I have an old 17" Dell CRT, probably 12 or so years old. Lets put it this way, the computer I got with it was a P2 350mhz computer, and the 350mhz had just come out. Well I have been using it for a while needless to say. I believe it has Sony guts, could be wrong on this.

The problem is, my screen seems to turn off and on sometimes, or I guess it seems to degauss as it comes instantly back on. But when it comes back on it starts large and dim, then gets smaller and brighter back to normal. It goes from off to normal in about 1 - 2 seconds. I have checked the area for magnets. The monitor seems warm to touch, not hot. But it can happen 5 minutes after it has been on, or 5 hours. There is nothing around it really, except for a bit of junk, nothing getting blocked really. I checked the cables, DVI > VGA adapter then VGA > VGA extender to the monitor. It has been in that setup now for well over a year. I did a cleaning of my computer about a month ago, and my computer hasn't been moved since.

It is more annoying than anything, but I was wondering if someone knows what the problem could be. How serious it is, and maybe even how expensive it would be to fix. I love this monitor, LCDs while they are gorgeous they have some input lag. Which being a gamer, I notice. Although if it is too much to fix, and it is a serious problem, I will just scrap the monitor and grab another LCD with a decent tested response time.

Unless it has compelling and unusual functions, at this point your monitor is better replaced than repaired, although it would seem you have ample reason to stick with CRT. Expect to pay no more than $30 at a thrift store or Craigslist for a 17". Considering the price, you can get a reasonable idea of how well it's held up with the no-input OSD and the front panel controls.

You may even find one with a flat front. I'll be keeping my Dell Trinitron P780 until it breaks for bench rigs, but if I wanted to sell it I wouldn't expect more than $20, in all honesty.

You might just have a solder joint or bad capacitor in the switch mode power supply. If you look at used monitors for gaming, some of the late model Sonys have a flat tube, watch out for washed out images at startup on those. Mostly correctable with "image restore" function, although mine needed internal level adjusting.

LCD: CRT:
+Sharp image at native resolution +Black areas are black
+No focus or convergence or shape errors +Color a little more accurate
-Black is blue haze on most +Faster motion and response
-Slower response than CRT -less sharp, geometric errors

I have a secondary monitor, which is also a Dell (a VA panel). Which I semi-recently got has a stunning picture. Deep blacks, very little blurring of faster motion, excellent in every category except response time. I knew that going into buying it, a couple of the reviews said it's response time wasn't great. But I wanted a better picture, because at the time, I wanted to watch HD on something beyond my 17" CRT. Also, the nerd in me wanted a secondary screen to put music, chats, or whatever up on while I am doing something on the other screen.

Well needless to say I noticed the slight lag while gaming. My performance while playing suffered a bit due to the lag. A few milliseconds in an online game is the difference between life and death. Which in all honesty isn't a big deal since I just play for fun with friends. But I like to succeed.

I think I am just going to ride it out until it officially dies, then buy an LCD. I probably can find a cheap TN panel with lower response time than my current one. Now that I have had the luxury of dual monitors, I have no clue how I survived without them before. I looked on Craigslist in my immediate area there was only 2 listings, one had a crack in the screen but still worked. The other was as old as my screen now.

Thanks for your responses. :)

CRT computer monitors are just about a "give away" item nowadays. I noticed on Craig's List today a local company had over 100 17" CRT monitors to GIVE AWAY to whomever would load them up. Even at the local state government surplus depot, working 17" and 19" CRT monitors are fetching only $5.00

The last 21" CRT monitor I bought was a PRO level IIyama with a Sony style flat screen, it worked fine and continues to, it also weighs around 80 pounds and is HUGE, I paid like 30 bucks for it from a friend who does PC repair and installs, he had quite a few types leftover from customer upgrades to LCD's
So like people have said if you want a good CRT based monitor they now are close to giveaway prices or free, everyone want the cool thin flat LCD monitors now.
I finally was given a Veiwsonic 19" LCD monitor and I have to say as far as text and general sharpness at it's native resolution through DVI it's way easier to look at. As far as games it's OK but the blacks aren't as good and I can't run any other resolution then native or it looks like crap.
I decided to give it to my sister and got a excellent price on a 19" wide Acer LCD monitor. It has even worse black level and the text isn't quite as sharp but it's still better over all for reading web pages and text then the CRT based one is unfortunately.
If they could get a LCD to do real black levels and do any resolution as sharp as it's native one then they'd be about perfect. When you start pushing a game thats has huge graphics engine stuff and like that at the resolutions a LCD wants your pushing most entry level gaming cards at their limit and even pushing some of the high end ones with the more intense games like Crysis..:eek:

They're not all that complicated if you want to crack it open and try to figure it out. However, these guys are right. I think I have one you could have if you wanted to head to Baltimore.

It sounds like bad capacitors in the flyback area. I know that the same happened on my grandmother's 17" Sampo monitor when the flyback went out. The picture stretched and dimmed, and it kept stretching until a little pop could be heard and the monitor turned off. It has been serviced two years ago and for now it's running fine.

But i agree with you that you should just get rid of it and pick up a larger one for almost nothing - i have a 19" Nokia that i got for 12 bucks. I'm looking for a 24"... Man is that gonna be heavy. :p