HELP! The EX took everything but my SONY TV and now it's screwing me too!

Yes, it could really be a weak picture tube causing the flashing. Do a google groups search for Sony, flashing picture, blinking picture, akb blanking, and similar for lots of postings on how the Sony AKB circuit works.

Some > Okay,

A weak tube on a 1999 set? I'm curious how many hours a day this thing was used.

6.5 hours per day 365 days a year is average in a US household. I remember seeing RCA sets with the warranty clock come in with an average of 14+ hours per day on time, some with more!!!! Most of those had been run at the default picture setting levels in the user menu, you know the torch setting.

I've got a little RCA 19" (labelled as Penney's) which I bought in '81 and which still runs OK. I've tweaked the guns a couple of times and the pots are a bit noisy now. I have a similar Radio Shack TV bought a few years later which also runs fine. Unfortunately the 28" RCA I bought about the same time was one with the crappy steel rivets instead of plated through holes and the tuner only works if I force it to one side with a stick!

N

And those 1981 tv sets were not designed to run the guns nearly as hot or with as high or output. Look how much brighter tv sets get today. Add the smaller gun assemblies, and the planned design life of ~20,000 hours, ~7 years 'normal' use, and one can see why the newer tv sets tubes do not seem to last as long.

People also did not watch nearly as much tv in the 1980s as they do today. Most people did not have cable. Most people received maybe 5 stations at the most, nbc,cbs,abc,pbs, and an independent. Those would commonly go off the air at 11pm or midnight.

I appreciate the comments, but does anyone think it could adjust the screen voltage to get just a little more life outta the thing? At this point, seems it wouldn't hurt to try. Next question, how would one go about doing that without frying themselves? I don't have a service manual or training on Sony's (or any other TV for that matter). But I can spell CRT, so figure that I can make a minor adjustment if pointed in the right direction.

Thanks

The board that is attached to the end of the CRT .. There you will see a little pot with a black shaft thats the adjustment .

kip

$135 repair for nothing? what did you pay him for? best way to get a tv, a moving sale or yardsale. got 27 and 20 inch color tv`s both working great, $50 for both at a moving sale. why buy new or repair?

Thanks Kip.

I believe I found what you're talking about. being electronically challenged I understand "pot" to be a potentiometer, and on the board at the end of the CRT, I found a little black box housing that had a little adjustment screw that I think fit the bill. It was the only thing it could be actually... I tried adjusting it (turning it both left and to the right) by very (very) small increments at a time. I kept doing this until I had reached the limits both ways (about half a turn on a phillips head). But I saw no change in the picture. Turning to the right, I may have noticed the picture bleeding some (text looked shadowy- but it may have been the way I was looking around the set from the back).

I guess I have no choice but to write this one off and find another set... "The Big Screen Store" in Fredericksburg just sent me a flyer on their "Private Memorial Day Sale." Guess I'll pay them a visit today or tomorrow. They're offering no money down and no interest for

2 years on any Mitsubishi Plasma or DLP HDTV or $1000 off the Sony XBR 70" HDTV ;-)

Should I just send this old one to the Dump? Or should I try contacting someone that may have a use for salvagable parts?

Thanks again

Sounds like an electrolytic cap to me, one of the operating voltages is taking a long time to come up.

You have the wrong control, that is the H-stat control which adjust the left-right convergence landing of the red and blue guns. You will need to put up a stable text pattern on a dark background to readjust this back where it was if you did not mark it before moving it.

The control is clearly marked screen or G2 that you need. It may be on the back of the flyback, or on the crt pcb (towards the front or rear). In any case the tech that came out should have known exactly what to do to troubleshoot the issue. Sound like you really had someone with little Sony experience.

Try

to dispose of yours AND get a replacement.

N

Hi...

And a suggestion for the op if I may?

From this point forward I'd recommend that anytime you try "tweaking" something that you're not familiar with you first mark the original starting point. Then if you've got the wrong thing; or happen to make it worse you can easily go back to where you started from.

Take care.

Ken

Its Called ...Simple..

Hmm... I'll have another look today. But I haven't seen anything marked either way.

Also, I DID note the position before I began making adjustments.

Thanks again to all.

Hey I'd forgotten about that, I remember when I was a little kid a few times when the TV station was just a test pattern with a tone early in the morning. Don't even know when they stopped doing that.

Seems like a Sony I worked on had this pot on the other side of the neck board with just a small hole in the board to poke a tiny screwdriver through.

Why repair? How about to keep a useable set out of the landfill? Or to learn something?

color

learn