What the heck does this button do?

[crptcblade]

the degauss button on the monitor. It turns the screen goofy for a second or two, but what's it really doing?

[Guv]

Static electricity can build up on the screen and cause minor problems with the image. The degauss button does something to get rid of the static electricity.

[Jim Brown]

Herr Guass had a magnetic personality, so I think to degauss something (and BTW we used to do this to tapes zillions of years ago) is to zap the residual magnetic thingies.

[parksie]

Originally posted by Jim Brown
Herr Guass had a magnetic personality, so I think to degauss something (and BTW we used to do this to tapes zillions of years ago) is to zap the residual magnetic thingies.

A lot of tape machines had a metallic strip in the bottom (magnetised) to catch all the "bits" (literally, in the digital sense) that had fallen off the digitally-recorded tapes.

[beachbum]

Originally posted by Guv
Static electricity can build up on the screen and cause minor problems with the image. The degauss button does something to get rid of the static electricity.

Does it also remove specks of dust/dirt from your screen????

[Kzin]

Originally posted by Guv
Static electricity can build up on the screen and cause minor problems with the image. The degauss button does something to get rid of the static electricity.

Monitors generate large magnetic fields; over time these fields can build up and distort the shadow mask or aperture grille and therefore affect picture (particularly the colo(u)r of the picture). Other magnetic items, unshielded speakers, can also generate fields that distort the picture. Televisions auto degauss on a cold start.

Cleaning your screen with a duster or a damp stocking or whatever will remove static but not magnetism.