I have an old LCD monitor that I use for a second screen on my PC. A week or so ago I booted up and when it came out of standby it had a band of distortion across it, making about 1/4 of the screen unusable. I tossed it in the closet for a few days, then when I had some time I pulled it out and tore it down. The internals were - frankly - pristine. I got what seemed like correct results for continuity everywhere, and all the caps showed reasonable values, except one very tiny one, but I think that was just so small that my meter filled it to capacity almost immediately. I didn't tear into the actual LCD matrix because it's encased in its own shell and it's a bit beyond my power level in any case.

(photo attached)

One thing that did occur to me is that this may be a timing issue. That is, it may be that somehow the matrix refresh is out of sync with the VGA circuitry, such that the v-blank timing region is being shown on the screen. It's weird, because the band itself is perfectly stable in that region, never moving up or down at all, so I think that would rule out the crystal, since a damaged crystal would produce a rolling band, unless it miraculously output a direct factor of its intended frequency. That's all just speculation, though. I have one of those fake USB scopes, but it's nowhere near fast enough to measure a crystal like this, so I really don't know.

Anyway, has anyone ever seen something like this?

I'd really appreciate any advice. I can get a new monitor, but I need to pay some bills first, so if I can save this one that would be great.

Cheers.