take out my can of air (CostCo sells 3 cans for less than $10 so don't get ripped of by CompUSA or BestBuy and buy one small can for $7) and try my bes to get a good clean-off set of burts of air into the monitor to try and clean all the dust out of it. It usually stops popping for a while (weeks or months) when I do this.
<p> I hope this helps some of you. Clean your monitors out and get all the dust out!
<p>
Chad

[Iowa Boy]

I am having the same problem with a Viewsonic monitor. Could this be something to do with the graphics card also? When my monitor pops, it just goes into energy saving mode. I've had it also lose one of the colors, which then gives the screen a green tinge.

[Ybot]

I would just like to say that I am experiencing the same problem on my graphite 17" display which I bought in May '00. This isn't the kind of quality I would expect from an $800 monitor. But so far, the "popping" isn't very frequent, I just hope it doesn't die completely.

-Ybot

[BLKessler]

Add me to the list of people who have had this problem on monitors other than Apple's.

(1) I had a StarMax 3000 with a ViewSonic 17" monitor for about a year and a half before the problem started. Well, it was out of warranty, so I put it down to age and cheap parts, and then used the monitor until it died once and for all. (Then I bought a WallStreet PB that needs the cover open to function, so I didn't need a monitor anymore....)

(2) Two months ago, my wife's Umax C600 with a Princeton Graphics 17" monitor had the same thing start to happen, after over two years without a problem. This one has a three-year warranty, and Princeton Graphics replaced it without a problem.

I mention these experiences because we Mac folks have a tendency to blame Apple for everything, the same way they get credit for everything. The problem with the monitors isn't unique to Apple, though the customer service experience leaves something to be desired.

One last (random) thought: when a person goes out and buys a product, it comes with a warranty. If you keep the product, you've accepted the terms on the warranty, including what's covered and for how long. If you wanted a longer warranty, you should have purchased a different product (with a longer warranty) or some kind of an extended plan on the one you bought, either from the manufacturer or from the reseller. Just my $0.02 worth; please don't flame me for it.

------------------
Brett Kessler
MCSE, MCP+I

ditto.

I have two beige ColorSync monitors and one AppleVision 1710AV. All three have died this way. Here in Guatemala the Apple dealer had two of them for more than a year and then returned them saying he couldn't fix them....Now another Apple dealer is taking a shot at the 1710 for only $600...Be happy you're up North!!!

I've been thinking about a new monitor and I mentioned to my wife I can
almost guarantee it will NOT be an Apple monitor. Why...several years past
I had purchased an Apple AV1710 17" audio visual monitor. BIG BUCKS!, around $1,100.00. I had the monitor for less than a year when it began to act up...it would make a noise and then go black. I would reboot and everything was ok. I either called or sent an e-mail to Apple Tech Support asking about this and was assured it was not the monitor. Initially this problem happened very infrequently, however, after 18 months it happened more frequently. I forget exactly when but eventually I noticed other owners of this monitor were having problems as well. By then my monitor was down more than it was up. At two years it died. Eventually Apple confirmed a problem with this monitor and if within warranty you needed to contact Apple on what to do. I was out of luck according to Apple. I'm sure Apple knew of this problem very early on, they could have notified me right away and had me return for repairs...but they didn't.
I never made a big issue of this with Apple, I probably should have but I had some other life issues I was more concerned with. I have still purchased Apple products since then...G3 Powerbook, etc., but I most likely will NEVER buy an Apple monitor again. This looks like dejavu(sp?).

I have this problem to, my "new" 17" Apple display (a year old) pops as described above about one time every month. I really hope the problem woun�t escalate, I�d hate to have to pay for the repairs as I�m just a poor student. :-P

/Daniel Wijk

[ggarrison]

I wanted to toss in my 2 cents about this as I have had substancial problems with my Apple 17" Display. The first time was in March of 2000. It began popping and seemingly going to sleep, then lines would flash across the screen in the center, top to bottom. Then, it would come on again as if you just woke it up. It did this a couple of times, becoming more frequent to the point where it wouldn't work any longer. Apple (still under warranty) had me take it to a local repair person who promptly kept it for over 2 weeks and never fully fixed the problem. I called Apple again and they had me send it to them. They repaired it and sent it back. Total down time almost 25 days. All was fine until November of 2000 when it happened again. By now, the unit was out of warranty. I complained long and hard to Apple who allowed me to purchase the extended warranty and have this covered. They again repaired it and sent it back to me. Total down time 5 days. Now, January 2001 and it did the SAME thing and had a total failure this time. I told Apple I wanted a new unit and they said they would LOVE to help me but couldn't because the unit was not being made any longer and the new monitor that replaced this model wouldn't hook up to my G3 due to a new cable configuration. Again, they are fixing this and to date I've had a total down time of 5 days.

I don't know what the problem is, but Apple is not doing all it can to resolve the issue. I told them they needed to send me a box of replacement parts and I'll fix it myself from now on since they don't seem to have a long term fix for this problem.

Anyway, I agree that something needs to be done about this. I am going to enact the Florida Lemon Law against Apple the next time it fails and get a new monitor out of this. I hope that others will look into their local states laws and see if they can help. If a class action suit has to be created to fix this problem, I would be available to help as I've documented all of my problems with this one issue. As I told Apple, once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a trend and four times is unacceptable. They should know better.

Good luck to everyone having this problem and don't let them take advantage of us!

------------------
Gary G. Garrison
The Stockroom, Inc.

[Bartman]

Hi,

I've bought my 17" studio display on May 99, along with my B&W G3. I've noticed this problem too. It occurred six or seven times since I got it. It makes me worry to know that this may cause the display to fail,

Thanks Apple.

Think different.

Bartman

------------------
Once you put your hand in the flame you can never be the same, there's a certain satisfaction in a
little bit of pain.

I have three Apple monitors. Two Blue studio and one beige, I have never experienced this problem. All of the monitors are over 2 years old. I do clean the monitors and the computer regularly with compressed air. I agree with the earlier post. This may be a maintenance issue not a quality issue

Just a thought

This may be related to putting the monitor to sleep.

My wife uses the 17" display on a souped-up Q700. Because the Quadra doesn't support the Energy Saver control panel, I installed a third-party monitor dimmer. I noticed the popping behavior after a couple of months, and found that disabling the dimmer CP cured it.

Some displays (including my B&W 17" studio display) /correctly/ go 'pop' and the the screen will dim and then float back into view as they automatically degauss (occasionally). They do this when they have been on for a long period of time. I am not sure of the exact length. Some of the symptoms described here are faults (i.e. doing it every hour). My display does it probably once a month. If I stay up all night coding it is *extremely* likely to do it. Someone has posted that their display has reduced the frequency of this occurring by putting it to sleep more. This is correct behaviour as the monitor will only auto degauss after an extended period of use.

K

(ex apple uk employee and apple service engineer)

as a general rule, i agree with brett kessler's point
regarding warranty - you know what you're getting when
you buy the product. if it's not what you want, then don't
buy. to illustrate the precise nature of my objections in
this case, i'll try to parallel the issue with buying a car.

let's say you decide you can afford a mid-size sedan,
and a fairly nice one at that, call it 30000 dollars.
keeping in mind that nobody expects a car to last forever,
let's say this particular car runs the length of its warranty
with a perfect performance, and then suddenly dies
one day, just outside the warranty's limit - and you
discover that the probable cost of repairing it will
approximate half the car's original value (15000 dollars,
the price of a new, cheaper car) with no guarantees that
the problem won't recur. then compound this with the
fact that the problem seems to be affecting a disproportionate
number of model units with no acknowledgement of such by the
manufacturer and no sign of the manufacturer coming forward
to admit a design flaw which would transcend the legal limits
of the stated warranty, particularly in light of competitor's
comparable models, or even earlier versions of the same model
not suffering from this same flaw.

to make a short story long: i've subbed-in a 17" apple branded
monitor that's almost 8 years old, working like new. I've got another
old creaker from a IIci that still works great. My television is
8 years old, and working perfectly. apple sold me a monitor
for a premium price, implying (to me) a premium product, and it's
dead in less than 18 months. they've done the same to a large
number of other people, it seems. for a company that
positions itself as the superior choice in both hardware and
software to withhold response on this issue (i assume to
avoid the expense of fixing all those monitors) is troublesome.

neilK

[spicyjeff]

Yes I too have had this problem with my B&W 17" monitor, it happens sporatically ever few months maybe once.

This is a static discharge in the hardware of the monitor which affects the coil and tube. I believe it is related to the amount of dust that can collect in the monitor iteself...the B&W Apple moniots are especially suspect to this becaise of the large diameter and lage quantity of air vents on the top which allow for alot of dust to collect.

I don't clean my monitor much but every now and then I will move it making the dust unsettle off components or blow air through the vents if I happen to think of it...
Something I think should be considered by others.

[PCTek]

I *had* this problem with a CTX monitor I use on my Windows box. It happened twice, both during a game of Quake III: Arena. The monitor seemingly degaussed, but then returned to normal.

My theory? Static buildup. It hadn't rained for almost a month. There's a sump pump in a closet behind my monitor. When the snow started coming, the popping went away.

Clean your monitors! try a humidifier. Get some moisture in the air around the monitor. I'm not suggesting you dump a bucket of water on it, but take some compressed air, shoot it through the ventilation holes. I did this to the Power Supply fans in my Windows box and I was shocked at how much dust came out. I didn't know that much dust existed!

Clean your monitors. Compressed Air. Make sure it isn't a dry, static environment that's causing the popping. I don't think it's a defect in Apple's products, because, from reading this thread, it's affected dozens of other monitors.

Look around your computer area. Is it susceptible to static? Do you have carpet floors? do you wear socks around your computer area?

I have had the same problem. It does the pop and fade and resets. It scared me at first but it continued to work. I bought it in Feb 00. It does it roughly once per month. My local Apple Care guy has not had any come in for that problem and no one else I know has had it either but from the looks of the responses in this column it is widerspread than I thought.

[tibbetts]

I had an old 1710AV that finally died from the "pop of death." I bought a new graphite 17" Studio Display last year to replace the 1710AV, and now *it* has started "popping" about one a month. I'm assuming that if Apple monitors have had this problem for all these years, chances are they either can't fix it, or choose not to. It appears Apple monitor owners can only hope that they are still under warrantee when the "final pop" comes...

[Jsnuff1]

whatever the problems with these displays are i hope apple has fixed them with the new adc studio diplays, i have the 17in one and no prob yet.

I thought I was alone on this one. I bought a first generation B/W 17" studio display alongside my B/w G3/350. Almost 2 years ago now.

After 3 months, i noticed the zooming/popping/dimming problem... it was very sporadic, and weird. I never thought much of it. One day, the monitor actually did a loude pop and shut down forever. Dead. It was under Apple Warranty, and I demanded a replacement (given that the loud pop was scary enough, and I believed if I wasn't home to immediatley unplug, something would have caught fire). Apple claimed they had no more B/W monitors, only graphite in production.
I settled for a repair under warranty.

Well, the repaired monitor worked fine for another 3 months. After that period, the exa ct same symptoms appear sporadically. once a week or so: zooming/popping/dimming. I am pretty sure it will cease to function any moment now. An I am stuck with this monitor. Grrrr.

Whatever happened to good old Apple hardware? I swear my 512k still powers on, and is fully functional. 15 years. 10 of which, it spend in a closet! Go figure.

I purchased a new 17" Studio Monitor in late fall 2000 as Apple had put them on sale for $299, a steal. Worked splendidly for about 2 months, did exactly what all of you are saying, pop, shrink, and die.Completely. Called Apple, they over nighted a box, picked it up the next day, and it was returned less than 5 working days later, actually seeming better than new, in that it starts up, degausses, and then provides stellar color.And no more pops. This monitor goes to my Pismobile, so, compared to the LCD, what a picture!!!

[pathogen]

You need to extend the warranty while its working, every time it comes up until Apple "vintages" its support for the model.

I figure if I buy a car, I have to pay insurance too... AppleCare is insurance for Macs and has to be factored in to the cost of purchase. And in my estimation, despite lots of problems, AppleCare is still a million times better than Gateway and Dell support.

My Beige ColorSync 17", bought in 98, died in the spring of 99 during the last week of its warranty. When it was fixed under warranty that week I was told impartially by a friend, who works as an Apple Service technician, that alot of the videoboards in monitors die because of power irregularities from surge protectors and household outlets, because many are just not up to being good for computers. My house has wiring thats 50 years old. It sounds plausible that it could have been the cause, and that it could happen again. So I extended my warranty... Sure enough, under a year later, I had to get the monitor replaced TWO more times. Under warranty. It was a hassle, but the warranty protection paid for itself.

Since then, I moved the monitor to a great surge protector on another wall outlet.... its been 2 years now without a problem... *knocks on wood*


[This message has been edited by pathogen (edited 01-22-2001).]

I too had the same problem. My B&W monitor died three months after the warranty expired. I wrote a letter on the apple discussion groups and the support board and both my posts were deleted in 2 days. I broke down and bought a viewsonic a few days later. Then 6 months later, my B&W G3 350 died completely...needed a new logic board..so within 1.6 years I basically flushed $3000 down the drain...Apple service just plain sucks and they are completely hopeless. Unfortunately I rely on macs for my job and I hate Wintel machines...so Im stuck. I wonder if this issue warrants a class action lawsuit.

KID

Bought a 17" Graphite last December ... never popped once during its lifespan of ... 8 months. The monitor simply went out of focus. At first I thought it was my eyes - but after closer inspection, I realized that it was actually the monitor itself ...

Took it in for repair, waited 2 bloody months for a new one.

The replacement (a new 17" Graphite) "popped" three times in a space of a week ... and then stopped. Works perfectly now. (knock on wood)

Wow, I am surprised to find out that there are so many others who have had this problem.

I have experienced all of the popping symptoms described above with a 2 year old 17" B&W display. It would do it once a month, and then for a while it would do it very erratically upon restarting. This is what worried me the most, as it seemed like it was totally about to die. Luckily these more severe symptoms have disappeared, and it is back to its regular popping schedule. I am grateful that it is still alive -- but if this is a maintanance issue as suggested by some, I would hope that Apple would note this so that we could take steps to prevent any further damage to these monitors.

Same poroblem with a 1710. Pops about once a day, sometimes more. Causes my second monitor (NEC) to lose sync and the whole think looks and sounds scary. Can someone get electrocuted from this?

I hear a color monitor has 24-thousand volts in it!!!!

Del

I had the same problem with a B+W 17" monitor.
Mine started when it was 18 months old, it didn�t die completely but now has a permanent wave in the picture.
I bought the 21" moniotr I knew I should have bought in the first place (formac not apple).
The 17" is now connected to my PC so it doesn�t get enough use for me to know if it still pops.

[Lust X]

Well, I'm not gonna sit here and bore everyone with my story. There's really nothin to it. Fact is, mine does the same thing. and until now, I just thought I was special. I hope that Apple addresses this issue and get's it resolved soon. Bein an Apple Sales person, I'd hate to half to tell people to look at the Compaq's and HP's as an alternative.

-Dan

[Brazuca]

I'm on the boat with all of you...I wonder if anyone at Apple will take notice...

Yup, I'm in the middle of trying to get mine fixed right now. It died on the very last day of warranty. Service techs are telling me that if Apple won't pay the parts and labour will be $420 bucks...the display was $799 canadian brand new. The problem began about 3 months before gettting really bad and killing the monitor outright.

Damn defective deflector board!

[Jaharmi]

I've seen similar problems to this on a 21-inch Apple ColorSync 850av (the beige one with speakers, very cool to this day) and a 21-inch graphite Studio Display (about a year old).

The ColorSync 850av has gotten bad enough that its output gets kind-of squiggly in one or more horizontal lines across the display. My local service center estimate that it was the analog display board, and that it would require $450 to fix (I think).

The graphite display hasn't done this more than twice, but like others, I'm a bit worried now. Luckily, it's under 3-year AppleCare along with the G4 connected to it.

------------------
Jeremy J. Reichman, aka "Jaharmi"

[TheAdmiral]

I've had my 17" Graphite Studio display for about 6-8 months now and haven't noticed any popping or other problems with it. To date, it is the clearest and sharpest monitor (non LCD) that I've ever owned. HOWEVER, I lost my Apple 1710AV monitor a couple months ago to this "popping/degaussing" problem... I switched the machine to an OLD Apple 16" display and it works fine at a hearty 9 years of age!

If my graphite goes the way of the dinosaur after the warranty is up, I'm never buying an Apple trinitron again... I'll go for the 15" flat screen (which has just as much image size as a 17" trinitron).

------------------
-The Admiral

I just replaced my B&W 17" Monitor (purchased 2/25/98) last week. It displayed all of the tell-tale pop-dim-zoom symptoms, which rapidly became worse and worse (after my warranty had expired) until it wouldn't even turn on anymore. I wrote a letter of complaint to Apple, telling them to offer better standard warranties and bought a Samsung monitor as a replacement (it has a 3 year warranty). That's about all I can do, and just hope that Apple hears these complaints and improves the design of their monitors.

I definitely will think twice about buying another CRT from Apple. I think I will buy a can of compressed air to see if I can "revive" my dead monitor, but I think the problems are due to more than just dust. Too many folks are having the same problem to dismiss it due to poor office hygiene!

Craig

I've also started having 'popping noises' from my 17" studio display, but it only started after I upgraded from system 8.6 to 9 then 9.1 last week.

So I tried reinstalling the Apple Displays software 1.7.1 the monitor came with only to find it installs the older 'monitors and sound' control panel which doesn't work with 9.1.

I think it must be software related since I haven't had any problems with the display until 9.1.

I'm very interested in the possible dust connection...seems likely that this activity is a normal degaussing or reset mechanism that goes awry when there is excessive dust in the monitor case.

So having said that...

1) Those of you who posted about monitor deaths, could you please tell us the amount of dust on top of the computer at the time of death (or the amount of dust inside the monitor case if you happen to know that) and how often you cleaned the monitor.

2) Those of you who clean your monitor interior...what is the best way to do so? and are there any issues to watch out for or be aware of?

If this proves to be an issue that can be solved by cleaning the interior of the monitor case...maybe we can ask Apple to include this information with future monitors and computers.

My monitor just started making the popping sound again just now after I re-awoke it from sleep. Almost sounds like a short circuit from the left side of the monitor.

Sounds a lot like aging or heat-stressed solder joints where the flyback transformer (the thing that generates the high voltage for the CRT) is attached. I'm by no means an EEng or even especially electronically clueful, but I know from having inquired in the past that this is a (not uncommon) problem with CRTs in general. It affected the 12" RGB monitor for my Apple IIgs after about five years, and I repaired it by reflowing the solder joints myself after getting some instruction from people on Usenet. I had to repeat the repair after about another five (and it's probably due again now - the display is 13-14 years old, after all .

I really, really don't recommend trying this repair yourself. If you do, make sure you read several guides on the net to working inside a CRT, leave the thing off and unplugged for a couple of weeks, and make sure any stray charge is removed before you even think about beginning. There's more than enough in a large CRT - even after a few days unplugged - to throw you clear across the room, and these things aren't designed to be serviceable by you (or these days, by anyone else). Older ones are probably a bit better that way.

FYI
I have also had this popping problem with my Apple Studio Display and it appears to have gone away. I will now take a bit more care to poer down the monitor in a hope that I can keep this monitor for more than the year I have had it so far.
I am more worried at the appraoch that Apple is taking to this issue. This will not help them sell more macs. To date I have been happy and have a house of 5 macs, only three currently running.
I wonder if that will change as I hear great stories of the PC makers making house calls to fix problems that they have with hardware!!

Bye

As a computer support person I have seen this problem on many different brands of CRTs. I have personally had it happen to my Viewsonic after 5 months of owning it and got it replaced under warranty. I have a friend who is a PC user and his monitor that came with his Gateway did the same thing after 2 years.

All those screaming about Apple fixing their mistakes should just calm down and except the facts that things do not always last as long as you would like them to. Who knows why some don't last as long as another one just like it?! Maybe the guy making 2 dollars a day putting those things together had a bad day the day yours was put together. (he should be the one complaining)

I work at place supporting over 2 thousand Mac users and this is a minimal problem compared to things like people buying RAM that makes the cpu flake out. I can count on 2 fingers the amount of times I have had a popping problem with the b/w 17" crts and the original graphite 17" this last year.