Fried Monitor

My best desktop monitor that I use for photo and video editing...  4K, IPS, 27", wide gamut, calibrated...  has bit the dust.  This was a stark and painful reminder that even the best computer will look like garbage if you use a low quality monitor.

We awoke to a blackout at 6am this past Friday around the time when we had planned to get up out of bed before leaving for Long Island for the weekend.  The power came on again just before it was time for us to head out the door so I never did check my computer.  When I turned it on this morning, however, the screen was black.

When we arrived home, I had problems getting our living room television to work too.  It had the same problem...  the screen was black.  I immediately suspected this problem was due to the blackout and, fortunately, I managed to force a reboot on this expensive television and managed to get it to work again.  Actually, I had to reboot numerous times but I got it working again.  This morning, my thoughts immediately went to the blackout and the problem I had with the television so I was leaning toward the monitor being the problem and not the computer.  

Unfortunately, after a couple of hours of work troubleshooting this problem, I realized that I was not nearly as lucky with this good desktop monitor as I was with the living room television.  I spent the entire morning this morning trying to get some sort of display on the monitor.  I even moved the monitor to the kitchen table and tried multiple inputs, different computers, tested the power supply, but I couldn't even access the menu because the screen stubbornly remained completely black.  

I tested my desktop computer with an old Full HD monitor we have on hand and it worked just fine with my computer so I know my problem is with my better monitor.  It appears as though the blackout fried my monitor due to a brownout and/or power surges with the blackout even though my monitor was plugged into a UPS with surge protection.

After spending a couple of hours troubleshooting in an attempt to restore the display, I then went searching online for a suitable 4K, IPS, wide gamut, calibrated monitor.  This was a rather painful search.  Monitors have been in very short supply since the beginning of the pandemic due to so many people setting up home offices so they can work from home.  I've seen the supply worse than it is now but it is still crippled.  This is likely due to a much higher demand, manufacturing problems, electronic parts problems, and even continued shipping problems as we try to resupply after four years of virtually nothingness.  

I searched for a suitable monitor for a couple of hours and I still ended up settling for a monitor that would fit my needs the best of the limited available choices...  not what I preferred for my photo and video editing needs.  

I don't even think this new monitor will fit on top of my monitor stand because it appears to be too tall so I'll need to do some cutting of my desk when this monitor arrives.  Of course, before I make any cuts to my desk, I'll test the monitor to ensure it meets my needs.  If the monitor looks acceptable, then I'll put a saw to the desk so I can fit this monitor on my desk.  Fun times.

I should have the new monitor by the weekend and it won't be a moment too soon.  Incidentally, we were recently at Staples and I tried looking for a monitor for Sheila's home office while we were there.  The monitor aisle was almost empty and the available monitors were definitely not what we needed.  There is no doubt that the supply of electronic parts is still crippled.  (We had the same problem when we needed a refrigerator to replace our broken-beyond-repair relatively new Samsung refrigerator...  we had to buy a refrigerator that does not fit our needs...  actually, I truly despise this new refrigerator.)  

(I'll write more about our hotel television woes while on the road two weekends in the past couple of weeks as well as our living room television in another blog entry soon.)

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I've only been using this old monitor for a few hours today but I've been quickly reminded of the reasons why I replaced this monitor!  

1.  Text looks horrendous on this monitor.  I feel like I am reading from a printout from an ancient dot matrix printer.  I've adjusted the ClearType fonts in Windows Settings to no avail.  I feel like I've stepped back to 1980s-1990s computer technology.  I've adjusted and re-adjusted the sharpness setting of the monitor itself to no avail.  It simply looks like crap.  If I could scale fonts to less-than-100%, then that might improve things but Windows only allows you to scale larger-than-100%.  So, I'm stuck with fuzzy fonts that are large and look like dots.

2.  Since I'm a photographer who is exceptionally picky about color, tonality, brightness, and contrast, I've calibrated the monitor using my DataColor Spyder calibration tool...  then fully re-calibrated again because I know it is not right.  It is far too bright and the colors seem skewed.  I might actually attempt to do another full calibration starting from different settings (for the third time).  Then again, I should not waste my time.  The new monitor should be here in a matter of days.

3.  Even photos don't appear sharp on this older monitor.  My own photos in Facebook and on my blog look a little fuzzy (putting aside the funky color and brightness mentioned previously) while other people's photos look completely out-of-focus (far more than usual!).  

I can't wait to replace this old monitor.  It truly does suck.  I don't have a clue how I used to manage editing photos and videos using this monitor!  I actually keep going back to my fried 4K monitor to see if it might miraculously work again...   naturally, the screen remains darkened with no signs of life no matter what I try to do with it.