Embarrassing problem :/

[granny]

Thought that'd get some attention

OK, I've knackered my work monitor... yesterday we had an official visit thingy with a member of the cabinet in the building so we all had to wear proper name/security badges and they were magnetic rather than using pins. They had mega powerful magnets on them - powerful enough to have a warning about pacemakers on the back.

So, after the day was over we naturally had a play with the magnets (as you do) and I decided to wave mine over my monitor - pretty patterns ensued!

...and stayed Oo.

There's all swirly patterns all over the screen now and they won't go away I've left the monitor off overnight, tried repeatedly degaussing it, nothing makes any difference. I feel like a bit of a plonker and can't really get away with phoning up the IT support here and telling them what I've done, it's a brand new 19" monitor and I'll get shot :/

Anyone got any ideas if it's fixable and if so how?

Thanks

 

[leggy]

I have no idea how to fix your problem. I only posted to say thanks for cheering me up this morning

Thanks

 

[TdC]

drop the thing, then call and tell them it "just stopped working"

use a paperclip to stop your poota's psu fan, wait till it fries, then call and tell them "just stopped working"

call, and tell them the truth (you dropped your badge, put it on the monitor while you went and got a coffee, now monitor is borked)

 

[granny]

drop the thing, then call and tell them it "just stopped working"

use a paperclip to stop your poota's psu fan, wait till it fries, then call and tell them "just stopped working"

call, and tell them the truth (you dropped your badge, put it on the monitor while you went and got a coffee, now monitor is borked)

 

[Cask]

Think you'd need specialist equipment to sort that out. TV repairmen carry this magnetic stick thing which they wave over the front (I assume) to correct that kind of problem. Bet they're pretty expensive too.

Can't you wait till everyone has gone home and swap your monitor for someone elses? That's probably what I'd do

 

[Tom]

Best thing to do is leave it powered on, eventually the discolouration will fade.

What you're seeing is the metallic mesh (shadow mask) that rests behind the phosphor on your screen, has become magnetised. When that happens, the electron beam that would normally travel straight through the hole in the mesh and onto the phosphor (producing a pixel) is being bent by this magnetic field, and hitting the wrong area of the screen.

It will go away eventually. If it doesn't, then a deguassing tool will be needed.

Try this though (warning, could be painful if not done correctly)

Get a piece of tin foil. Put it on your screen. Disconnect the power. The foil should hang on the screen. Then get a friend to pull it off. Laugh hysterically as he writhes in pain from the big static shock he gets.

 

[granny]

Get a piece of tin foil. Put it on your screen. Disconnect the power. The foil should hang on the screen. Then get a friend to pull it off. Laugh hysterically as he writhes in pain from the big static shock he gets.

*goes to try this out*

 

[Tom]

PS I was told about this years ago, and indeed the foil does stick on the screen.

No fucking way would I ever touch it, apparantly it can be very painful

Take your chances m8.

 

[Panda On Smack]

or, pull it off with something that doesnt conduct?

 

[Xavier]

A friend of mine did the exact same thing recently, sort of.

His company decided to give everyone little magnetic calendars to go on the front of their drawers. But instead of immediately fitting, said freind put the calendar on top of a stack of papers, and when tidying the desk moved the stack and somewhere inbetween the calendar ended up firmly planted on his the monitor screen.

Unless you did it deliberately there's no way you can 100% 'know' how a magnet got there when asked, just that it _did_ (hence accident) and that's all you need to say unless someone witnessed you do it. It's not something which can be fixed economically as the wire mesh behing the glass has been pulled forwards - hence the patterns. Only solution is a new screen which IT support should supply you with.

It's accidents such as these, which companies have insurance for, surely?

Xav

 

[xane]

I feel like a bit of a plonker and can't really get away with phoning up the IT support here and telling them what I've done, it's a brand new 10" monitor and I'll get shot

Having worked in IT support departments for many years I think you are depriving some very hard working people of having a good old chuckle at your expense. Don't worry about the "plonker" tag, you are one anyway and, in fact, IT support staff regard this as the default.

I remember a story of how someone spilt a cup of coffee over the keyboard and phoned support who told them to rinse it under the tap and let it dry out, problem was the user did not inform the support guys it was a laptop.

 

[granny]

It's accidents such as these, which companies have insurance for, surely?

Insurance? University of Nottingham? HAHHHahahAHAHhahhhahAHAHAHhaHAHhahah HHAhhAHhahahha

*gasp*

HHAhahHAhahhahhhahhhHAHhahhahahahahhahhahahahhhaAHhha

*choke*

*die*

 

[granny]

Oh and I've emailed them saying someone propped a clip-board with the name badge stuck on it up against my monitor

 

[Xavier]

Good good, let us know how you get on.

Xav

 

[xane]

You're still a plonker for letting them do it, then [/support]

 

[SheepCow]

lol

 

[throdgrain]

Listen, just front it out.

Once many years ago I was told by my employer to take a car and drive about 10 miles to get something. I did, and on the way back I had a little accident.
Well, actually I was trying to adjust the radio, and hit the central reservation barrier. At about 80 mph.
I kept the car under control and came to a halt a few hundred yards up the road. The right hand side of the car was totalled. From front to back, every single bit of it.
So , what did I do ? I crawled underneath and pulled out as many thistles etc that I could find, then went back to the company. When I got there i said wow look whats happened to this car ! It was fine when I parked it, I came out and look !
No-one believed me I expect, but had I said Look I did this, Id probably of got the sack, as it was all was well.

 

[smurkin]

I did the same thing....I was showing off with errol, this big phallic magnetic stirrer bar I bought...only moved it 6 inches from my colleague's monitor and it went berzerk and took a week to return to normal

 

[SilverHood]

you tired degauzing the monitor?

worked when we played around with magnets and monitors in school, though it sometime took a week or so to go away completely.

 

[Xavier]

I've left the monitor off overnight, tried repeatedly degaussing it, nothing makes any difference.

I'll give you three guesses

 

[granny]

Extra bonus laugh - just borrowed a stapler out of the desk drawer of the person who sits opposite me. A person who earlier on today was complaining that none of her floppy disks would work. In the same desk drawer as the stapler was her name badge with the uber-magnet on. On top of the pile of floppy disks

 

[Tom]

I reckon thats parts of the disc itself becoming magnetised, I'd be very surprised if the magnet had enough power to alter the contents of the disc.

 

[granny]

I reckon thats parts of the disc itself becoming magnetised, I'd be very surprised if the magnet had enough power to alter the contents of the disc.

Just experimented. Found old floppy disk, checked it worked ok. Copied files on & off.

Place uber-magnet name badge on top of it for 10 seconds.

Disk no worky no more. At all.

 

[Tom]

Like I said, its probably the mechanical parts of the disc that are being magnetised, that stop the heads being able to correctly read the information stored on the floppy.

It takes quite a strong field to change the state of a tape/floppy disc.

 

[Vae]

Like I said, its probably the mechanical parts of the disc that are being magnetised, that stop the heads being able to correctly read the information stored on the floppy.

It takes quite a strong field to change the state of a tape/floppy disc.

Ooo I remember using magnets to wipe the contents of 5 1/4" discs for the BBC and then reuse the disk. I guess they work differently then...

 

[Xavier]

Like I said, its probably the mechanical parts of the disc that are being magnetised, that stop the heads being able to correctly read the information stored on the floppy.

It takes quite a strong field to change the state of a tape/floppy disc.

The slider and biscuit in a floppydisc are generally made of non ferous metals, the two I still have here, generally used for BIOS flashing etc are aluminum.

The magnetic field needed to write a floppy is minute, proportional to the denisty of the data on the surface - think about it... if the heads of a drive needed to generate a large field then the area of effect generated by the field would also be huge.

Any magnets can easily damage or completely garble the contents of a floppy, back in the late 90's I did some work for a firm who used a lot of floppies for some pretty arcane tasks and after 20 uses disposed of them - but not before passing them through the magnetic equivalent of a shredder, a big bin with two magnetised plates, separated by a 6mm gap which the discs dropped through. Forever erasing their contents in the process.

 

[Xavier]

Ooo I remember using magnets to wipe the contents of 5 1/4" discs for the BBC and then reuse the disk. I guess they work differently then...

No, that's right, once wiped you can reformat and continue to use. The heads on formatting re-align all the filings in the discs surface and you're good to go.

Xav

 

[SilverHood]

granny, try working late one night.... find someone who has left their uber magnet out.

Swap your monitor with that one, and place uber magnet near the knackered monitor... and turn it on..... when they come in the next day, they'll think they left it there.... and broke the monitor themselves.

you have working monitor.... someone else gets the rap.... problem solved? (if it works )

 

[fatbusinessman]

I remember a story of how someone spilt a cup of coffee over the keyboard and phoned support who told them to rinse it under the tap and let it dry out, problem was the user did not inform the support guys it was a laptop.

*roffles*

 

[Xavier]

granny, try working late one night.... find someone who has left their uber magnet out.

Swap your monitor with that one, and place uber magnet near the knackered monitor... and turn it on..... when they come in the next day, they'll think they left it there.... and broke the monitor themselves.

you have working monitor.... someone else gets the rap.... problem solved? (if it works )

Most firms have audit data which registers the serial numbers of each item against the machine, which is in turn registered to the user, that way when something is lost or stolen, or for that matter found, they know who to thwap.

Swappy monitor, risk getting sacky = bad
Xav