Problem with Samsung SyncMaster SA300 24" (LS24A300BS/EN)

I received a broken Samsung monitor (model name/no in title) that some else had given up on. When no cable was attached, it seemed to work great, with a "No signal" message floating across the screen. As soon as a cable with signal was passed however, the screen would go completely black (no backlighting). The problem was fixed with a firmware update available on Samsungs website. I had to use a DVI cable to get the update software to detect the monitor in Win7 64-bit, but did not have to install monitor specific drivers beforehand, only the firmware update was required. I tried at first to update using VGA cable - that didn't work (that laptop might have been incompatible as well).

Unfortunatelly I managed to order a new mainboard - part no BN96-18431A, supposedely compatible with BN94-04264A and should work in LS24A300BS/ZA as well - I'll try to cancel that order but if I can't, then I guess I have this spare mainboard to sell :)

By the way quality of this monitor is shit. I wouldn't recommend anyone buying it :) However it's low power consumption (< 30W), external supply, no inverter board and generally very few components to fail and very few and small capacitors to break, one would think it would be fairly reliable, but not as long as they make this shitty firmware for it :( Also its a screwless design held together with plastic hooks. Cheap cheap cheap. This is my first Samsung monitor, probably my last too...

Some good resources that helped me when I was troubleshooting the monitor, or that might be useful to other people having problems with their monitor

Badcaps.net Forums - great forum for troubleshooting monitors and other things (things with failed capacitors in particular) :)

PacParts - original spare part store, ships internationally and relatively cheap


ShopJimmy.com - great second hand spare part store

Understanding and finding Samsung monitor part numbers - very good information, note that Samsung parts can have many BNXX-numbers on them but it's important to look for the proper ones. On my mainboard the partno was hiding in the middle of a long alphanumeric string (close to a barcode). while plenty of other less important BN numbers were printed on stickers and parts across the board.

I hope this useful to anyone!