CRT Repair

You've got a cracked solder joint on the deflection board, usually right around the vertical output IC. It's a pretty quick and easy repair, the hardest part by far is getting the thing apart and then putting it all back together when you finish. If you're not experienced working on monitors you might want to take it to a shop, there's some safety issues, as well as it's not hard to break it beyond repair by bungling an otherwise simple repair. If you're comfortable soldering, have some common sense, and read the monitor section of the sci.electronics.repair faq, this repair is within the realm of the determined and patient novice but if in doubt, let someone with some experience fix it.

Also don't ever run a CRT with collapsed deflection, that bright line will rather quickly burn the phosphors, resulting in a permanent dark line.

May even be the vertical output IC itself. They get pretty hot and manufacurers tend to save on cooling area. Assembling IC and heat sink requires some care, too. I'd check the electrolytics around this IC as well.

Regards, H.

I am having very bad luck. The place I bought it at (Fry's, in Dallas) suggests that it is not feasable to repair the unit - they want money up front and advise me that it might take several months before they could return it (they have to ship it to California). NEC/ Mitsubishi is having a hard time finding out what the part, or parts, cost (the deflector board and/or the vertical output IC). They say the parts list has no entries that sound like either the "deflectyor board" or the "veritcal output IC", and, they can't give out prices even if they could identify the part.

They say they have only two places where it could be repaired (Cincinnati and California), and that I have to put a bunch of money up front and pay shipping both ways - no guarantees. I have called couple of shops here locally in the DFW area but they do not return my calls.

This is very sad. The picture tube on this outstanding 21" CRT is still in tip-top shape, and it looks better than anything else I see these days.

If anyone knows someone in the Dallas/Fort Worth area that knows how to go inside this unit and maybe even fix it, please respond. The folks at NEC also said that they WILL NOT sell any parts to anybody except those two places in Ohio and California.

It looks like I might be out of luck. What a bumer - only 4 years and this really great monitor becomes a boat anchor. This is making me sick. I am not good with a soldering iron (all my previous projects got bungled up good), and I really don't trust myself to take the cover off.

Sad tale.

Ask some of the local TV shops. Some guys are smart enough to fault find with no manual.

Frys? Don't even bother with them. Isn't there an independant TV repair shop somewhere in your area? I know they're dropping like flies, but there must be one somewhere. Ok I just did a search on yellowpages.com and it came back with 58 places in the Dallas area, several of those have to be capable of working on CRT displays.

The vertical output IC normally costs about 8 bucks and they're usually generic parts available anywhere that sells this stuff, usually just touching up the solder is all it requires, the repair should be under $100 to have professionally done.

Some guys? Any tech worth going to will do the majority of repairs without wasting the time looking for the manual. The more of these you work on, the more they all start to look the same inside.

It seems you've lost your way on this. Ignore the above shops and go to someone competent & willing to repair it. If youve only spoken to 2 shops, try the rest. As has been said, its probably a simple job.

More likely to get a good response in person than by phone, and I would certainly suggest avoiding a lot of bs, just describe the fault, offer them x if they can repair it, nothing if they dont, and leave it at that.

Re parts, policies vary, but some shops use parts from scrap equipment, so supposedly unobtainable parts are often no such thing.

This sort of silliness is precisely why I recommend avoiding authorised service agents outside of guarantee periods.

NT

Many of the manufactures are no longer supporting any type of CRT monitors. Keeping inventory of the parts, and spending the time to troubleshoot and service them is expensive by today's standards. Some of these service centers no longer have any way to properly support CRT type monitors and TV sets.

Considering what you have to go through, I would suggest taking the monitor to a local TV service shop. They will most likely be able to service it if the problem is streight forward, and if the parts required are generic types.

As for myself, my preference is a good LCD monitor. They do not give off any kind of radiation, have no pin distortions, and have no convergence or purity errors. They take a lot less space in the working area, consume much less electricity, and have zero flicker which causes eyesore.

Jerry G. ======

Well these posts are encouraging. I'm going to look around here locally for someone that knows about TV's and see where I can take it and maybe get the soldering done. That would be ideal. NEC finally got back with me and suggested, just as James Sweet said above, that it would probably be a short soldering job. I am now thinking that I will get this fixed sooner or later.

But, I had never heard of craigslist. That is a wonderful website. I am stunned to find good 21" crt monitors there for $25 - what a world we live in - these things were around $600 a mere 4 years ago - wow!. They still look better than LCD's for subtle contrasts. I also have a

21.3" Viewsonic LCD which is a great monitor, but, standard TV and photographs look noticebly better on the CRT.

Thanks to all.

Is there a local freecycle group?

People give away working monitors around here. I've given away several, myself.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida