It was a dark and stormy night…

When last we left our intrepid reporter he found himself stranded without use of his primary monitor and numerous choices with plenty of time to sort out the situation…or so he thought! Well, my friends, as luck would have it, the monitor gods looked with disfavor upon me and shortly after delivering my last opus on the subject, my trusty number two monitor failed.

Alas, have no fear for I am a man of action…when my hand is forced! I had appointments that day and I knew the local Fry's was on my way home. For those of you unfamiliar with Fry's or who don't have one in your area, when it comes to purchasing such computer items at a great price, they are practically unparalleled. They place full page ads Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the local newspaper and Sundays and holidays we are treated to a four page, color extravaganza of specials. Fry's is a three ring circus that would please even P.T. Barnum, except you don't have to be a sucker to purchase from Fry's, just a savvy buyer.

Checkbook and credit card in hand, I entered the center ring and I must say, at this point, I had pretty well decided I was going to buy that 19 inch Viewsonic CRT I had so relished. I made a minor mistake; I stopped to check out the flat panel LCD displays. Given the price of these delicacies you just know there are sales people waiting to pounce. I was checking out a 19 inch Viewsonic LCD in an under populated aisle when suddenly I was approached by a heretofore unseen salesman. I instinctively grabbed my wallet which turned out to be a foreshadowing event.

I was then informed by the salesman they had a terrific monitor for $100 less than the Viewsonic, no rebate required, that had a 700:1 contrast ratio and a brightness rating of 300 cd/m2 the highest in this price range. That was precisely what I was seeking; in fact it was better than what I was seeking. Now, at $100 less, I am sure you are wondering, "Less than what?" I shan't make you wait any longer; it was $100 less than $799. Yeah, I hear you. I'm glad I'm writing this because the figure caught in my throat too!

Still, $699 is a phenomenal price for a 19 inch LCD, incredible when you consider those specs. Lest you think this was some "no-name" special they were attempting to shove off on me, it was a Sharp, model LL-T19D1 in case you are interested in checking it out, http://www.sharpsystems.com/products/lcd_monitors/18-20_inch/ll-t19d1/#.

It's not as pretty as the Viewsonic LCD, if you click for the "larger image button" at the above link, you'll note it is black. The Viewsonic was a slick looking silver! But, when it comes to computers, I prefer substance over style. Now, not unmindful of the "dead pixel syndrome" I had mentioned in our last episode I purchased the three year warranty that allows me to simply bring the unit back to Fry's if anything goes wrong and they replace it, saving me the trouble of having to ship it back to the manufacturer. Also, Fry's replaces it with a new monitor, Sharp's warranty gives them the option of repairing or replacing it with a rebuilt or factory recertified unit. Frankly, if you're going to spend this much or more for a monitor or television, I highly recommend that in-store warranty. It was an additional $49.99 and I consider it a bit of an insurance policy. That's $16.67 a year for a little bit of peace of mind.

It's bright, it gives good image, I have a lot more real estate now on my computer desk to which I can add more clutter but they did leave out one thing, the cable for the DVI, digital video interface. That's extra. They did include the cable for the traditional analog connection. For the moment I'm living with that. I've also decided not to purchase another monitor for my backup system. For that, I'm planning on purchasing a KVM switch and since my mouse and keyboard are both USB I've picked out one of the following to handle the chore:

Iogear 2 port Mini/View USB KVM & Peripheral Sharing Switch
Mfg Part # GCS102U
Product Number 5017628
$99.13 CompUSA: www.compusa.com


Iogear MiniView™ III USB KVM and Peripheral Sharing Switch
Manufacturer: IOGEAR
Mfg Part #: GCS1712
Product Number: 50201463
Price: $119.83 CompUSA: www.compusa.com


Fry's doesn't have it at this price. I realize, for this amount of money, I could purchase a 17 inch or for a little more a 19 inch monitor for my backup system. However, I learned a lesson here, monitors do fail; well, I guess I knew that one and second, if you buy your backup monitor close to the time you buy your primary, it has a good chance of failing at the same time!

While there are times when having two different screens to view can be useful, for the most part, I found the arrangement a bit inconvenient. The KVM will allow me to boot the systems independently or boot them both and switch between them as I desire. For the most part, I used my backup for backup and since it was networked to my primary system, I really didn't need to see a monitor most of the time since dragging files across a network only requires a single monitor.

This has other advantages, it frees space the other monitor would have taken and it will give me energy savings in addition to whatever saving is derived from using an LCD as opposed to a CRT. It will also be a little cooler in the summertime. Two systems can heat up a room pretty good; add two CRTs as was my previous configuration and you have some serious heat going on!

I'm sure by now you are wondering what I did with the two monitors especially after making such a big deal about the fact you can't simply throw them away. I found a place not far from me called OSS-Spectrum: http://www.spectrumwest.com/donate.html You bring them the monitor and they charge an $8 fee per monitor and I believe that is up to 17 inches. You have to call them ahead of time to let them know and the price is subject to change. To put this in perspective however, I found other salvage sites wanted $20 or $30 a monitor or more so this was quite reasonable and they use disabled veterans. I did have to lug that 50 pound monitor down those stairs again. The 20 pound backup monitor was easy after that! I hope I didn't hurt myself.

You may recall I had several items I needed to replace so to complete the saga I will bring you up to date. I purchased a new bagless vacuum, the new car is on order as of this writing but the new monitor put enough of a crimp in my budget that the new television will have to wait a bit.

For my sake and the sake of my bank account, I hope this saga doesn't turn into a trilogy.