DIYguy

Repair LCD monitor (soyo topaz s)

2011-05-15T15:49:00.003-04:00

This is going to be a step by step on fixing a Soyo Topaz S lcd monitor. This particular LCD has a bad power supply and is a common problem with many LCD's. This will probably relate to other models but not have the exact same steps.

The first problem that has to be addressed is finding a new PSU. The only source that I have found is through taobao.com and search for m24e14. An easy way to purchase is using the site engtaobao.com, they are somewhat of a "middle man" for taobao.com which is a chinese ebay type of website. If you use google chrome you can have it automatically translate the chinese site for you so you know what you are looking at. You enter the website of the item you want and use the checkout. It is an exact replacement for your bad power supply, the one they shipped me was actually better than the original.

Once you order and wait a couple of weeks for it to ship from china you are ready for the fun part (taking things apart!). We are going to do this with an eye for detail though, we don't want missing screws and all the headaches that accompany having extra screws at the end. The tools you will need for this are simple tools you should already have.
1. P1 screwdriver "Phillips head"
2. Container for screws
3. Something to pry the panel open, you could use a butter knife/anything that will wedge between the panel
4. Electrical tape to help your prying tool not damage the plastic panel
5. Towel or blanket to lay the screen on

So after you have all those tools together it is time to take the monitor off the base. It should be about 6 screws. Once you have done that, lay the monitor on its face and start unscrewing the panel back. There are 12 screws that hold the back on, the 4 in the center you can set to the side in your screw container. The others just unscrew and leave them in the wholes so they don't go missing or get mixed up.

Once you have everything unscrewed it is time for you to pry the panel apart, do not be scared of the sounds you will hear as you are doing this. I like to start at the top then work my way around to the bottom. After you get to the bottom pull back and up and you should have the back panel safely removed from the front and if you were careful when prying you did not scar the plastic. Now sit that back panel in a safe place and don't turn it over or you will have a 30min screw hunting exploration.

You are now staring at the inside of your monitor and the hard part is done my friends. 4 screws, 3 cables and some foil tape are holding back from getting a look at that psu. Once you remove those you can carefully remove the cables. Note that one of them is taped down, I just cut the tape making sure I didn't accidentally mess up a wire. Safely pull the foil tape off and save for reuse. At this point you can slowly turn over the psu housing making sure you do not pull very hard because things are still attached and we want to keep it that way to make it easy on ourselves.

You can see the psu has 2 connector and 4 screws that you need to remove. Once you remove them you can pull the psu out. The trick is to pull on the bottom side and slide out the back, this keeps you from damaging the power socket.

Now that you have that out you can replace with your new psu from China. Make sure you are as careful putting it back together as you took it apart. It is a good idea to test and see if it works before you put the back of the panel on. You should see light from the screen and you are now home free. Button that sucker back up, grab a beer or soda and enjoy the fruits of your labor! You earned it, because you just saved yourself some serious cash and got the satisfaction of DIY If anyone has anything to add or just wants to say hello, please leave comments!

How I got out of a $168 ticket

2011-04-13T19:41:00.000-04:00

So I had to go to court today for a traffic ticket. The cool thing about it is the Cop that pulled me let me know how I could get out of it so I am posting to pass the tip along.

All I had to do is go to the courtroom, show that I had fixed the problem with my tags and they just said case dropped, no questions asked or anything. It only set me back a little time (maybe 10 minutes) and $1 for parking. Another little tip the cop told me was to go between 2-3:30 so it wouldn't be so busy and he was right because I was the only one in line. So ditch the lawers fees, the crazy fines and just DIY. This tip saved me $168 and even more if I got a lawer. Good luck.

Well everyone this is a test

2011-04-13T13:27:00.001-04:00

Well everyone this is a test to see how mobile I can be with my blogging. My computer is old and doesn't hold a charge so I need a way to post some stuff when I'm out and about. The picture is of my beat up desk/table and all of the text is from my trusty Palm Pre.

Well it is apparent that I will be having some trouble with this type of posting because it is hard to get it looking right and it looks so much different from the usual format. I will be doing some research into this and post some of my finding on how to get it to work better.

Making a great cup of coffee

2011-04-13T09:14:00.003-04:00

I just made the worst cup of coffee so it is my mission to figure out the best way. It will be an ongoing project because im sure it will take a while to figure out. If anyone wants to chime in please do so because Lord and NYC knows that there is more than one worlds best coffee.

Sooo this video is funny and it makes my job easy. Im going to try it out and tell you all what I think of it. All the non existent followers out there please send in your suggestions.

Making a portable camping stove

2011-04-12T18:59:00.001-04:00

My next DIY is going to be a super portable camping stove. Why you might ask? Well because I hope to go camping soon and I am not going to pay over $100 on a tiny little stove when I know I can make one better and so much cooler than the ones you buy in the stores. To the left is a little taste of what we will be using for our SPCS (super portable camping stove) ohhh boy this sure is going to be FRESH!

My first diy project "making this blog"

2011-04-12T08:22:00.005-04:00

Well I figured that my first project should be about the making of this blog. I wanted to do this blog as a creative outlet for the things I like to do on a regular basis and to learn something new. All of the equipment that is needed to do this blog has not been completely acquired as of yet but I hope that it will not slow me down too much or take away from others enjoyment. I will only be using my Sprint Palm Pre for pictures and video until I am able to scrape enough money together to get something a little more fancy. Later on I may get my girlfriend to take pics with her Nikon D3100. So here is a list of what I am using for this project.

Palm Pre for pics and video
Toshiba Satellite laptop for typing and uploading
Google's free blogspot thanks google
Time we all wish we had more

The first thing you should do is figure out what you want to blog about and try to get it organized in your head. Once you have done that get a google email account, its easy and just makes the whole thing simple. After you set up your your gmail account just go to www.blogger.com this will take you through all the steps you need to set up your very own blog. Its very beginner friendly, which is exactly what I needed. The whole process only takes about 5 minutes and you will have your blog up and running. The picture in this post was just a picture that I took with my phone and then emailed to myself. I was then able to copy and paste the picture into my post box. This was a rough and very quick first blog post to try and get my feet wet. I will be posting lots more detailed diy projects that will be a little more familiar to me in the future and hopefully much more entertaining.