Smoking a monitor

[Undertoad]

I was very suspicious of the monitor that had been attached to the Cellar pre-crash. It was acting kinda flaky, and it had been whining. (whaaaaa! you always set the contrast too high! this pile of books isn't a proper stand! this is a stupid site to browse!)

Jacquelita has been having computer problems and I have been helping her out. I fixed her system - it needed a whole new motherboard and a new install, so she brought the system over and I set it up with a new monitor I got to replace the old Cellar monitor.

She took it home and it didn't work because the refresh rate was too high for her monitor. She brought the whole thing over again, with her monitor, and it turns out she had a pretty old monitor, and it turns out it also had two bent pins and would not work any longer. I brought out the old Cellar monitor and offered it as a possibility. We booted the system up with it.

Well once it got to the point in the boot where it goes to the higher resolution, POP-fizzzzzzz and then this very fine smoke appears at the back of the monitor.

Luckily we were right by the porch doors and I could just pick it up and set it outside to smoke at will. But there you have it: the lesson being, if you install a setup for someone, make sure you set it up with a resolution and refresh rate that their monitor can handle.