[JohnR]

2 bulging caps - the rest are flat (large pics)

http://www.striped-bass.com/images/caps/badcaps1.jpg

http://www.striped-bass.com/images/caps/badcaps2.jpg

http://www.striped-bass.com/images/caps/badcaps3.jpg

I ran into this article and found the same condition on a slightly older version of the same board: http://www.fixya.com/support/t123065...fly_goes_blank

Well my Acer AL1711 finally gave up in as much as the screen flashed briefly at switch-on then went blank, regardless of brilliance setting so I decided to take it apart and try to fix it. The good news is that IT WAS NOT THE LAMPS that I feared in my earlier post and was easier than I had ever dreamed! First allow a good period of time for the internal components to discharge before starting. Remove the plastic clip at the base hinge to expose 4 screws - remove all four to release the stand. Then remove the 4 black cross head screws that appear to hold the back on, they do but there is more to do. Carefully tease the silver surround away from the case, best to start in the centre of each side and finish at the corners. There are many plastic clips to release before the surround comes away. Now remove the four cross head screws holding the pushbutton switch circuit board. The whole assembly can now be removed from the case and reveal a metal cover held by 2 SHORT (remember that!) SHORT! threaded machine screws. These once removed will allow the case to be slid away from the holding tabs located down the edges of the cover and removed. Now unplug the connectors from the board that has the mains input connector attached to it. You will see a heatsink with 4 electrolytic caps above it. Silly ACER designers, have placed the capacitors so that they get all the heat from the heatsink! Yes folks, the capacitors are above the heatsink when the monitor is in its normal operating position! So all the convected heat dries them out, nice. So the fault is due to a silly design error!
Replace all 4 capacitors, two of them are 1000uF at 16V and the other two are 470uF at 16V, all radial types. Try and get capacitors with the highest operating temperature, at least 105 degree types and remember these are polarised, make sure you connect the capacitor + wire to + on the circuit board. You should have no problems with re-assembly but don't put the wrong screw where the short ones went or you are liable to see it come out of the screen LOL! Most important - - Don't forget the screw holding the earth tag to chassis. Good Luck, you will be amazed how much brighter the screen is now!