Sony TV Standby Light Blinking - Trouble cleared on testing
Sony TV Standby Light Blinking (continuously - no error code), No Video - Audio Fine - many models, mine is KV32S66, MFG date October 1999, problem date July 2007. TV use - low to moderate.
I did a lot of searching/Googling the net. It eventually became obvious that many of the "helpers" in forums have a convenient link to a website for parts/docs sales and their diagnosis involved a product they sell (ie: CD or a kit). Thank you all for that but it seems TV repair mystique hasn't changed much since the fifties (a fool and his money are soon parted). Even the experts can be dumbfounded by all of the possibilities and resort to the shotgun approach, complete assembly replacement, rebuild kits (I do it too). Rumor has it that Sony has stopped selling certain boards to protect their reputation. Sony is encouraging component replacement. The boards are expensive - result is customers get mad at product mfg, not the repair tech although labor time for component diagnosis may make the repair cost higher, especially for those shops that rarely do component diagnosis.
In the case of the Sony standby light blinking (no code, just regular warmup blink) there seemed to be four common answers. Most all agree this is a moderate to serious problem/repair, $150 - $400+.
- No reply from the jungle IC301 (data bus is busy, shorted to ground or held high), IK video path is defective.
- Weak CRT (usually "Dakota"), sometimes rejuvenation recommended
- Cold solder joint
- Screw adjustment on HVT/Flyback (marked "screen")
- (not so common) Main board has bad design where heavy components not supported upon removal of back causing cracks. Of course, the back panel needs to be removed to cause this problem.
My "solution" has worked so far. The first thing tried was the "screw" adjustment. That did little to help the problem. The next alternative was to remove the motherboard and all related boards and inspect for cold joints. Once all the boards were removed, I gave all of them a good air blow and inspected the joints for at least an hour in direct sunlight using double magnifying glasses (one pair reading glasses, one hand held). All joints looked whole, bright and shiny. A few joints demanded a "wiggle" test but passed well. Frustrated I reassembled knowing full well nothing had really been done to remedy the problem. Before ckt board installation, I took a can of air and blew off the dust from the yoke and back of picture tube, especially around the anode and gently wiped the anode area with dry paper towel. Reinstalled boards & triple checked connections before installing back cover. To my surprise, it now works... for how long I don't know. I am understandably frustrated, not knowing what is going on and if/when this problem will return. More frustrating is the several posts that the expert said "I've never seen dust cause a problem". I have fixed many computer problems by reseating connectors & boards but that seems unlikely the problem here. I've also found cases where bugs caused shorts near higher voltage areas, no bugs in this case. Thank you Jesus for fixing the TV for me but I wish you'd tell me what happened to cause it. (Want cake and eat it too)