I thought I'd post a bit of an experience, and a recommendation. About two weeks ago, my 20" Cinema Display (yes, I'm hanging on for dear life to my ADC hardware ) began the flashing power button dance of death. A couple of days later, it went black and would no longer power on. Not wanting to waste such a great display, I contacted MoniServ (lcdparts.com) to search on what the cause might be. After some surfing, I decided to order their redesigned Inverter.

http://www.lcdparts.net/DesktopInverterDet...l=T65I014.00MSS

The original board arrived on Friday, and had suffered a broken solder joint, leaving one of the power connectors hanging off the board. I called them maybe 10 minutes before their closing time and described the issue. Their customer service rep immediately went to the shipping desk, based on my order number, and packed up a new one for Priority Mail....no questions asked. The new Inverter arrived today, and my beloved main display is bright as new. Not to say that some of you with failed displays might not also need CCFL lamps, but MoniServ has really been tops, in service and in quality. They've clearly redesigned the board, up from the original Apple circuit, and have developed an improved board. Installation took maybe 30 minutes.

I hope that this is of help to anyone seeking to resurrect their favorite Cinema Display(s). I learned a lot on this little project The original Apple (now fried) Inverter is pictured here as well, for visual comparison with MoniServ's model.

This post has been edited by BobieMac: Oct 22 2007, 07:34 PM

Did you take any pictures of your work while doing this project?

I didn't think to (sorry), but what they depict here is very accurate:

http://www.lcdparts.net/Files/A1038installation.pdf

With the 20" though, there are 9 screws on the back. There are two screws at the base of the RFI shield/screen (labeled "metal cover" in the photos) which can be found by gently peeling up the foam tape at the bottom. Also, you'll see two strips of nice quality fabric electrical tape over the two pairs of CCFL connectors on the Inverter board, which can be saved and reused.

When installing the new board, I had better luck plugging in the four CCFL connectors before mounting it to the chassis, then installing the single control connector. That way you have full access to the connectors, and can snap them in very gently. The connectors and their wires are very lightweight, so take your time with them.

When reassembling the display, the back case and grey "cosmetic" inner case must be placed over the front "feet" of the display first, then the top lowered into place. There are small tabs along the bottom front of the display which must be seated into the edge of the back case in order for the front bezel to be flush with the back case.

I did the entire job on a clean towel on the dining table, display face-down. If you need photos, I could certainly open the display again and snap some.

This post has been edited by BobieMac: Oct 22 2007, 05:41 PM

No, not really, but I always like pictures.
I'm thinking about doing the CCFL's in my 22" Apple Cinema (clear).

Thanks for the encouraging report!

Shouldn't be too bad, just careful handling of the CCFLs themselves. As far as disassembly, it's not much further beyond the Inverter to access them. The parts for the 22":

http://www.lcdparts.net/ccfldetail.aspx?ProductCCFL=MS30500

Here's a great set of photos, with instructions:

http://www.lcdpart.com/images/apple_m5662.pdf

A steady soldering hand, and you should be well on your way. I'll have to take them on, sooner or later you could also ask LCDParts about trimming the wire ends of the lamps, I think that I read somewhere that there's a certain amount to be cut off prior to soldering.

Cheers,

-M

I have also ordered a LCD backlight from that store, to replace the dimming one in my Pismo's display.

Also, wasn't sure whether you had this:

http://node123.cit.geneseo.edu/~stratton/S..._display_23.pdf

Thanks, but I had it already.
It may help some others though.

Now I wish I had a bust screen... just so I could fix it! ;-)

LOL I know what you mean. But, now the possibilities include picking up "no longer starts" Cinema Displays on <banned word> and bringing them back to new condition without a ton of effort. I'd much rather do that then see them go into the landfill. I'm going to try to pick one up for the Cube.

The "old" acrylic displays are still my favorites.



They'll take good care of you.


This post has been edited by BobieMac: Oct 26 2007, 08:43 AM

I stumbled across this thread via Google search in trying to determine what's wrong with my clear, acrylic ACD 20. It seems I likely have a bad inverter board, as well. Dim upper screen, short-short-long LED flash, etc.

I took BobieMac's advice and ordered a $125 inverter from the link shown - overnighting and will be here tomorrow. Will do the install and see how things go. This is an ACD 20 I've taken from home and have been using at the office for a while now.

It's only been for the past three weeks that I've been using it with my MacBook Pro as an external display. I'm hot-plugging the DVI connector (using an Apple ADC-to-DVI converter to get DVI out of it) into the MBP and it's been working fine. Apple docs claim the MBP supports hot-plugging so no issue. But...did the hot plugging kill the inverter board? Need I unplug AC on the screen and power down my MBP before plugging? I hope not.

Some over at Ars tell me that the inverter board is probably the last thing that would get fried if there was a hot-pluggin issue. Dunno. Thoughts?

Thanks.

OH - and what kind of tool do I need to get the screws out of the back of the plastic case? Is that Torx? Which size? Tnx.




blakespot

Did the inverter board replacement. Went without a hitch. Back in business!

Pics:
http://pix.blakespot.com/view/computers/misc/acd_20_repair/




blakespot