Hi there, I have a CRT monitor that was given to me for free and after a few days use, I nudged the vga cable and began having distorted color on my screen. Essentially the monitor only displays in green, unless I twist the base of my vga cable into a precise kink-twist, and the colors display fine. But I have no way of 'holding' the kink in place without some ghetto rigging and I cannot afford to pay someone to fix it. Does anyone here know of any guides or resources or even the exact way I could fix it myself. The vga cable is also integrated into the monitor, so no way to detach, unless I attempt to take the monitor apart, which I want to be sure is the only way before I try to fix it. I also took 2 pictures to show the screen, and the problem area of the cable. http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/... http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/...

Case cover taken off, vga cable snakes further inside. http://img53.imageshack.us/my.php?i...

Although the PC end of monitor cables are all the same, the way they connect inside the monitor is proprietary. Otherwise you could just use a cable from any defective monitor. You can probably buy an exact replacement cable but prices vary by model and are usually at least $30--more than you should expect to pay for a good used monitor. Most likely the insulation of one of the cable's internal wires is worn off and is shorting against the cable shielding. Or a wire's conductor is broken and only making intermittent contact. If you really want to mess with it versus finding another monitor at goodwill, you'll need to cut off the outer cable insulation over the bad area and expose the internal wires. You can use a razor blade but be careful you don't slice into the individual wires. Then examine them to see if you can find the bad wire(s). If it's an exposed wire, tape it up with some heat shrink tape (from places like radio shack). It's going to be more complicated if it's a break in one of the wires. You'll need to wiggle each one until you find the defective one. Then scrape off its insulation and reconnect the broken pieces. You may need a small extra piece of wire since they'll be an overlap between the pieces and you want to keep all the wires about the same length. I always solder wires and then cover the exposed joint with heat shrink tape. When you're done with the individual wires tape up the exposed area of the cable and you're done. I'd just throw the thing out but if monitors are scarce where you're at then I guess you might want to try the repair.

I agree with Dave. A green screen means that the blue wire in the cable is broken (probably at the PC connector). It's a common problem that occurs when the monitor is moved around a lot. It can be fixed, but it's a tricky job on one of those cramped vga connectors, and probably too tough for someone without any experience.

Don't play with it. Discard it properly, buy a new LCD. Danger! It is very dangerous for an untrained person to open a CRT. Very high voltages can exist and an implosion and toxic material condition can also exist. Death and injury can occur. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

Jefro maybe if you read the part where I said I can't afford to even fix it. ;] And plus CRT's are still better for FPS gaming and I already have another great LCD but it just doesn't cut it. Thanks for the guide David, not sure if I would know where to find any extra piece of wire if that were the case, but my gut tells me its probably just shorting from the insulation. Will update once I get into the thick of it.

Guess you have free health insurance. You might need it. Good luck. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10