Worth fixing old XBR?

Is it worth fixing? Probably. You will be best served to take it into a Sony experienced servicer for an estimate of repair. Since the tv does have good color and works otherwise, the total repair should not be excessive. Try and find a tv set of that quality today.

Personally I'd certainly fix it, while you could probably get a cheapo from WalMart for about the same cost as having it fixed, even an old XBR is far better than a new cheapie.

I suspect that the cracked soldering is not on that board, but on the one it plugs into, try resoldering those connections, otherwise find a tech and let them know that wiggling that board makes the picture go normal, it shouldn't be a terribly expensive repair.

The only person that knows if its worth fixing is YOU after you have gotten an estimate of costs.

kip

You have done a good job of localizing the likely problem. I would try resoldering every component on that board. If the traces are exposed, you might even try "painting" them with solder, but watch out for solder bridges. All three of my Sony TVs (purchased from the TV-500U in the late 1960s to the KV27XBR55 in the 1990s) have had cold solder joints. They finally became reliable sets only after I fixed the bad solder joints.

You might have to do this yourself. If I were in the repair business, I would be very reluctant to take on an intermittent problem like this, evne though your detective work has improved the chances of success.

Yes, of course, you're right. The only reason I haven't done that yet is that I have to physically get it to the shop - it weighs a ton!

Regarding any further soldering on that board, it's full of tiny, on surface components - looks like a job for someone more experienced. These things are rectangular and very small - 1/8 by 1/16 of an inch or so.

I did try soldering on the main board close by this board. No further luck. Perhaps some traces are intermittent and I just can't see it.

Thanks for all the comments. Dave

Do you have a digital camera? Can you post some good quality pictures of the inside of the chassis on a personal web page? I remember things by visual clues and need to see the chassis to know the common points of interest. There are some common solder points of interest on many different Sony models, with a good indication of the chassis I can probably give you pretty specific hints on where to start.

Yes, I do have one. The chassis is currently back in the TV, but I might be able to get something. If it doesn't look good, I'll find an image from the workshop manual. Thanks for the offer! Dave

If I were in the repair business I'd be all over a problem like this, he's tracked it down to within a very small area, sounds like it'd be a fairly straightforward repair with little chance of blowing up a bunch of expensive parts trying to track down the problem.

I think you just found a volunteer.

hello, here's a chassis drawing from the book. Any area's interesting in particular? The suspect y/c jungle board is E1. You can see why it's difficult to work on!

Dave

That image does not really help much as it is not descriptive of what we would really see when the back is off the tv set.

In any case I think that is the chassis that has a row of regulators along the center of the main board and those get bad solder connections. Some are difficult to get at without completely removing the board.

Add solder connection problems in the if can and tuner, as well as to the Y-delay line.

Still may be best to find someone with lots of experience on the older XBR Sony models as they will know the problem areas once inside the set.

From what you've discovered, I'd look very closely at the connectors between the board and whatever it plugs into. Clean the pins, make sure that there is good tension between each pin and its mate, and make sure that the soldered connections on each side of each connection are sound.

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

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H Jim, This board is actually soldered directly to the main board, not "plugged in". It's vertical board E1 here:

I unsoldered all 50 pins and removed it completely, checked for anything loose near the lower part of the board, and same on the main "A" board. resoldered it back but problem remains.

Because of it's location when it's operational there's very little access to the board. It's hard to

Then I'd just try to find a way to poke individual components or areas on that board to narrow down the problem area. Or just resolder everything.

Wow, that's dedication!

Can you get a plastic stick of some kind in there? That's about all I can suggest, or try poking the A board underneath. This sounds like a real hard one.

Best of luck.

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

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Thanks for the feedback. I had attempted to probe the E1 board with a wooden chopstick but I wasn't producing anything. Even a freeze spray failed to yield results. I ended up reinstalling the metal shield for the E1 board, that I had left off earlier. Put it all back, problem remains. The A board is held in by 2 screws at the front. The back of the A board is free to move up and down slightly (until the case is put back) Flexing the A board from the back up and down also affcted the picture, causing it to disappear to blue screen and back again. IF the fault is on the A board, theoretically, it should be easier to find. Thanks, Dave

Sounds like it's not, it's probably on the main board.