Fixing Fairlight series I, II IIX monitor "bloom". Photos in gallery.
2006-04-03 by horiprod
Many early I, II and IIX monitors I've seen have been affected by age and possibly contamination that results in the screen image becoming cloudy, and difficult to see clearly. I picked up a monitor that was so bad as to be unusable, so embarked on a "kill or cure" operation. I discovered that the CRT screen actually has a thin piece of glass like a contact lense, bonded to it with a thick layer of adhesive resin (both the contact lense and the resin layer are about 2mm thick each). After carefully removing and supporting the tube, I gradually worked a sharp knife into the resin gap between the two bits of glass, with the idea of removing the contact lense in one piece. Unfortunately, the edges seemed to come away easily, whereas the screen centre was stuck solid. End result: contact lense cracked. Pushing on anyway, I eventually broke off the rest of the bits by prising with a screwdriver, cleaned the front with alcohol and re- assembled. The screen now looks good as new. However, before you attempt this yourself, heed these safety WARNINGS. Firstly, CRT tubes having a vacuum inside contain a huge amount of energy. If you break one, the potential for grief is great. Also, there are voltages in the tens of thousands of volts needed to form that lovely green image, and some of this remains even when the monitor is disconnected. If in doubt, get a TV repair person to look. It's not, as we say, the science of the rocket....