What To Do?

Ten days ago our trusty 6 year-old Dell 1800FP monitor gave up the ghost. We immediately went out and bought an all-the-rage wide screen monitor to replace it.

Now I have this big ol’ dead 18.1″ LCD monitor sitting on the floor here and I stub my toe on it every time I pull my coat off the rack by the door. You can’t just chuck these things out anymore because you will be ruining the planet for future generations. You have to wait for the twice a year electronic recycling day and then you have to pay for the privilege of them taking it off your hands.

A quick check of eBay shows that a working version of this monitor is worth anywhere from $60 + shipping to $100 + free shipping. A Google search for “dell 1800fp repair” leads to a bunch of forums talking of blown power supplies and not surprisingly eBay with said power supplies for sale or repair.

I disassembled the monitor and pulled out the power supply. On the back of the connector from P/S to the control board it lists the output of each of the pins. I plugged the power cord into the wall and with my cheapo multimeter checked for voltage. Nothing. No +5VDC nor anything where there was supposed to be +15VDC.

Should I, A) pay $25 where I send in my power supply, it gets repaired and then sent back, B) spend $45 and just buy a refurbished P/S or C) put the monitor by the curb and hope someone comes along and picks it up?

A couple of pertinent pieces of information. I really don’t need the the repaired monitor, there is no space left on the computer desktop for dual monitors nor do I want the hassle of selling it on eBay.