any TV Repair men here?

mbalbritton

mbalbritton

#@$%!
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Location
Lakeland, FL
RCA 32" Tube TV won't power up. this happened once before. Took it in and $125 later it was fine and has been fine for about a year - year and half.

Don't rcall what was wrong inside TV, but this model isn't prone to having issues according tothe repair guy.

Sound familiar to anyone... maybe I can fix it myself???
 
Smart Ass!

I can't bring myself to put money into a new Tube TV, and can't afford a Flat TV right now....

Maybe if some people ordered a $#!T pile of stickers I could! :D

Is the Marine Jeep ready yet?
 
pop the back cover off, there is usually a fuse inside. Start there.. Be vary carefull of the flyback transformer they can hold a hefty charge for a while..

Basically look around for any burned or damage components.
Also can't hurt to try pushing on the button manually, make sure its really getting turned on..

To check, see if there is any static on the tube even if there is no picture, that says the high voltage section is on..

have fun
 
You are going thru the same thing I did a few months ago as far as not wanting to pay for old technology VS new.

I ended up buying a Sharp 32" standard def, on sale at Best Buy. ($360)

Not ready to jump into HD, LCD, or Plasma yet, not till the there is a parts market for (reasonably priced) bulbs which seem to be the bane of LCD, and the relitivly short life of a plasma compared to CRT (cost VS life)

of course, I didn't really want a 32" screen either, had a 27" JVC I was happy with, till it died and slow spiraling death.

BUT, the cost of repair (again in your case) is still half the cost of new easily, so now the choice is there, do you feel lucky ?

As for diagnositcating, be aware, some sets have a safety that trips when you pull the back off, not allowing anything to power up. you may need to look for that, and then be very careful, there is a lot of voltage ( more than 120vac) flyin around i there.
 
Blkvoodoo said:
Not ready to jump into HD, LCD, or Plasma yet, not till the there is a parts market for (reasonably priced) bulbs which seem to be the bane of LCD, and the relitivly short life of a plasma compared to CRT (cost VS life)
Click to expand...

I'll agree about plasma's short life, but they have gotten quite a bit better.
I disagree about LCD's bulbs though.
I tend to have my TV on pretty much all the time when I'm home. And my wife is even worse. And she wasn't working for about a year we had it, it's 4 years old now. Bulb is still working fine, if it blows it will be ~289$ up to 400$.
(I hoped it was going to blow up during the extended warranty, but that didn't work out)
Weird things I've seen with HDTV's though are some Samsung models have a delay that is noticeable when trying to play video games. Aka makes sports games NOT playable. :(
But my Sony works great. Father in law's LG is really nice too.
:D
 
Plasmas have a short life....if you consider 30,000 hours "short".
Who here honestly thinks they'll watch 30 THOUSAND hours of TV the rest of their lives?
Or certainly until plasma is obsolete and you want a new TV, anyway?

DLP/LCD bulbs....so you're willing to spend over 2k on a new TV, and putting a 250-300 dollar bulb in it about 5-10 years from now is a deal-breaker?

Certainly doesn't make sense to me......
 
Pacfanweb said:
Plasmas have a short life....if you consider 30,000 hours "short".
Who here honestly thinks they'll watch 30 THOUSAND hours of TV the rest of their lives?
Or certainly until plasma is obsolete and you want a new TV, anyway?
DLP/LCD bulbs....so you're willing to spend over 2k on a new TV, and putting a 250-300 dollar bulb in it about 5-10 years from now is a deal-breaker?
Certainly doesn't make sense to me......
Click to expand...

I wwon bother to type this much when I can say "
 
Pacfanweb said:
Plasmas have a short life....if you consider 30,000 hours "short".
Who here honestly thinks they'll watch 30 THOUSAND hours of TV the rest of their lives?
Or certainly until plasma is obsolete and you want a new TV, anyway?
DLP/LCD bulbs....so you're willing to spend over 2k on a new TV, and putting a 250-300 dollar bulb in it about 5-10 years from now is a deal-breaker?
Certainly doesn't make sense to me......
Click to expand...
Well, my wifes stepdad had (He recently died) Her mother still has a Hitachi projection screen that from our best guess has over a hundred thousand hours on it. It was (while he was still alive) literaly on from about 5 am till 1-2 am seven days a week for the past 16 years. It's actually older than that, but when he retired is when it went into overdrive.

That being said, I couldn't imagine watching that much TV.
 
Pacfanweb said:
Plasmas have a short life....if you consider 30,000 hours "short".
Who here honestly thinks they'll watch 30 THOUSAND hours of TV the rest of their lives?
Or certainly until plasma is obsolete and you want a new TV, anyway?
DLP/LCD bulbs....so you're willing to spend over 2k on a new TV, and putting a 250-300 dollar bulb in it about 5-10 years from now is a deal-breaker?
Certainly doesn't make sense to me......
Click to expand...

2K on a TV, no, I'm not willing to spend that much yet, especially knowing folks who have , or have had LCD and had bulb issues, some in warranty, some out. Those in warranty got new sets, as the bulbs either were not available or it was a crazy time frame to get a replacement. And those who were out of warranty were basically screwed for the same reasons. the technology is changing too fast for ME to be comfortable spending that sort of coin on an appliance that IS NOT a nessesity.

As for plasma, picture degredation happens as soon as you turn it on, and continues, no, it's not noticable for a long time, but after a few years, yeah, it's noticable. the technology will get better, again, still more than I'm willing to pay for a NON essential house hold item.

I've got no use for a 60" monstrosity, nor a place to put it. 32" is bad enough, spend too damn much time in front of it as it is.
 
rattlecanpaint said:
Well, my wifes stepdad had (He recently died) Her mother still has a Hitachi projection screen that from our best guess has over a hundred thousand hours on it. It was (while he was still alive) literaly on from about 5 am till 1-2 am seven days a week for the past 16 years. It's actually older than that, but when he retired is when it went into overdrive.
That being said, I couldn't imagine watching that much TV.
Click to expand...

Don't expect anything electronic made these days to last that long, except maybe for high-end stereo components. It just ain't gonna happen. Technology has made circuits smaller and more integrated, and more prone to failure. 5-10 years is a good expected life for a TV these days. If you get more, you should be excited. I say that while I'm watching what is quite possibly a 20 year old Magnavox.

On topic, the RCA. RCA has been, in the past, notorious for cold-solder joints. Joints that crack over time. RCA offered a repair kit for one chassis. It was an 18 inch piece of solder. One way to rule this out at home is to remove the chassis from the TV, or get access to the bottom of it. Take a heat gun and heat the bottom of the TV really well. Not too well, though, you don't want to delaminate the fiberglass board. This will somewhat reheat the joints and possibly repair the bad one or two. Or, it chould do nothing, or make matters worse! However, it's quick and free, and I think that's what you're looking for.

Unfortunately, I don't work on TVs. I have, but hated every minute of it. They are the least rewarding repair in the business. Pain in the butt to get in and out of, and often you can't find the problem or the bad part is not available at all. I highly recommend replacing the unit. Best Buy carries the Insignia brand. It's relative garbage, but I did pick one up recently and I'm pretty happy with it. 27" HDTV. Good picture, but a slow tuner. Makes channel-surfing a pain. BUT...it was only about $350. You make the call.
 
Pacfanweb said:
Plasmas have a short life....if you consider 30,000 hours "short".
Who here honestly thinks they'll watch 30 THOUSAND hours of TV the rest of their lives?
Or certainly until plasma is obsolete and you want a new TV, anyway?
DLP/LCD bulbs....so you're willing to spend over 2k on a new TV, and putting a 250-300 dollar bulb in it about 5-10 years from now is a deal-breaker?
Certainly doesn't make sense to me......
Click to expand...

As for plasma's lasting that long it's based on the math behind phosphor's half life.
They have made a LOT of improvements on the electronics and most claim 60,000 hours now. The older ones, 99ish had a habit of doubling as a space heater and cooked your wall along with the screen.
The other problem that most people have at home with plasma's is burn in.
Either from nifty video games. (If you can't go for 4+hours on the same game, your kid might?)
Or hitting pause etc etc.


Anywho, back on topic.
TV's aren't rocket science, just be REAL careful to discharge, or avoid that BIG FAWKIN cap in there.
If you google hard enough you can lots of times find the schematics for your tv. (They aren't always exactly right though, we ended up with backwards inputs on a Mitsubishi we got for free in college)
 
I'm still waiting for the go here and push this red button to fix it all......

Meanwhile, I called the neighbor over and we hauled th eTV out and I put the 21" standby TV in the hole... I swear i might as well set my iPod video up and watch it.

thanks for any input. i did pull the back off and saw a whole bunch of circuitry..... looked at a fuse for about a minute and determined I'm too fawking tv dumb to be looking uned it's hood.

Time to debate fixing or replacing....
 
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