What does flashing green/amber on my Viewsonic PT795 mean?

[Milhouse Van Houten]

About three weeks ago, my PT795's screen went black, and the LED went from
its normal green (signifying full power) to an alternating amber and green,
for which the manual has no explanation.

At that time, power cycling cleared the problem, but yesterday it happened
again, and this time it's apparently for good.

Symptoms:
1) When turned on, the monitor makes its normal loud sound, but the screen
is always black no matter what.
2) When hooked to a working PC, the monitor's LED alternates between amber
and green at a half-second internal.

I've eliminated all other variables, such as the PC and cable.

The Viewsonic PT795 is an aperture-grille type, and it's been in use since
1999.

Thanks for any ideas. I've searched online for the service manual or any
other hint about what's going on here, but have come up empty.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

About three weeks ago, my PT795's screen went black, and the LED went from
its normal green (signifying full power) to an alternating amber and
green, for which the manual has no explanation.

Often it means the monitor is in stand by mode. Same problem on two PCs?
Might be the video cable.

 

[Milhouse Van Houten]

Often it means the monitor is in stand by mode. Same problem on two PCs?
Might be the video cable.

Standby mode for this monitor is solid yellow, so that's not it.

When troubleshooting, I tried a different cable to a different PC -- same
thing, alternating amber and green.

Note also that I can't even get into the monitor's OSD.

 

[James Sweet]

About three weeks ago, my PT795's screen went black, and the LED went from
its normal green (signifying full power) to an alternating amber and green,
for which the manual has no explanation.

At that time, power cycling cleared the problem, but yesterday it happened
again, and this time it's apparently for good.

Symptoms:
1) When turned on, the monitor makes its normal loud sound, but the screen
is always black no matter what.
2) When hooked to a working PC, the monitor's LED alternates between amber
and green at a half-second internal.

I've eliminated all other variables, such as the PC and cable.

The Viewsonic PT795 is an aperture-grille type, and it's been in use since
1999.

Thanks for any ideas. I've searched online for the service manual or any
other hint about what's going on here, but have come up empty.

Look at the power supply section, the fact that it cleared up on its own
the first time makes me suspect that rather than a short elsewhere
loading it down. Could be as simple as a cracked solder joint, might
have some bad capacitors.

 

[jakdedert]

Look at the power supply section, the fact that it cleared up on its own
the first time makes me suspect that rather than a short elsewhere
loading it down. Could be as simple as a cracked solder joint, might
have some bad capacitors.

Try a little 'percussive maintenance'.

IOW, whack a couple of times. If you've got a bad solder joint, that
will often confirm the problem. It'll start up for some undetermined
period of time. While not a definitive diagnosis (it might still have a
bad joint, but not come on upon a couple solid blows), it works more
often than not. If it does, open it up and try to localize the issue.

jak

 

[Milhouse Van Houten]

Try a little 'percussive maintenance'.

IOW, whack a couple of times. If you've got a bad solder joint, that will
often confirm the problem. It'll start up for some undetermined period of
time. While not a definitive diagnosis (it might still have a bad joint,
but not come on upon a couple solid blows), it works more often than not.
If it does, open it up and try to localize the issue.

I tried rapping it reasonably hard, but perhaps not hard enough or in the
right places. I'll attempt to open it up (hopefully without marring it) and
see if anything jumps out at me (hopefully not literally).

 

[Barney Gumble]

Standby mode for this monitor is solid yellow, so that's not it.

When troubleshooting, I tried a different cable to a different PC -- same
thing, alternating amber and green.

Note also that I can't even get into the monitor's OSD.

*BELCH*