I'm definitely not a pro at this stuff, and everything I've done so far has been because of advice I've gotten online or, as you'll likely see, a rapid and intense descent into madness.
Let me start by describing symptoms, then I'll move into what I have done so far.
Brightness oscillation. I've seen people call it flickering, but it's not that fast. Let's say it starts at 100% brightness. After some time, it may go down to let's say 75%. Then up to 80ish%. and so on and so forth. Usually spends a good 10 to 15 seconds (on average. Sometimes less) in each brightness level before going up or down again.
The internet seems to think that's a capacitor issue, so I opened it up, and sure enough I found 2 bulging capacitors. I replaced them* (images 5, 6), put it back together and began experiencing a new problem, which I believe I haven't really fixed, but I have solved.
I still don't know why this is happening, but anyway, the monitor started to overheat. After almost exactly one hour of use, it would shut off, while not going "offline". Like, the PC still thought it was connected. I saw the little thermal sponge thing (images 1, 2) had fallen off of whatever piece was under it, and tried putting it back on with some heat sink paste. Still overheated. It was also still falling off, so I kind of trapped it up against the case with some plastic bubble wrap, which seemed to keep it in place. Still overheating. Frustrated, I drilled about a hundred holes in the back of the case and wired a case fan to the back of it, and a smaller fan in parallel to the inside of the motherboard housing (images 3, 4, and the one I forgot to number).
Problem solved. I ran it for 10 hours straight with no overheating. Still don't know why that started happening but more importantly MY MONITOR STILL FLICKERS.
What do I have left to do? I could swap out the rest of the capacitors. I didn't check the graphics board, because it was super hard to pull out, and I was honestly afraid of breaking it. But it could be done I suppose.
Does that sound like a capacitor issue? Is something else going wrong here? Does anyone know why it started overheating??? I am pleading for a suggestion or something that might help me figure out what to do next.
*I replaced a 35v 1000 µF and a 25v 1000 µF with two 35v 1000 µF capacitors, if that makes a difference to anyone. The internet told me it was fine to replace a capacitor with the same or higher voltage, but the µF had to match.
P.S. The issue seems to come and go. Right now, it's not happening but soon it'll start up again.
P.S.S I can't figure out how to upload images. If I figure it out, I'll post.
Edit: What I can rule out: It isn't a computer issue. The problem happens of different PCs. It isn't a refresh rate issue.
Let me start by describing symptoms, then I'll move into what I have done so far.
Brightness oscillation. I've seen people call it flickering, but it's not that fast. Let's say it starts at 100% brightness. After some time, it may go down to let's say 75%. Then up to 80ish%. and so on and so forth. Usually spends a good 10 to 15 seconds (on average. Sometimes less) in each brightness level before going up or down again.
The internet seems to think that's a capacitor issue, so I opened it up, and sure enough I found 2 bulging capacitors. I replaced them* (images 5, 6), put it back together and began experiencing a new problem, which I believe I haven't really fixed, but I have solved.
I still don't know why this is happening, but anyway, the monitor started to overheat. After almost exactly one hour of use, it would shut off, while not going "offline". Like, the PC still thought it was connected. I saw the little thermal sponge thing (images 1, 2) had fallen off of whatever piece was under it, and tried putting it back on with some heat sink paste. Still overheated. It was also still falling off, so I kind of trapped it up against the case with some plastic bubble wrap, which seemed to keep it in place. Still overheating. Frustrated, I drilled about a hundred holes in the back of the case and wired a case fan to the back of it, and a smaller fan in parallel to the inside of the motherboard housing (images 3, 4, and the one I forgot to number).
Problem solved. I ran it for 10 hours straight with no overheating. Still don't know why that started happening but more importantly MY MONITOR STILL FLICKERS.
What do I have left to do? I could swap out the rest of the capacitors. I didn't check the graphics board, because it was super hard to pull out, and I was honestly afraid of breaking it. But it could be done I suppose.
Does that sound like a capacitor issue? Is something else going wrong here? Does anyone know why it started overheating??? I am pleading for a suggestion or something that might help me figure out what to do next.
*I replaced a 35v 1000 µF and a 25v 1000 µF with two 35v 1000 µF capacitors, if that makes a difference to anyone. The internet told me it was fine to replace a capacitor with the same or higher voltage, but the µF had to match.
P.S. The issue seems to come and go. Right now, it's not happening but soon it'll start up again.
P.S.S I can't figure out how to upload images. If I figure it out, I'll post.
Edit: What I can rule out: It isn't a computer issue. The problem happens of different PCs. It isn't a refresh rate issue.