Monitor image bent before my eyes

I was wondering if there were any hardware buffs that could help me out.

I have a Viewsonic P95f Aperture Grille CRT. I've had this for about a few years now running with no probs. Tonight for some reason, the left side of the screen started to cave inwards. I literally watched it happen.

It's been running on 85Hz with a screen resolution of 1600 x 1200.Changing the refresh rate to 75Hz solves the problem except I notice horizontal squishing of the image close to both edges.

Changing resolution also solves the problem. But having the combination of a refresh rate at 85Hz and resolution of 1600x1200 results in the edges being caved in (after switching refresh rate settings or resolution settings now results in both sides being caved in).

I've also used the monitor control panel to adjust pincushioning but that does not help.

Does anyone have any insight as to why this is happening? I'd say replacing the monitor isn't an option I want to investigate as the current crop of LCD monitors are not up to standards I'm used to (including high-end enterprise monitors).

I don't know if this is circumstantial or not, but yesterday, my left speaker stopped working (it's placed to the very left of the monitor). Would a speaker on the fritz cause interference with a monitor?

Speaker have magnets which can cause problems with CRT's...

Did you try pressing the degause button on the monitor?

These are high end gaming speakers. I'm pretty sure the speakers are shielded as well as the cabling. But yes, I've degaused the monitor (should have mentioned that earlier). The colour doesn't bleed as is usually the case when a monitor is magnatised.

I'm finding a hard time trying to describe how it looks. I guess the closest I could come to is if you've ever had a monitor that didn't support 640x480 resolution, and forcing it to do so would bleed the image. It looks like that partially. Now if you took that image and pincushion to the highest setting having the image concave on the sides, that's pretty much what it looks like. I'm not sure if that information would help any.

I'm trying to think a few steps back of what I did leading up to the bending and all I can think of was switching from a full screen mode on my media player back to it's natural windowed mode. There was no screen resolution change or change in refresh rates during that time. Coincidentally, this also happened right when Windows Live Messenger promtped to update. But I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with it. All signs seem to lead to a hardware malfunction rather than software. But I'm just trying to cover all the bases.

I'm scared that I may have burnt something out.

Some additional information just in case:

The monitor is generally used as an all purpose monitor. Most often used for gaming, watching movies (DVD or file based) and graphics work (Photoshop, Illustrator).

Edit:

Please tell me I haven't stumped anyone :(

As mentioned, disconnect speakers and wires and MOVE them away from monitor.

Have you added any electrical components in your computer area? A new light/lamp maybe? Microwave?

Any two way radios? Police scanners? Fire minitors? New TV in room? Cable/Broadband cables in area?

"I've had this for about a few years..." What is your definition of a few? 3-5yrs?, 3-7yrs?, 7-10yrs?

If no to all, try hooking up display to another PC. Then you will know right away where the problem is.

The speakers were removed completely and all electrical equipment except for mouse and keyboard were relocated about 4 feet away from the monitor.

A few years meaning I've had the speakers and enclosure near the monitor (within 2 feet) for about 6 years.

The monitor was also connected to another computer.

The end result is the same.

I've also tried dropping the refresh rate to 75Hz and using different 4:3 resolutions. IE 1600x1200, 1024x768 etc. The concave is gone, but I notice on the left and right sides of the screen, it squishes in.

I suppose this means I have to replace this monitor?

You have answered your own question.

Look on the bright side- you want to keep using a CRT for gaming, I understand that, the prices for CRT's are silly low now.

Well simply put, I don't really want to spend more money again. It's not so much that CRTs are cheap, but AG monitors are somewhat hard to come by (which I find rather odd). And the quality of the output is more for graphics work than gaming. But the gaming performance is really nice to have.

I suppose I'll move with the rest of the workforce and switch temporarily to LCD (personally I've been holding out for OLEDs)

Alright lock this thread. It will be solved by buying a replacement :p Appreciate the help steve and wojo. Thanks.

Wait!

Although it is abnormal for it to happen without you doing anything. There are advanced settings on the monitor that you can change using the buttons on the monitor. You may already know this and have tried it but there are specific settings that deal with the side of the screen caving in. So you might be able to mess with those settings and make it look good again.