This morning, turn on my TV (SONY KV32S22) to watch something before leaving for work, and all was fine for about 2 minutes.
Then the picture goes black on the bottom 1/3rd of the screen. the top
2/3rds screen shows black on both sides coming down on a slight v-shape, and horizontal black lines across the picture that is visible. Within about 15 secs, the screen turns black, but sound was still there... Power off, turn back on, and it is fine for about 30 secs, then same thing all over again...Thought maybe the Video input I was using died, so tried with the Tuner alone, and it did the exact same...
I checked the service manual, but there are way too many test points, and without much previous experience, no way of easily narrowing it down... Not sure I'm ready or patient enough to take the try to repair yourself path just yet...I hate to replace the unit, since the image was very clear, and the unit is about 7 years old... But I don't want to spend $150 for someone to look at it, and then tell me it will cost me another $200 to repair... :(
Anyone have any idea what the source of the problem may be? I am suspecting the high voltage flyback on these units, but maybe I am luckier and it is something simpler...
Not necessarily. The poster knew enough that there might be a person out there who had seen that particular problem and would know what to suggest. If there are no rational suggestions after a couple of days, then your advice is good. But as the poster noted, to pay $$$$ to find out it will cost more $$$ to get it fixed for a 7 year old set is not the smartest thing to do.
Now, since the set doesn't make noises, we are assuming, when it goes funny, the horizontal output probably is not at fault. It could very well be something in the video circuit; it might be an open decoupling capacitor that lets sweep signals somehow influence the video signals, for instance. Let's see if someone who knows about SONY peculiarities/ideosyncrosies has some suggestions before send the poor poster off to a repair shop.
Check the horizontal and vertical deflection circuits for cracked solder connections. If you are not sure what a failing solder connection looks like, take the tv into a qualified shop for repair. Most times with the tv mostly working the total repair is typically reasonable, less than 1/3rd cost of replacement of similar brand and quality.
FYI around here, a 32" size tv set has a typical repair of under $145 for 95% of all repairs with most around the $100-$125 mark depending on exact failures. This is assuming it was brought into the shop by the customer. Add an additional $65 for in home service to get the technician to the door.
H.R.(Bob) Hoffmann: It is apparent (to me) that the OP would not know what to do with the suggestions even if he got good ones. Kips suggestion to TAKE it to a repair shop, for at the very least, a repair cost estimate is a good one and a SAFE one.... that way he can make an intelligent repair decision with facts instead of internet wild guesses.... and if he takes it to the shop AFTER he mucks around inside it will probably cost more to fix..... ... and there is always the danger in the case of an inexperienced do it yourself repair...... of the dangerous and lethal electrical shock hazards inside the television.... these hazards can be present even when the television is disconnected from the AC power. The inside of a large screen televison is not the place for a newbie "tech." .... and what is your concern and "sending the poor poster off to a repair shop" ???..... gosh, that is why there are repair shops with real techs.... they offer a service for a fair price, in this case, a repair cost estimate..... and these techs are the ones who contribute many of the pertinent suggestions on the NG. As long as the television had a good, bright, clear picture before the fault and there were no other nagging problems, it is well worth paying for an estimate on this (only) 7 year old very good Sony TV. It is probably not yet time to get the "throw it away and get a new one" attitude. Get an estimate, get the facts. electricitym . .
Tony: I have owned and operated a repair shop for many years and I have yet to see any shop charge $150 to give you a repair cost estimate. Now if you want someone to come to your far away home, (considering the wages of technicians, the price of gas, etc) to do this work then you could expect at least a $65 - $85 travel charge on top of a $30 - $50 estimate fee..... or you could TAKE it to a shop and save the travel charge. Call around, get some prices for estimate fees.... don't expect any shop to give you an estimate over the phone based on your posted diagnosis and observations.... not possible to pin it down to any kind of a dollar range without a tech actually opening up the set and getting in there. electricitym . . .
Unfortunately, around our city (Montreal), most of the smaller decent shops, which were mostly honest and willing to take even a few minutes to look at and give you a rough estimate, have disappeared. Most were shops owned by older people and when they decided to retire, the business went with them.. Now we are left with the giants, who charge anything from $75 to $95 per hour and have a minimum 1 hours charge, even for stuff pbrought into the store.. Add tax, etc.. on top of that and you are at > $100 in most cases.. Then if they tell me it will be another $200 to fix, it will be nearly $300... Not sure if it is worth it, since I checked Costco yesterday and I can get a new 32" Phillips for about $500 new, and a Sony for $650......
I agree with you that 7 years is not much, since my mom has a Sony 27" for nearly 25 years now, and not a problem... However if it is an isolated problem, I don't mind fixing, but if this is a s sign of things to come, I'd rather cut my losses early.. :)
Anyhow, last night I opened it up, and cleaned out the piles of dust accumulated inside... Since I didn't want to remove the anode cap, to discharge the tube, I only did some limited inspection. The C board looked like it was pulled back a bit, but that could have been from the handling to put the beast on the table :) Anyhow I carefully pushed it back in, visually inspected the undersides of the "A" board and "G" boards, and didn't notice any soldering issues. Plugged it in, and turned it on, and immediately noticed some horizontal lines across... Just tapped the "A" board a bit, and it cleared... Then it ran for about 5 minutes with no problems... It started acting up again, and eventually went black again. Nudged the "A"board, nothing... The with the back of rubber covered screw driver, I carefully nudged some of the componenets... And as soon as I pressed down on the Comb Filter (CM305), the image came back.... ran for about 30 minutes.. no problems...
Decided to just close it up, since I was getting late, and I wasn't going to touch anything on it anyway... Closed it up, put it back in it's place, plugged it in, turned it on, left it for about 3 hours, and it was working perfectly... This morning turned it on.. 10 minutes.. same story all over again... Hmm... so I figure something is probably loose, and needs further inspection. As someone suggested, probably a bad solder joint somewhere, so probably not a big repair. When I pressed down on CM305 I guess whatever it was, made a good connection, and stayed that way... Then when running it for 3 hours, it was fine, untill time to cool down, when due to thermal expansion or something, the connection is bad again...
Anyhow, I frequently debug alot of avionics electronic equipment, however I stay away from things with tubes, so I think the TV will go to the shop, as soon as I can find a decent one locally...
$100 Canadian ~$75 US so a total $200 CA is about right. Do not forget the disposal laws may be much tougher up where you live and it may cost you up to $50 to throw it away.
Yes, it is probably worth fixing at this point, but don't keep using it as a failure like this can cause further damage sometimes which may make the repair excessive.
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