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IIRC, ABL_CONT_SHUTDOWN is the max amount of instaneous average contrast level allowed before an emergency shutdown is forced. I suspect this has to do with x-ray regulation.
If you set this very low, you will notice that when you switch quickly from an all black to an all white screen, your monitor will shutdown and blink the diagnostic code for ABL shutdown.
ABL_CONT_LIMIT would be the max average brightness which the ABL will dim to incase the average becomes higher, as with a mostly white screen. For example, you can notice the screen dimming when switching to an all white screen if this value is set very low. Again, I suspect this is for x-ray regulation.
I am concerned about x-rays, unfourtunately, windas's own adjustment for these ABL settings is vague and doesn't seem to work. It says:
"
IMPORTANT! Wait for luminance to stabilize.
"
Then you click continue when it does, but my colorimeter revealed no luminance fluctuation after 2 minutes. And waiting that long set unbeleviably low values in the two ABL_* registers. Such that the ABL dimming was very noticeable, and shutdown came with opening the web browser to a white screen.
Be carefull, and also, very contrasty monitors often have gamma issues.
Good luck. I will paste this message to the forum as I'm sure others, myself for certain, are interested in increasing contrast and avoiding x-ray exposure.
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About screen zooming on black->white:
I also used more conservative contrast and ABL settings to settle that out, my zooming/geometric distortion was never _really_ noticable anway, except on warmup where ~8 border pixels were off the screen. There is a resistor fix for this, which doesn't hinder x-ray protection. I'm not sure about how this whole voltage varying with apparent brightness stuff works.
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I got an email about an odd problem, thought I'd post it:
I'm not familiar with the ICs in the monitor. Windas does not calibrate pure colors, as no calibration is needed for them. If you are sure only one of the guns is 'firing' (check this somehow), and the color is not pure, then you have purity problems with the tube. The service manual details how to re calibrate it (physically, with moving the magnets and the deflection yoke).
I don't believe there is any 'processing' for the colors as a group, each color has it's own signal. Each of the guns' electrons are deflected in such a way that they only strike either the R , G or B phosphors on the screen. So the color image is really made up of 3 independant RGB images.
The only 'color processing' that I know of is the white balance settings, each color is calibrated seperately, so the only way a pure color (R G or B) could turn into to a composite color such as yellow, would be through something other than 'color processing'.
There is amplification of the 3 video signals before they are each sent to the R, G, B cathodes, but this has nothing to do with deflection, and is done independantly for each signal. This is probably what is actually adjusted by the white balance procedure.
The only 'processing' in which colors would interact would be dimming composite colors such as cyan (B and G guns together) so that their maximum luminance would be equal to a pure color such as red ( only R gun). I'm not sure if this is actually done, or if it is even a problem, I doubt it.
Try displaying a pure color(R G or B) on the entire screen, if you see more than one color, you definately have a purity error. If you pass the previous test, try displaying a gradient of each primary color from 0 - 255 ( the whole VGA true color (24-bit) signal range (sorry, I should say input singal voltages, but I forget them, your video card should be correct )). If the color of each step changes, and you know that your video card is working properly, you have a truly bizare problem. Please write me back if you know anything more about it.
(There are programs to display the abovementioned test patterns)
I think what is happening, is that your monitors deflection system is not properly deflecting the pure color images (from the R, G , B cathodes) onto the correct phosphors of the screen. It is known as 'color purity error'. Read the service manual, it will detail how to calibrate color purity,without DAS software, instead with physically adjusted magnets and positioning of the deflection yoke. That your problem is dynamic (only shows up after 5 minutes) I fear static physical adjustments may not be the problem, but they are the only adjustmets the service manual offers for purity problems.As far as I know, there are no DAS procedures/registers that deal with the deflection system besides those for geometry and convergence. Still, before you try the static physical adjustments, make sure to back up your current settigs and MPU (defaults reset) your monitor with Windas, then folow the procedures in order. The MPU reset may set registers that are otherwise inaccessible. It doesn't seem too odd to have to adjust the deflection system after replacing one of it's ICs.
I highly doubt this is a white balance problem, I strongly suspect this is a purity problem, and I doubt there are registers that deal with purity, still, try MPUing (defaults reset) the monitor with windas after you backup your settings. I'm interested in knowing how you resolve this, would appreciate a reply. Thank you.
Best regards.
donald wrote:
The following message was sent to you via secured mail form
in reply to your message at Pechorin's audio and video equipment discussion forum:
------
Hi,
Last weak, my sony GDM500Ps got the deflection problem. I replaced the CXA2043Q and the proglem is fixed. However, after a few minutes, the red color is missing and the green color changed to greenish yellow. But the white color is OK. (That means, the red gun and the green gun is still function, it is the wrong signal processing). It seems the new chip causes the wrong color processing. Do I really need to use the DAS to re-adjust the settings? If so, which parameters must change? Your site does not have the explaination of each parameters so I get difficulty to try. Thanks.
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Let me know if I have the wrong idea about this, or if you can fill me in about something. Any links, pointers, or misc. info/observations apreciated.
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patrik:
Some monitors do not have a varistor for the G2 voltage on the flyback, or one at all ( the case for many newer sony monitors). My older 17" monitor did though, I wonder about the x-ray protection on it, as it didn't shut istelf down when I maxed out the G2? Scary.
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dickhu:
Yeah, another .dat will not turn out very good at all, It's almost as easy to just reset the monitor to default settings. Infact, I'd try that after backing up your original settings.
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Thanks for all your help and support! If anyone knows any general CRT information I'd love to hear about it to add it to my howto ( http://www.geocities.com/gregua/windas/ ). I think a section on general CRT concepts would do much to help people diagnose their own problems based on their monitors behavior.
OK! I did that and the screen didnt even jitter, as i moved them up though it did. Is this related to the G2 voltage problem? If so i will solder in a new resistor asap. You mentioned two probes for the fuzzyness, are there two seperate flyback transformers for top and bottom or something of that nature?
Thanks,
_Dan
You only need to mess with the G2 if your blacks are not true black and appear grey(sometimes with a tinge of green).
Do you have windas software and the needed cable ? I recommend using windas to lower the G2 than messing around with resisters.
Have you adjusted the focus yet? I know i have probably put you off going into the back of your monitor by going an about lethal voltages:rarr: but the flyback(Just the one) is very easy to get to.
Just remmember when you try to take the case off you need to use a flat headed screwdriver to poke into the slits in the top near the front to unhook the tabs otherwise it wont come apart:scratch: :banghead:
Was there any improvement in the fuzzines when you lowered the values?
R:hiding: SS
Thanks,
_Dan
P.S. I am going to try to open the case of the 21" later, i took the screws out of the bottom and stuck a small screwdriver in the tab holes but the damn thinng wouldnt budge. Any ideas without destroying the case...?
Let me know what model the IBM is and i will let you know if it is any good.
Whatever you do dont twist the screwdriver when its in one of the slots.What you need to do is press down firmly about 1" max into the slot while at the same
time trying to seperate the case from the bezel. when they have seperated stick something in the gap so that when you then move to do the same on the other side the tab doesnt snap back into position.
And hey presto! You have been successful in not terminating the biege beauty's
Natural good looks:crazy: ! lol:ukflag:
R:screwed: SS
Thanks,
_Dan
Did the focus adjustment improve the overall picture(although the top was fuzzy) from how it was before the adjustment?
By the way you have been hella helpful, i really appreciate it.
_Dan
I went for these instead of lcds because i prefer the colour reproduction,Resolution and response time(no ghosting in games unlike lcds).They are great value monitors when alot of people throw them out because of the overbright(G2)problem. Picked these 2 up for £40 and sorted them out with windas.
I would recommend shopping around for another one that has good to reasonable convergence(number one) with a brightness problem (number two)
This way you should get it cheap and get another shot at getting one of these working great. Ideally try to get one thats as young as possible with good convergeance as you can sort most other problems with windas.
The P1110 does not have DCNV(Dynamic convergeance) where you can adjust every inch of the screen which is such a shame......but your 19" p991 does have this fuction in windas(my little bro has one of these that i sorted).
I would still have my 2 P1110's until i got hold of a 24" Sony GDM FW900(small
fortune and rare in the uk) which i just love because it has DNCV and supports such high resolutions. Its perfect for graphic work and takes up less space than the 2 dells, but the P1110 has to be one of the best value/performance monitors out there and i am sure there are loads out there
in America.
I would definately make the cable up but i would try and get the monitor in reasonable shape(some people will not notice that fuzziness that you or i may notice depends how bad it is i guess) and ebay it as sold as seen.
Its going to cost you way more to replace parts or get it serviced/repaired than to get another monitor.
R:cheers: SS
Its going to cost you way more to replace parts or get it serviced/repaired than to get another monitor.
Personally i dont have the skills to sort this without seeing it in front of me Sorry
EDIT:The values sound about right, No doubt there will be someone else in the thread that has come across this problem
Thats why if you cant mix dat files because each monitor will have its own unique settings acording to that particular tube(hope i didnt bore anyone to death yet)
This should reset the color to how the white balence was calibrated in the factory. But as your monitor gets older it may need to be adjusted slightly.
EDIT: Just had a thought, If i can remmember what you said before your convergence was acting in the same way as the fuziness. Perhaps the deflection yoke needs adjusting. I wouldnt do this yourself i would ask a repair shop to quote you for adjustment.
The yoke is on the neck of the tube towards the front.
R:bigggrin: SS
Yea i saw those. Im going to take the rest of it apart Monday to see if there is another anode and flyback trans. Ill let you know how it goes....
_Dan
I fianlly managed to do the resistor mod but the damn monitor is too dark now lol. I can barely see it, so im going to remove a resistor. I used a 2.1mohm and 3 1mohm's (radioshack doesnt have the best selection). Funny thing though, when i took off the rf shielding on the back, there was a 2.1mohm resistor already soldered in but at different points. It went from where the circuit board says G2 all the way to the ground pin. I cant figure this one out, i removed it though because the one on the hutzelman site didnt have that resistor pictured. Maybe thats what Microcenter meant when they sold it as "reman" lol. Any advice?
Thanks,
_Dan
Couple question concerning this monitor though:
I used the Nokia Monitor Test software and found that my convergence at the very top cannot be corrected. I can get red in but blue is out or vice versa. Also the top seems to be arched up slightly in the middle (same for very bottom of monitor too) and I don't have a geometry adjustment for that.
Secondly, my GDM-F500R takes 4 to 5 minutes to display an image after it is powered up in the morning. It is totally black for up to 5 minutes, then, ever so faintly, the image starts to appear and then brightens up normally. It seems something is taking a VERY long time to warm up. If I power down the monitor breifly, then it will come back on in about 30 seconds, but if I power it down and let it totally cool, I'm back the the 5 minute wait time before the image even starts to appear.
Can anyone help with some answers? What to adjust or replace?
I will also be doing the windas alignment, so I also need the monitor's pin layout.
Thanks
I opened up Windas and managed to read the data off the monitor and found my G2 value to be 113. I decided I'd adjust it to 108. Due to a number of distractions at the time, I wound up setting it to 18 instead of 108 and uploading it to the monitor...(don't ask, it was a very long day).
During the uploading process, the monitor locked out like it had during the downloading of the data.... but it never recovered. The system, both my machine and the monitor locked up and both had to be unplugged. Now, I cannot even power on the monitor, so I am guessing I either fried the electronics or blew a fuse somewhere.
I thought lowering G2 would lower the voltage and just make it hard to see, but maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe the upload was corrupted somehow. I dont know. Does anyone have any ideas?