victor@tesla.math.yale.edu (Mladen Victor Wickerhauser) (04/14/91)
Well, we received 4 of Norm's BusinessLand demo cubes in the past 10 days, just about 30 days after they were ordered. My office was filled with NeXTs for a while, and I started to notice that my own MegaPixel (bought 12/89) is going out of focus! Also, the new machines have a bluish tint, while mine is a definite neutral gray. Now, I leave my machine on all the time, with Gerrit's LockScreen application blanking the screen, so the monitor stays warm but there are no burned out areas. This computer has been moved almost 1000 miles by car, too. There are, in other words, plenty of reasonable explanations for the los of focus, but I never noticed any dramatic changes in the screen focus. It took direct comparison with new machines to bring it out. Have any of you other old-timers noticed your cubes getting fuzzy? Have you tried to do anything, like having a CRT repairman adjust the screen? Has any linear EE type with an out-of-warranty MegaPixel (like mine) opened it up and performed amateur surgery? Did the patient recover? Cheers, Victor -- ------ Mladen Victor Wickerhauser, victor@math.yale.edu, (203)498-1011 Dept. of Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 (USA)
barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) (04/14/91)
In article <30043@cs.yale.edu> victor@tesla.math.yale.edu (Mladen Victor Wickerhauser) writes: > >Have any of you other old-timers noticed your cubes getting fuzzy? Yes. >linear EE type with an out-of-warranty MegaPixel (like mine) opened it up and >performed amateur surgery? Yes. >Did the patient recover? Yes, fully. I highly recommend it, about once every 6 months. All you need to do is: (with you computer on, since you need to see how the screen is doing) (0) You need a special tool---a TV repairman's adjustment tool, or some good approximation. Supposedly you can such a tool for a couple bucks at Radio Shack. But I fashioded my own; what you need is essentially a long, thin, _non-conducting_ screwdriver (not Phillips). I took the dowel from a VCR cleaner swab and carved the end into a wedge shape. What ever you do, be sure you are protected from the high voltages inside the monitor---so don't use a conducting object! (1) Remove the plastic cover from the back of the MegaPixel display; it is held on by 4 Hex bolts. Use your NeXT HeX ToOL to unscrew these. (2) on the back you will see holes in the perforated shielding; looking through these, you will see holes labeled ``focus'' etc. (At least I think they were labelled...). Using the special tool, insert it into the hole until you get to the adjustment screw, and turn it to make the adjustment. It helps to have two people, one to work the screw, on to watch the screen. The best thing to watch on the screen is the trademark "R" on the Websters Icon---you can get it to look clearly like an "R" in a circle at optimal focus. (3) Reassemble. Note: I take no responsibility if you kill yourself trying this; it worked for me, but I may be a lot smarter (or luckier) than you. -- Barry Merriman UCLA Dept. of Math UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research barry@math.ucla.edu (Internet)
mikec@wam.umd.edu (Michael D. Callaghan) (04/15/91)
In article <30043@cs.yale.edu> victor@tesla.math.yale.edu (Mladen Victor Wickerhauser) writes: >Have any of you other old-timers noticed your cubes getting fuzzy? Have you >tried to do anything, like having a CRT repairman adjust the screen? Has any >linear EE type with an out-of-warranty MegaPixel (like mine) opened it up and >performed amateur surgery? Did the patient recover? > >Cheers, >Victor Mine is fuzzy in its lower left corner, and the six at school are all a bit on the blurry side -- some much worse than others. I'd like to hear results, too. -- MikeC _________________________________________________________ Michael D. Callaghan, MDC Designs, University of Maryland mikec@wam.umd.edu
smb@data.com (Steven M. Boker) (04/15/91)
In article <30043@cs.yale.edu> victor@tesla.math.yale.edu (Mladen Victor Wickerhauser) writes: > >Have any of you other old-timers noticed your cubes getting fuzzy? Have you >tried to do anything, like having a CRT repairman adjust the screen? Has any >linear EE type with an out-of-warranty MegaPixel (like mine) opened it up and >performed amateur surgery? Did the patient recover? > Yes, focus is easy and the results are gratifying. I'd recommend a tune up every 6-8 months. Get a nonconducting monitor adjustment screwdriver. Power the cube down and take the back panel off the monitor. Reconnect the monitor and power the cube back up. You will see a variety of adjustment holes clearly marked. Focus is the one that works for me. Its a snap. Just don't ground yourself to the high voltage generated by the monitor as premature aging can be observed as a result. Steve -- #====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====# # Steve Boker # "Two's bifurcation # # smb@data.com # but three's chaotic" # #====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#====#
madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) (04/15/91)
>> a couple bucks at Radio Shack. But I fashioded my own; what you need is >> essentially a long, thin, _non-conducting_ screwdriver (not Phillips). More importantly than conducting, it must be non-ferrous--insulating the end of a steel screwdriver won't do. Barry's wooden screwdriver works, as does the plastic jobbies you can get at Radio Shack. The point is that you're adjusting iron-core inductors, so more iron hopelessly confuses the adjustment. I found that the single "focus" adjustment wasn't good enough for my old MegaPixel, since I could not focus all the corners of the screen at the same time. Eventually the thing started dimming and NeXT replaced it for free, even though it was out of warranty. (I was impressed.) Mark Adler madler@pooh.caltech.edu
shanega@athena.mit.edu (Shane G. Artis) (04/15/91)
In article <1991Apr14.221901.7133@wam.umd.edu> mikec@wam.umd.edu (Michael D. Callaghan) writes: >In article <30043@cs.yale.edu> victor@tesla.math.yale.edu (Mladen Victor Wickerhauser) writes: >>Have any of you other old-timers noticed your cubes getting fuzzy? Have you >>tried to do anything, like having a CRT repairman adjust the screen? Has any >>linear EE type with an out-of-warranty MegaPixel (like mine) opened it up and >>performed amateur surgery? Did the patient recover? >> >>Cheers, >>Victor > >Mine is fuzzy in its lower left corner, and the six at school are all a bit >on the blurry side -- some much worse than others. > >I'd like to hear results, too. > > >-- >MikeC >_________________________________________________________ >Michael D. Callaghan, MDC Designs, University of Maryland >mikec@wam.umd.edu My MP display is about 2 years old and still is as sharp as the new NeXTstation at the MIT microcomputer center. I have very slight burn-in of the dock icons which I just began to notice, so now I slide the dock off the bottom. I used to leave my cube on all the time with brightness down, but I turn it off at night now. I have no bad pixels and no blurry areas. I also do not have any skewing of horizontal or vertical lines. In summary - it's just fine!
victor@tesla.math.yale.edu (Mladen Victor Wickerhauser) (04/23/91)
Hello, I received several different answers to my question of how to focus a fuzzy MegaPixel, ranging from "nothing can really be done" to "a trivial operation." So I went to Radio Shack and bought a TV alignment tool (=plastic screwdriver, $0.99) and took off the back. There are 7 holes in a metal shield, and two of them are labelled "Focus" and "CYK Focus". The "CYK Focus hole exposes a metal screw that is very hard to turn and seems to have no effect, but the "Focus" hole exposes a hex-screw that the alignment tool just fits, and it refocussed the screen just fine. The best procedure I found is to put a large Edit window on the screen, full of text, and try to get the best compromise between the edges and the center. Also, wisdom dictates leaving the back off until you have used the screen for a while. Below are the replies I received via e-mail: Regards, Victor ------ Mladen Victor Wickerhauser, victor@math.yale.edu, (203)498-1011 Dept. of Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 (USA) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return-Path: <grd@ccrma.stanford.edu> Date: Sun, 14 Apr 91 13:20:00 PDT From: grd@ccrma.stanford.edu To: victor@lom1.math.yale.edu Subject: out-of-focus screen Take the back off your display. There is a special tool (not special to NeXT: any TV repair supplier will have them) used for adjusting the focusing pots you'll find there. A trivial operation. At our lab, we focus the screens regularly. Return-Path: <madler@cobalt.cco.caltech.edu> Date: Sun, 14 Apr 91 21:30:06 PDT From: madler@cobalt.cco.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) To: victor@tesla.math.yale.edu Subject: Re: Aging MegaPixel Newsgroups: comp.sys.next In-Reply-To: <30043@cs.yale.edu> Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Cc: I received my NeXT around August 1989, and around December 1990, the MegaPixel display started to lose it. It would go out of focus and also get intermittently dimmer. Someone on the net suggested I call NeXT, even though my warranty had run out. I did, and NeXT replaced the monitor, gratis! I was impressed. My usage was to leave it on all the time, but most of the time the monitor was blanked using Bryce Jasmer's LockScreen 2.1. I tried making some adjustments myself, and I could improve the focus over some parts of the screen, but could not focus the entire screen at once. I now turn my NeXT off when I'm not using it, hoping that this may increase the lifetime of my relatively new monitor. It helps that my machine boots a lot faster now with 2.0 and a 68040. Mark Adler madler@pooh.caltech.edu Return-Path: <songer@ecn.purdue.edu> Date: Mon, 15 Apr 91 17:07:17 -0500 From: songer@ecn.purdue.edu (Christopher M Songer) To: victor@tesla.math.yale.edu Subject: Re: Aging MegaPixel Newsgroups: comp.sys.next In-Reply-To: <30043@cs.yale.edu> Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network Cc: I've got one. It has not yet showed signs of aging, but it will. I cannot be completely fixed. You can tweak some adjustments in the back to help it, but NeXT had production problems in their early models. Here at Purdue there is a lab of NeXTs, and the early ones are going. Every so often they adjust them, but there is nothing that can really be done. I'm planning on buying a new one when it gets too bad. -Chris Return-Path: <jpm@spectrum.lanl.gov> Date: Tue, 16 Apr 91 12:39:51 MDT From: jpm@spectrum.lanl.gov (Pat McGee) To: victor@tesla.math.yale.edu Subject: Re: Aging MegaPixel Cc: jpm@spectrum.lanl.gov Victor, I was told last week by one of our service-persons that the cause to the tube going out of focus, and also loosing brightness, was that there was a very slow air leak into the CRT. Apparently there was a bad batch of tubes from the supplier (Sony?). I was also told that the supplier is warrantying then to NeXT, and that NeXT was warrantying them to their customers, regardless of length of time you've had them. We've reportedly had 5-6 of ours go bad (out of ~40). I have no personal knowledge of any of this; I'm just passing on what I was told. Pat McGee, jpm@lanl.gov -- ------ Mladen Victor Wickerhauser, victor@math.yale.edu, (203)498-1011 Dept. of Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 (USA)