Our old 1990's Viewsonic 6E VGA Monitor emitted something into ourapartment. It caused severe burning eyes, nose, throat, and lungs;hitching in breathing, headache, nausea, flushed "hot" face, anddifficulty breathing. Plus, it made the air seem "heavy". The monitorwas in a room with all windows closed and central A/C on. This went onfor nearly three days, during which the monitor was on a total of 26hours. When we realized it was the monitor, we removed it from theapartment. We have been ventilating with all windows and doors openall hours with five fans running for two weeks now. The "gas" is stillin our apartment and causing the same symptoms (but milder unless weclose the windows). We are sleeping on the balcony and only go insidefor 20-30 minutes. On colder days (below 60 degrees) we can stayinside maybe an hour before we need fresh air. It's worse in warmertemperatures.Every computer person we've talked to says they've never heard of amonitor doing this. One person thought the monitor was burning oldplastic or had burned through to a dangerous plastic coating. The guywho was supposed to inspect it never came by. We live in a small townand there are not any true specialists in monitors here.I'm desperate to find out what this "gas" is--and how much damage ithas done (and is doing) to us. We have very little money and no otherplace to live. We are sleeping on the balcony, hoping that the "gas"will ventilate out. We fear it was absorbed by the carpeting (andother things) while the windows were closed and is now being releasedwhen it warms up. Considering it was a limited emission, we're hopingit will all release and be gone soon.Has anyone ever heard of something like this? Do you have any ideawhat the "gas" would have been? If so, do you think it will eventuallyblow out anytime soon (or in weeks, months)? Would turning on theheater help? If we move, is it absorbed into all our stuff and willmove with us and release into our new apartment?I emailed Sam Goldwasser...

Some part overheated and smoked. It is bad to breath but not fatal. Itreleases particulate products that will settle everywhere and give offlingering odors. The worst is over with airing things out. Treat as ifsmoke damage to the apartment. You will need to first throw out themonitor, because it would be too difficult to clean even if it is an easyrepair. The smell will linger in it. You will need to wash everything inthe Kitchen, utensils, pots and pans, windows, drapes,walls, all horizontal surfaces top to bottom. Vacuum carpet and upholstery,couch, and probably clean them as well.Just clean what smells the worst first and keep cleaning. Any time youthink you are finished, go outside for a while and come back in and find theworst again.You should have killed the power to the entire apartment until you found theproblem. Be grateful it isn't nuclear fallout.

What did VGA monitor emit?

Sep 04, 2009 25 Replies

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Mike Tomlinson 16 years ago

In article , Jeff Liebermann writes

I've seen it happen. Several times. You clearly haven't.

(\\__/) (=\'.\'=) Bunny says Windows 7 is Vi$ta reloaded. (")_(") http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/windows_7.png

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Michael A. Terrell 16 years ago

Only for amateurs.

You can\'t have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!

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propman 16 years ago

Red Green is certainly no amateur! ;-)

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Michael A. Terrell 16 years ago

No, he is a pro at screwing things up.

You can\'t have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!

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JB 16 years ago

I saw it with my own Viewsonic that I had to add caps across the line to knock down the RFI from it. One went Blooooeee 4 years later. Anything that smokes plastic or chars the board will stink the place up. The degaussing circuit interacts with the line too.

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JB 16 years ago

Gee in HS electronics we used to wire up caps backwards in another guys project or wire a small choke across the Bench power supply to see if anyone was quick enough to yank all the wires out. Great fun.

One guy did that and when the instructor was overlooking as it was powered up, wound up with a welt in his chest from the electrolytic.

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