Buying used standalone monitor (with mic+camera)

Fixing and making things, what tools to get and what skills to learn, ...
Post Reply
Stahlmann
Posts: 1121
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:05 pm

Buying used standalone monitor (with mic+camera)

Post by Stahlmann »

An additional monitor is on my wish list for a long time for productivity reasons. I wasn't able to find it outside work-buy-throw away cycle. I'll have 1-year warranty. What can go wrong after 1 yr? Any interesting repair stories? Yes, there's YouTube, fixit etc., but I like interaction with this community.

It seems that in system view buying new laptop in this price range (100 USD) would be more effective, because of additional work station for my family, but I'm interested in something 19"+ size so I need to leave alone this path.

Or... buying ancient desktop setup (workstation+monitor+mic+camera+hoping that this would work for the next 5+ years on some simple Linux). But in this mode, my family will make fun of me, because they're (were) used to buy high-end solutions (I can't afford this way atm).
Last edited by Stahlmann on Sun Oct 24, 2021 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
unemployable
Posts: 1007
Joined: Mon Jan 08, 2018 11:36 am
Location: Homeless

Re: Buying used standalone monitor (with mic+camera)

Post by unemployable »

Monitors can last many years and if this is the US consider we have Black Friday coming up. I use a 1920x1080 19" monitor that I picked up for $99 during Black Friday six or seven years ago.

Monitors are basically stripped-down tvs. I tired fixing my tv a few months ago. Thought it was the fuse, took it apart, replaced the fuse. The tv was NOT designed for anything inside to be easily replaceable however, so I had tv parts all over the place. Anyway, when I turned it on the new fuse was fine but then some capacitor blew. That was beyond my willingness to repair.

Point is you can try the obvious fixes but plan on just getting another one when it breaks.

Serendipitously enough I scored a free tv a couple weeks later, nicer than the old one, when I was helping a friend declutter a house. In fact one or two other free tvs within my social network became available around the same time, from simply having asked around. It's the kind of thing people may not be replacing immediately, but after a month or two stuff happens and maybe they've told their friends.

Laptops I'd rather buy new and pay up for some of the more recent innovations such as solid state drives and faster USB connectors. With a used one you're already a good bit down the cycles-to-failure/obsolescence curve.

Post Reply