The monitor: A seven-year-old Sun GDM-5410. Very nice 21" CRT, way better than the Viewsonic VX910 LCD it replaced (at one-fifth the price).

The problem: Low, intermittent buzzing. Runs for 1-10 minutes or so, probably once or twice per hour on average.

When it first started (~3 months ago) sometimes smacking it hard on the side silenced it for quite a while. Now it's ineffective. Once I smacked both sides at once and it made part of the screen very flickery for a while (like the refresh rate dropped to 40Hz or something).

I've turned off my stereo amp and my lights to see if that helps, no, it's not that.

Display is unaffected.

Are there reasonable DIY fixes? I'd prefer NOT to switch to a new monitor, as all that's left that I can afford and get a warranty on are widescreen 20" LCDs (I think I'll miss the height, and I'm fairly sure I'll miss the pixels going from 1600x1200 to 1680x1050).

Alternatively, any thoughts on a decent 20" viewable display in the 200-250 range (WHEN PURCHASED LOCALLY-- I WILL NOT BUY A PIG IN A POKE MONITOR)

Faraday Cage?

Quote: Originally Posted by Gzim Faraday Cage?

And where exactly am I going to find a faraday cage big enough to house a 21" CRT in?

And aside from that, what effect would that have if it's an AUDIBLE buzz? If it were, say, inducing a signal on the input to the amplifier (or the speaker wires themselves) which became a buzz, it's one thing, but for an actual buzz, it's another.

:embarrassed look: The buzzing actually continued for a short time after switching off the monitor just now, so it must be something else and my inability to isolate every object in the room is coming to attack me.

Have you tried changing the refresh rate? That often resolves buzzing noises from CRTs.

If I could trigger it on demand, I could probably do a lot better testing. Since I noticed it outlived turning the monitor off, I almost wonder if it's the ceiling fan-- since this is Arizona, it runs pretty much all day, and I suppose that where I sit could be a point of convergence.

Make sure you don't have a cell phone nearby. Mine tends to make my monitor buzz every so often and pulling it away fixes it.

Quote: Originally Posted by Hak Foo And where exactly am I going to find a faraday cage big enough to house a 21" CRT in? And aside from that, what effect would that have if it's an AUDIBLE buzz? If it were, say, inducing a signal on the input to the amplifier (or the speaker wires themselves) which became a buzz, it's one thing, but for an actual buzz, it's another. :embarrassed look: The buzzing actually continued for a short time after switching off the monitor just now, so it must be something else and my inability to isolate every object in the room is coming to attack me.

While I was being sarcastic, it could be the smallest outside thing that is causing interference. But it could be something inside too... Not a whole lot of help that be given in either case really...

The Buzzing is probably the CRT Transformer, it could be ready to go. The transformer is probably the part that is going to go first in a CRT.

I had that problem... turns out my monitor didn't like handling the resolution I was at. If I moved down from 1024x768 to 800x600 it made the noise stop. I could sit at 1024x768 for a little while, but it seems if I changed too many screens, it would start to buzz.