Is my monitor borked?

[Wowbagger]

I have a Skitphrati HD-17 attached to the Raspberry pi for purposes of looking after the Weewx weather station software. It's only about a year old. But today, being a clumsy arse, I knocked it down and it fell about a metre to the carpeted floor. There was a mark on the screen, which I was able to rub off, and it's clearly firing up, but certain colours of the screen are "shimmering".

I've occasionally had this before and it has mysteriously cleared itself, but the most annoying part at the moment is that it makes a terminal screen very difficult to read. I've tried the usual "turn it off and on again" and that hasn't worked, and I've even restarted the Raspberry pi, which is slightly annoying because it had been running non-stop for 201 days.

There are 5 buttons on the back which are supposed to allow you to control stuff, but I've not been able to work out what's going on with them. It's set to HDMI input (it seems to default to that), which is correct, but still the shimmering persists.

[fruitcake]

I am not an IT expert, but from what you've described this sounds potentially borked. I reckon you could pull the power lead out and plug it back in tomorrow to see if the behaviour is reproduced.

I've had pressure damage on a computer screen mess up the colours, but the problem has gone away with time as the layers within the screen decompress - though the flickering you describe sounds more severe.

Luckily monitors are easy to come by - I sometimes see them in charity shops. I bought one for a tenner.

[Feanor]

Probably, yes.

I have a Skitphrati

Can you not get pills for that?

But today, being a clumsy arse, I knocked it down and it fell about a metre to the carpeted floor. There was a mark on the screen, which I was able to rub off, and it's clearly firing up, but certain colours of the screen are "shimmering".

I've occasionally had this before and it has mysteriously cleared itself, but the most annoying part at the moment is that it makes a terminal screen very difficult to read. I've tried the usual "turn it off and on again" and that hasn't worked, and I've even restarted the Raspberry pi, which is slightly annoying because it had been running non-stop for 201 days.

There are 5 buttons on the back which are supposed to allow you to control stuff, but I've not been able to work out what's going on with them. It's set to HDMI input (it seems to default to that), which is correct, but still the shimmering persists.

Physical impact will not have 'adjusted' a software setting, so it really does not matter what any of the buttons do.
None of them will lead to a menu option of "Shimmering <On> <Off>"

I suspect you have damaged the actual display panel.
The choice is either live with it, or replace it, I think.

<Edit>Yes, it's also possible the fall yanked on the cable and damaged the connector. Try what Kim says too: Wiggling, re-plugging, using a different input.

[Kim]

'Shimmering' is how I'd describe the effect of a bad but still mostly functioning DVI/HDMI connection, of the type that you sometimes get when you can't be arsed to tighten the retaining screws on a DVI connector.  Maybe give the plugs a wiggle, or try another input if it has one?

[Wowbagger]

When I first turn the monitor on, the word Skitphrati shows perfectly in white on a bright blue background. No shimmering at all, but then it's only 2 colours.

It's odd: the browser window looks perfectly normal with no issues when all it's showing is the weewx graphic page. But that's a very limited number of colours. The terminal window, and part of the default background (an orange sunset over a tropical looking sea) are really "hatchy". When I take a look at bbc.co.uk, it seems that the darker colours in photographs are "hatchy" and the lighter colours displayed correctly.

[Wowbagger]

I've made the terminal background white and the letters dark. This has improved things massively. I can't find a way of changing the terminal text to (say) magenta, which is being displayed perfectly. I only really need the monitor when typing into the terminal, so that has sort of solved the problem. But magenta text appeals.