[pricey]

Wow some good deals there thanks Mark.

[pricey]

How much is a song? and can you deliver by 10am tomorrow

you know what these Portuguese are like, stone and blood spring to mind

[dougal]

The likely thing would have been a capacitor failure. An "elecrolytic capacitor" can fail with a big 'pop', some smoke and a bad (sometimes vaguely fishy) smell.
Reason for mentioning that, is because if that is *all* that has failed, it isn't an expensive bit to replace. You can often find the culprit looking like a small, but burst, tin can. If you can make out the markings, replacing that component could be a cheap fix. (Leave the screen totally unplugged for a day or two and it'll be safe to open it up - the tube is a big capacitor and stores/holds charge, so high voltages can be found even after the thing is switched off.)
However, unfortunately sometimes the resulting power surge when they fail takes out other components - and occasionally (though rather rarely IMHO) they fail because something else had failed. In which case the more complex diagnose and fix probably ain't worth bothering with these days.


Now, important buying consideration.
If you had a (tube-type) "crt" monitor, you would have connected it to your computer using a "VGA" type interface (the plug has 15 pins in three rows).
Some liquid crystal (tft, thin, flat) screens have a vga-type connection.
Not all of them!
There is a different type of connection, called DVI, that gives a fully digital connection between computer and screen. This can give an even sharper picture.
However, unless your computer has a DVI output, a DVI-connect screen would be an embarrassing purchase.
Ideal would be one of the many screens with *both* DVI and VGA connections. They are usually only a couple of quid more, and keep your options as open as possible.
OK there's a third interface you might find called HDMI. Its a digital interface really for HD tv. Your call if its useful to you.
Really big lcd screens (measured in dots, 'pixels', never mind the physical size of the bit of glass in inches or cm) need a dual-link output on the computer's DVI socket to work at their highest resolutions.


A DVI-connected, liquid crystal screen is dramatically sharper (hence better for text readability) than a 'conventional' monitor.
However, liquid crystals generally have a much less subtle, less natural, colour rendering (they have a "smaller colour gamut") - so really really serious graphics pro's will be the last to convert to liquid crystals. And yes, there are great differences between different models of lcd's.

Cheap liquid crystals may have a relatively slow response time (the time to change to a different colouring at a specific dot - most dramatically, the black/white change). Such screens are a poor choice for watching DVDs, playing games, or even watching telly. Motion looks strangely smeary...
However, unless you are bothered by the appearance of scrolling, they can still be an excellent choice for a basic 'admin/web/mail' computer.

Generally lcds use less electrical power than conventional 'crt' monitors.
But they are more delicate - don't poke them, or when transporting them don't let anything press on the screen - the damage can be permanent and economically unrepairable.
The lcd backlight will eventually (in a number of years) go dim. They can be replaced, but maintainability is a feature that seems to have fallen off the bottom of designers' feature lists...

[Simon]

You are a wealth of information Dougal. If like you say, a cap has gone bang then it could be a 'free' fix as I have a mate in Blighty that could post you one. The hardest part is finding the value. It is very unlikely to be marked on the PCB as they usually only state c1.c2 etc. If you can find a twisty bit of plastic in there somewhere you may be able to unrole it and see the value but it's a long shot.

[Barefoot Andrew]

Ahh.. that takes me back to childhood "electronics sets" and connecting electrolytic capacitors the wrong way round... halcyon days
A.

[Simon]

That's nowt! We used to charge up the big plastic film caps with the megameter and leave them laying around.

Shoking, truly shocking.

[pricey]

Good tip thanks mate I was wondering what the correct level was.