My 2 year old Syncmaster 740N often has multiple faint images behind text in any program and multiple faint desktop icons making it look "smeared"; some days worse than others; resolution is correct at 1280*1024. some days hard to read, other days OK.

http://www.lcdpart.com/images/ccflinstallation.pdf

We need to narrown down the causes first by trying this monitor with a good working PC to make sure it is not monitor problem, we do not want to open uip the monitor unless we have to.
Post back what you find, if it is monitor problem then please read below:

Basic LCD monitor troubleshooting guide:

http://www.fixya.com/support/r6150077-basic_lcd_monitors_troubleshooting

Failed TV and Monitors: http://s807.photobucket.com/home/budm/allalbums

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
Capacitors kit: http://lcdalternatives.auctivacommerce.com/ he can make you a set of caps for you.

If the LCD monitor has a faint Windows image, then the LCD monitor has a back-ligkt problem and it could have a faulty inverter board or a faulty CCFL lamp.
Parts and service are available from LCD Parts, their WEB site is :-
www.lcdparts.net

If you can see the screen image very faintly, the backlight system has shut down. This can be due to a component failure (driver transistor, transformer, or ccfl tube) or action by the backlight controller. Without disassembly and more information (test results) from within it is not possible to diagnose further.

i had the same problem with my Dell computer and Samsung 931a monitor....after being on the phone with Dell for overe two hours and setting up a technician visit, i googled "computer monitor double image".....i went to Fixya and read several tips, but the one most often repeated worked immediately!....check and tighten your blue plug from your monitor to your computer!!

Hey dont open the LCD in a hurry......the problem may be due 2 usage of LCD 4 long time better dont on the pc for a day........or in night time keep it under the fan.......this may give a better result........

If you know a little about electronics? You can open the unit up, find the power supply. Look at the tops of the caps. Are they bulgging on the top? If they are, they are bad. Sometimes there might be 4 to 6 caps that are bad. If the caps you are replacing are 16v replace them with 25v if 25v go to 35v, Always keep the same mfd rating. Some caps are under rated in these ;units. Make sure you don't get them in backwards, I found bad caps in my samsung 740, but this may or may not be the case with yours. Hope this is helpful.

Hello,

This sounds like the inverter power supply has gone out. This is a very common problem for LCD monitors after a few years.In the 740N monitors they used two different power supplies but both had the same problems. If you can open the monitor and take a few pictures of the board and email them to me at [email protected] I will tell you what needs to be done on that version of board. If you don't want to do the repair yourself we do offer a repair service for $35 plus return shipping.

Buddy
Corporate Computer
www.ccl-la.com

Power on monitor is on but faint back light

Try removing signal cable and refitting at both ends.
Signal cable also could be faulty.
Samir