Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!samsung!umich!ox.com!yale!cs.yale.edu!tesla.math.yale.edu!victor From: victor@tesla.math.yale.edu (Mladen Victor Wickerhauser) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Aging MegaPixel Summary: Summary of suggestions Keywords: focus Message-ID: <30356@cs.yale.edu> Date: 23 Apr 91 11:42:03 GMT Sender: news@cs.yale.edu Organization: Yale University Mathematics Department Lines: 111 Nntp-Posting-Host: tesla.math.yale.edu Hello, I received several different answers to my question of how to focus a fuzzy MegaPixel, ranging from "nothing can really be done" to "a trivial operation." So I went to Radio Shack and bought a TV alignment tool (=plastic screwdriver, $0.99) and took off the back. There are 7 holes in a metal shield, and two of them are labelled "Focus" and "CYK Focus". The "CYK Focus hole exposes a metal screw that is very hard to turn and seems to have no effect, but the "Focus" hole exposes a hex-screw that the alignment tool just fits, and it refocussed the screen just fine. The best procedure I found is to put a large Edit window on the screen, full of text, and try to get the best compromise between the edges and the center. Also, wisdom dictates leaving the back off until you have used the screen for a while. Below are the replies I received via e-mail: Regards, Victor ------ Mladen Victor Wickerhauser, victor@math.yale.edu, (203)498-1011 Dept. of Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 (USA) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return-Path: Date: Sun, 14 Apr 91 13:20:00 PDT From: grd@ccrma.stanford.edu To: victor@lom1.math.yale.edu Subject: out-of-focus screen Take the back off your display. There is a special tool (not special to NeXT: any TV repair supplier will have them) used for adjusting the focusing pots you'll find there. A trivial operation. At our lab, we focus the screens regularly. Return-Path: Date: Sun, 14 Apr 91 21:30:06 PDT From: madler@cobalt.cco.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) To: victor@tesla.math.yale.edu Subject: Re: Aging MegaPixel Newsgroups: comp.sys.next In-Reply-To: <30043@cs.yale.edu> Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Cc: I received my NeXT around August 1989, and around December 1990, the MegaPixel display started to lose it. It would go out of focus and also get intermittently dimmer. Someone on the net suggested I call NeXT, even though my warranty had run out. I did, and NeXT replaced the monitor, gratis! I was impressed. My usage was to leave it on all the time, but most of the time the monitor was blanked using Bryce Jasmer's LockScreen 2.1. I tried making some adjustments myself, and I could improve the focus over some parts of the screen, but could not focus the entire screen at once. I now turn my NeXT off when I'm not using it, hoping that this may increase the lifetime of my relatively new monitor. It helps that my machine boots a lot faster now with 2.0 and a 68040. Mark Adler madler@pooh.caltech.edu Return-Path: Date: Mon, 15 Apr 91 17:07:17 -0500 From: songer@ecn.purdue.edu (Christopher M Songer) To: victor@tesla.math.yale.edu Subject: Re: Aging MegaPixel Newsgroups: comp.sys.next In-Reply-To: <30043@cs.yale.edu> Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network Cc: I've got one. It has not yet showed signs of aging, but it will. I cannot be completely fixed. You can tweak some adjustments in the back to help it, but NeXT had production problems in their early models. Here at Purdue there is a lab of NeXTs, and the early ones are going. Every so often they adjust them, but there is nothing that can really be done. I'm planning on buying a new one when it gets too bad. -Chris Return-Path: Date: Tue, 16 Apr 91 12:39:51 MDT From: jpm@spectrum.lanl.gov (Pat McGee) To: victor@tesla.math.yale.edu Subject: Re: Aging MegaPixel Cc: jpm@spectrum.lanl.gov Victor, I was told last week by one of our service-persons that the cause to the tube going out of focus, and also loosing brightness, was that there was a very slow air leak into the CRT. Apparently there was a bad batch of tubes from the supplier (Sony?). I was also told that the supplier is warrantying then to NeXT, and that NeXT was warrantying them to their customers, regardless of length of time you've had them. We've reportedly had 5-6 of ours go bad (out of ~40). I have no personal knowledge of any of this; I'm just passing on what I was told. Pat McGee, jpm@lanl.gov -- ------ Mladen Victor Wickerhauser, victor@math.yale.edu, (203)498-1011 Dept. of Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 (USA)