vfd ⟿ vacuum fluorescent display

My instrument cluster went blank one week after I bought the car. Now only the speedometer and tachometer work with a red-orange border outlining the VCM display area.

I bought a couple of junk clusters for parts.

1. one of them pretty much does the same as mine but
2. the other one, the VCM area lights up and begins displaying all the things that are supposedly wrong with the car with the ignition key in the run position. The tach did work initially but the needle got stuck at the 12 o'clock position and I don't remember revving the engine that high.

After I start the car and the engine is running, the display area continues to display the first found set of errors (text and pics) with maybe a few new ones added or previous ones deleted.

To all you owners with functional instrument cluster as these, I ask:

Is this display supposed to occur on its own or only after I press the VCM button on the vehicle condition monitor switch assembly (keypad) to the right of the steering column when the car is running?

 

As soon as you press the VCM button , you can get a fault code on the main screen however VCM doesn't tell you about all the wrong things .
For exa: Sometimes I see Check Engine on my dash I press the VCM but nothing does happen

So, it doesn't throw a fault code on its own