The additive primary colors are red, green and blue.  The three of them are
added together to produce white.  Just red and green will produce yellow.
Brown is just a low intensity yellow.  It sounds to me like you are having a
problem with the circuitry responsible for displaying the blue.

If your entire display was darkening all the time, that could mean that your
CRT was going bad.  Given that this is an intermittent problem, and that
only the blue is affected, some other component is going bad, and it might
take a qualified service technician to figure out what it is.  It might be
worth looking into, because it's probably something a lot less expensive
than the CRT.

One possibility you should definitely look into is your cable.  The cable
could have a broken wire, and need to be replaced, or the problem could be
with one of the jacks.  Given that this is a three year old monitor, the
jack may have a loose connection, or might simply need cleaning.  I would
look into these possibilities before paying someone else to fix it.

If the monitor needs to be replaced, you should be able to get a good deal
on a used one, from any place that repairs computers, or sells custom built
systems, particularly if the accept trade ins.  Alterneatively, if you get a
factory recertified monitor from tigerdirect.com, you won't be able to tell
it from a new one.

Allen D. Montgomery

----- Original Message -----
From: "William Closure" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 11:58 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] monitor brightness fading


> I have a Gem 19" monitor, about 3 years old.  Periodically, the white
areas
> on the screen turn slightly yellow/brown, not unlike leaving a newspaper
in
> the sun for a few days.  It's not extreme.  (In fact, my 15 year old was
> rather skeptical when I asked if he noticed anything strange, but then
that's
> the usual response I get from him on most counts)  Obviously it's enough
for
> me to notice, but not so much so that I would ask a teenager for
affirmation.
>
> Is the monitor going?  What about the catchall solution, a thorough air
> blasting of the inards (understanding that I could be self-administering
> electroshock therapy?)
>
> Thoughts?
>
> William Closure
>
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