Does anyone know of a trusted and reputable one in the Salem area? Is anyone here capable or do it as a side hobby?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as it is time to either repair (hopefully), go without (oh god no!), or purchase a new one (fat chance in hell!)

I wonder if they are a dying breed. Aren't the new plasmas and LCD's pretty much maintenance-free until they break, and then they are beyond repair? That's my understanding.

I have an 18 year old Sony 27XBR15 that I love and still has a nice picture - but it has what I believe is a cold solder joint inside. I've read about this vintage of Sony TV having a chronic problem with this. What happens is that when the set is cold the tuner comes in and out between a blank picture and picture. If I simply lift the set slightly (not bang it) it will come in and out - sometimes it will "stick" on but often not. Eventually when it gets really warm it's fine. I can also use my VCR as the tuner and use a video in port but it's kind of a pain...

I am tempted to try to re-solder the cold solder joint; I read that the flyback transformer is probably the culprit, and perhaps I could find it and re-solder it myself. But these things have extremely high voltage circuits inside and I'm a little wary about attempting this. Plus the set is really heavy. If I could find an experienced person to help me or just an honest TV repair person who knows exactly what I'm talking about and can do it quickly, I'd still like to get it repaired.

Then again, supposedly the tuner will be worthless in about a year when they switch to digital, although I'm skeptical that this will really happen as scheduled...

Andrew

A repailrman I spoke with today said that it would be arond $100 just to look at them and estimated total repail costs after my descriptions of the problems was atound $200-300 (ouch) and said that I would go out and get a new plasma or LCD if I had the money but felt that the prices still have room to go down. He said that the LCD's are a great buy while the Plasmas while very nice and excellent picture quality are starting to go out or need repairs within the first 5 years of ownership.

it would be arond $100 just to look at them and estimated total repail costs... atound $200-300 (ouch)
That's what a lot of people are finding about getting things repaired in this day and age - they can buy a new item for much less than it would cost to get the old repaired. Makes no sense to me, either.

Andrew, If you decide to work on it your self, be careful. The output of the flyback is connected to the 2nd anode of the CRT. The CRT will act like a capacitor and store energy (voltage) even with the TV turned off, and discharge it through you given a chance.

It's not killer voltage, it's just like a huge static shock, but it will convince you that you don't want to do it again!!!

If it is a cold solder joint around the flyback the screed will go dark just as if the set is off. Is that the symptom?

Shyguy,

What symptoms is your TV having?

I used to work at/own a TV repair business in the late 70's and really haven't worked on TV's since they had tubes in them, but if I can help, I'd be glad to.

Skybill writes:
Andrew, If you decide to work on it your self, be careful. The output of the flyback is connected to the 2nd anode of the CRT. The CRT will act like a capacitor and store energy (voltage) even with the TV turned off, and discharge it through you given a chance.

It's not killer voltage, it's just like a huge static shock, but it will convince you that you don't want to do it again!!!

Got it. No worries, I'm an electrical engineer, although the capacitors I dealt with (chip design) were usually in the pF range...

If it is a cold solder joint around the flyback the screed will go dark just as if the set is off. Is that the symptom?

Yep.

Andrew

Does the screen intermittently go dark also when video from your VCR is connected as a tuner?

Skybill the one that was most currwntly used was a Phillips late 90's model I am assuming. About a week ago the television picture went out like when you turn the television off. No picture but sound still coming. About 5 munutes later picture returns like there was no problem. Then I had no problems until Sunday night when it started up again. Yesterday it did the same but this time there is a thin picture/line like a color spectrum across the screen.

It is funny how during the day I have CNN on so an audio only in the background didn't really matter. Its after 5pm and I become lost without my television. I guess I need to start listening to the radio more?

Jr_tech writes:
Does the screen intermittently go dark also when video from your VCR is connected as a tuner?

Not really - there's still something wrong when I'm using a video in signal because sometimes the Sony's "Video 1" display comes on even when there's picture from the VCR - "Video 1" (Video input #1) normally comes up when it detects no signal. And it's slightly stretched on the screen. If I tap the set slightly it usually goes away. But the picture is generally fine using one of the 3 video in signals.

I also get no sound through the TV speakers when trying to use the video input - normally I do when the set is working properly. I have the TV out audio outputs connected back into my stereo receiver and get audio that way.

Andrew

If the flyback transformer connection was the fault, NO high voltage for the CRT would be produced, so the picture would be intermittently dark under ALL input conditions... sounds like most of the problem is more likely in the tuner, IF amp, or video circuits.

"I also get no sound through the TV speakers when trying to use the video input "

Did you connect the audio out from your VCR to the TV for this test?

Generally speaking, if you have no picture, or lack a raster, it is not the tuner, IF amp or video circuits. You should be able to hear an audible 15kHz frequency when your head is near the back of the tv. If it is quiet or silent, you have no horizontal sweep, which is what produces the high voltage through the flyback transformer.

If your tv is off and unplugged, you need to discharge the anode connection at the crt. A simple painless task. Take a heafty long flat blade screwdriver, put a jumper between it and ground and push it under the suction cup on the crt and touch the metal on the connector. That should short out the voltage and render it harmless. use the screwdriver to push the wire connecting to the anode so that it clears the hole and you can pull the cable away from the crt. You can keep the lead jumpered to ground if you want. Then take your soldering iron and heat to reflow any solder joints you want. Before you connect the lead back to the CRT, rejumper (short it) to ground because the CRT can build up a charge just sitting there.

If the screen goes black but you hear the high frequency pitch and, as you say, there is a thin line across the middle of your screen, then it is not the flyback. It is your vertical sweep section. You have no vertical sweep. Some older sets have a setup switch. Make sure it is still functional, if you have one.

Sometimes, if you lose vertical sweep, you may or not get the horizontal line across the screen. It depends on how the "screen" voltages are set up. We used to put the set into "setup" mode by turning off vertical sweep, turning the color control to minimum, turn all screen controls to minimum and then bring each one (red, blue,green) up until you see it and then back it off until it just goes out. That sets the drive for each color the same. Then you would turn vertical back on.

If you have a rubber insulated screwdriver handle, you can use the rubbered handle end to tap around where you think you may have a problem to see if you can see which connection area the problem is in.

Electrical Engineers should not have any problem poking around television sets. It is the Electronic Engineers that usually have the problems. They deal with different things. Usually, the electronic engineers deal with the small stuff and the electrical ones deal with the larger stuff. At least it used to be that way. When I got my degree, although it said BSEE, I got two major paths finished..... electrical and electronics. The electronic one was the study of tubes (yes they were still there when I started college) and transistors/semiconductors. The electrical path covered power transmission systems, DC converters (Celilo) and things like that. Both had the same base. The distinction came from what you took in your junior and senior years. One more year and I could have gotten a physics degree, also, but the wife thought it was time to get a real job and quit going to school. Besides, that modern physics classes were getting hard. The only computers we had to use to help solve problems required punching cards or paper tape and that was boring. I had to quit television, use my degree to get a job as a electronic engineer designer to get to use a computer that you toggled instructions with the switches on the computer panel to use them. Then we migrated to 8 inch floppies. That was hog heaven.
On PDP-8's.

I still have my K&E and Pickett slide rules. Showed my grandaughter how to use one a few months ago and she thought I was wierd.

"Then again, supposedly the tuner will be worthless in about a year when they switch to digital, although I'm skeptical that this will really happen as scheduled... "
You can be skeptical all you want but it will happen and will NOT be delayed again. The date is cast in stone and there are too many things in progress to delay/change it. The saturation level for HD sets is above where they wanted it to be for a changeover, converter boxes are available, discount coupons will be available in a few months.......

It is going to happen. Will it be smooth? Probably not.

From Jimbo:
"Generally speaking, if you have no picture, or lack a raster, it is not the tuner, IF amp or video circuits."

Very true... but in his first post, Andrew2 seemed to indicate that the problem was specific to the source of the video information:

"What happens is that when the set is cold the tuner comes in and out between a blank picture and picture."
"I can also use my VCR as the tuner and use a video in port but it's kind of a pain..."

I could be reading this wrong, but it sounds to me that the HV and sweep circuits in this case are OK, but video information from the tuner is lost. He seems to be able to successfully bypass the tuner/IF/video detector circuits by running video from his VCR to the TV.

If this TV is set-up (as many are) to display a black screen on blank/weak channels, then even a bad antenna connection could produce a black screen rather than "snow".

Thanks all for the debugging help on my old TV!

My Sony does in fact display snow and not a blank picture when there's no signal, so I don't think it's the antenna connection.

And again, it's not perfect when I bypass the tuner with the VCR. Whatever is loose when using the tuner causes both the picture and the sound to go out. When bypassing the tuner using video in, the picture is generally fine but the sound through the TV speakers goes in and out just like it did when the tuner is used. Picture is fine. The other weird this is the Sony's display will say "Video 1" even when the Video In signal (VCR or DVD player) is working and I see a good picture. The "Video 1" text is horizontally stretched. I "tap" the TV or just lift it slightly and it will generally click back in and the text will correct itself (then go away as it should) - it's like what happens when there's no signal found then signal is found again.

Finally...sometimes when using VCR/DVD player, the picture will be gray. The only thing that seems to make that clear up is turning the set off then right back on. Then it's generally find for two hours of video watching.

Sounds like a cold solder joint to me of some sort, just on what is not clear (since this vintage of Sony is notorious for this problem). I really like this set and hate to dump it, because it doesn't seem like it would be cost effective to fix it, particularly when the tuner will be useless in about a year.

Andrew

This TV has 3 sets of audio/video inputs as well as the tuner (rare for an older set, bet Sony got an arm and a leg for it). Have you tried all three inputs for your DVD/VCR, as well as both the s-video and standard yellow video plug for each. If so, do you see the same symptoms for all inputs?
I am starting to think that the problem is in the A/V switching circuit.

I go back to what I originally said. Start tapping around with an insulated whatever to see if you can sorta localize a source of the problem. Then/or just start "shotgunning" the connections by heating them all up one by one to reflow the solder. Time consuming, yes. But how much time are you spending now thinking about it or temporarily fixing by banging/lifting/etc.

If it really is a cold/loose solder joint.

Agreed.

Could also be a lame clip on a connector too. Some TV's use the lego type design. Buy this from those guys, buy that from other guys, assemble, ship.

Get a larger mirror, lean it up against something, pull the back on the set, then begin your tapping, using the mirror as a guide. This will prevent awkward positions, which could be dangerous, and let you wiggle, tap, etc... until you see something happen.