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The screen on my Zoom H2 went very dim so that I could barely see anything. I tried adjusting the light but now the screen is completely dark. I've tried re-powering but that does not help. When I power up the mic light glows and when I press the record button the red light blinks as usual on the first push and then glows steady on the second push and then goes off on the third push so I think it is recording. I just can't see anything on the screen. Any ideas?

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  • I have the same problem. The display comes on but can not see anything. In previous posts speak of a capacitor to replace. Which? the photo is no longer available.
    – user18767
    Jul 18, 2016 at 8:52
  • Did you ever manage to resolve this? By any chance does the screen light up but without any text if you press the volume up/down buttons on the left side? I have one which does that. I looked for the brown spots like what you saw and the only places I noticed that were where a crystal was soldered in as well as where the power connector (on the main board) was soldered in. You might check the larger round aluminum electrolytics. Those things often go bad although that wasn't the issue with mine.
    – Dan Mc
    Nov 8, 2017 at 2:04

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Something similar happened to mine. After looking through the a Internet, it seems like the problem might be that the contrast setting can get accidentally set to the lowest setting, which is foolishly designed to be too low. The possible solution is to use the manual and carefully guide yourself through the menus to reset the contrast, but you have to do this blind.

But this didn't work in my case and I think mine is just dead (light comes on, but nothing else works.)

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My Zoom H2 had the same problem. The screen backlight worked, but nothing was displayed on the LCD. After a lot of testing and troubleshooting I found the culprit: a broken decoupling capacitor close to the LCD flat-flex connector (on the screen/SD-slot/keypad daughter board). I managed to solder in a replacement and lo and behold, the screen worked again! Perhaps worth a try?

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  • Johannes, thanks for your hint! I might have the same problem with the capacitor. I opened the H2 and found some brown spots which can apparently be caused by broke capacitors. Was it in your case the same capacitor as shown in this picture? !dropbox.com/s/1njwa33mourj983/P1020247.JPG?dl=0 If yes, what capacitor did you use to replace it?
    – user15020
    Jul 23, 2015 at 19:53
  • No, that's a crystal. The capacitor I changed was a ceramic surface mounted one, which looks like a light brown rectangular box, 2x1 mm, soldered in both ends. It was monted on the same board as in your photo, close to the ZIF connector for the LCD flat cable. I simply substituted something I had around, I think a slightly (physically) larger .1 µF cap, but I would recommend measuring the capacitance of nearby (similar) caps for verification!
    – Johannes
    Jul 31, 2015 at 13:55
  • Johannes, do you have a pic of which cap was cracked on yours? I looked at all of mine under a microscope and didn't see any cracks but that doesn't mean there isn't a bad solder joint I didn't spot.
    – Dan Mc
    Nov 8, 2017 at 2:04
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For your sake, I really hope Daniel's advice will do the trick. If not, this is cheap stuff, for better or for worse. The good thing is, it's affordable and gives an impressive bang for the buck. The not as good thing is they have to make up the low cost somehow, and as lower specs doesn't always mean cheap enough, the components are often a very cuttable corner I'm afraid, so things break easily. You did say that the screen turned black, which might indicate that the LED's have gone bye bye. Regretfully, those can be pretty unreliable, as for example the LED's on my old Roland JUNO-60 synth is over 30 years old and still going strong, but the LED on the volume-dial on my receiver (a far from cheap Sony) passed away last year after just a few years of service. On my Roland 505, on the other hand, the #%¤&%¤ LED killed the screen altogether due to a really stupid design-flaw... So money, in this case, isn't even always a guarantee for a long serviceable life...

I have no clue how easy the Zooms is to service as such, but if it's the LED's that has bellied up, then at least the LED's themselves are pretty cheap, and having it fixed SHOULDN'T bee too expensive. If there were more than one, then you should had gotten at least half the display lit. Be sure to get a price suggestion before submitting it though, as it otherwise MIGHT be cheaper to buy a new one if you're out of luck.

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  • Thanks for the suggestions and observations. I'm trying Daniel's suggestion but it is difficult working blind and as I consult the manual I don't find a completely sequential list of the menu categories so its hit and miss, mostly miss. Would the H2N be a reasonable and comparable replacement - portable, small learning curve, etc. or can you recommend a better option? Thanks much!
    – Roger
    Oct 31, 2014 at 19:39

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