This is really strange!

I have a ViewSonic monitor that has always been great till now.
About a week ago while I was working the monitor started flickering like crazy for about 5 seconds then returned to normal.
However now after about 30 minutes working on it the screen seems to be pulling my eye balls out of my head and my vision gets blurry.

This doesn't happen when I view TV or my friends computer at all. My vision is normal doing everything else!

I am wide open to suggestions are things to check.

Check to make sure it's plugged in firmly. Check to make sure there are no fans/heaters/things-with-motors in them plugged into the same socket.

Other than that....look at the monitor. If it's fuzzy and acting strange, it's broken.

How old is this monitor ? Old LCD monitors after a lot of use will start doing that, not sure why, I think maybe the fluorescent bulb is starting to fail. I have a laptop with a monitor that does this, can't fix it in any way. It doesn't do it often tho.

This can also be an indication that the ray-gun is going bad in a CRT monitor. If that's the case, start shopping for a new monitor. It's going to be dead soon...

*Edit*
If it is a CRT monitor, DO NOT attempt to open the housing and poke around inside. CRT tubes hold a massive voltage(in the range of 50,000 volts) long after power has been removed. This is something that should be left to trained technicians.

That's a good question is this a CRT or LCD monitor ?

LCDs generally dim (due to the "cold-cathode lamp") and are quite dim before they start to flicker. If you're lucky you'll live in an area where it's easy to get the right fluoro tube and it'll only cost about $20 to fix the screen.

For CRT, any number of things can go wrong - damaged high-voltage supply, bad HV capacitors, too much dust, failing circuitry in HV supply and/or deflection circuitry, cracked solder joints - the list just goes on. These days LCDs are bright enough for using on a computer; I threw out my CRTs 3 years ago.

I don't know about the flickering, but on CRT monitors, if you do want to risk popping it open, there's usually a few little plastic phillips head "screw" type things on the board that control certain functions (including focus) that arn't available from the front of the monitor. This is how I fixed a few of my monitors that got "blurry/fuzzy", you just adjust it with a screw driver very carefully, and don't twist it too hard or it'll break, when you feel it stop, don't keep trying to twist. Chromezero is right though, if you don't know what your doing, it can be very dangerous. The tube and capacitors hold alot of voltage, even when not plugged in, and can zap the hell out of you, and the tubes will also implode throwing glass fragments everywhere if you break them. Just be very very careful if you decide to try it.

P.S. If you kill yourself or lose an eye I warned you.

With LCDs now so cheap, don't waste 10 seconds trying to repair a CRT.....just take it to the electronics recycling depot.

I like CRTs . Better picture quality across all resolutions, and you can do higher resolutions/inch then with any LCD. Plus all my CRTs have lasted a lot longer than any of my LCDs.

I can't stand CRTs they cause me dizziness and nausea within ~ 1 hr of use, they also emit radiation (alpha and beta) and usually have low refresh rates. Will never buy another one for as long as I live.

I'm sorry guys I never thought to say what type of monitor.

It's a 17" LCD made by ViewSonic, it's about 7 years old. Everything is plugged into An APC brand UPS (expensive), so I'm not having any voltage problems

It is "NOT" flickering or dim, at least I don't see anything wrong at first.

If you were to sit down at my computer and started viewing it you would think it was "GREAT", then in a few minutes start feeling that something is wrong because it is "pulling" on your eyes. After 3o minutes your vision will start to get blurry.

Is this something the "cold-cathode lamp" can cause?

If so how do I replace it?

Please read every thing I wrote above before you reply.

Thank you.

Yes, that certainly could cause it. It CAN be replaced, but considering there's a brand new 17" for $109 on Newegg, with a 22" at $159, it's hardly worth it for a 7 year old monitor. You'd probably spend about $50 or so for the lamps....

Have you had any recent changes in vision, new glasses prescription, etc.?

There are all manner of things that can cause problems looking at computer monitors. The issue I stumbled into was with lenses designed to be much thinner and lighter than normal. The way this was done was with high-index glass. The problem is that "high-index" also usually means that the dispersion is higher. (dispersion refers to the change of index with color). With the lenses, normal vision was OK, but looking at a computer monitor for any length of time was almost impossible. I exchanged the lenses for the old-fashioned kind (thick and heavy) and the problem was solved. Eventually I had cataract surgery which was an even better solution.

Obviously, you could easily test this theory by borrowing another monitor and seeing if you have similar issues.

Wow a 7 year old LCD, I haven't had one last that long. I think it's probably the fluorescent bulb going out. You can try increasing the refresh rate, this will help, but don't increase it over the maximum posted in the manual.

What is the procedure for increasing the refresh rate, it's a place to start?

I thought my eyes were going bad (initial response) so I had an exam, they are OK.

I used to burn out things (hardware) also. but since I installed the APC UPS I haven't lost one single thing. Where I live the power company is always lowering the voltage you get (every day) some people call these brown outs I think. The UPS stopped all those problems. I feel it is the best computer product I ever bought.