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help! my F38310 rca hdtv just died (i think)

#1
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6/8/05 at 4:46am
  • Joined: April 1999
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after three years with no problems, this morning i went to turn on my rca F38310 hdtv....the green power light turned on but NOTHING happened. i've unplugged it a few times, left alone, came back and tried again with no luck.

it's no longer under warranty, and this thing is a TANK so even getting it to a service center is going to be a nightmare.

does this sound like the tube just died, or more like a power source failure? the green light on the power button DOES Light up, so it sounds like probably the tube died?

my main fear is that the price of repair is going to be prohibitive. and that i'm stuck with a 200 pound paperweight.

any info would help

thanks
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#2
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6/8/05 at 6:33am
  • Joined: March 2000
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Greetings

More than likely, a resistor or capacitor on some board has gone on you.

Regards

Michael @ The Laser Video Experience
THX Video Systems Instructor
ISF Calibration Instructor
Lion A/V Consultants Network
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#3
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6/8/05 at 7:01am
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hopefully it won't be too pricey...this is sort of a dinosaur HDTV (the largest 16:9 tube ever made - 38" - i's not even flatscreen) but i love the picture on it (although there has to be around 10% overscan to hide geometry problems).

anyway i know it's discountinued and kind of an odd tv , i can see it being a hard model to fix or replace parts for.
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#4
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6/8/05 at 7:25am
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I'd bank, your local handy dany TV/Audio repair type, could fix it right up for you. Often times these come down to just a simple bad solder job, over time the heat and cooling of being on and off causes marginal solder connections to fail. (RCA has sort of become famous or maybe even infamous for these simple solder connetion issues)

John

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#5
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6/8/05 at 7:49am
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luckily the local atlanta RCA authorized servce center is right around the corner, and seem to be (surprisingly) professional and on-the-ball. they've emailed me and called me twice already in the last couple of hours to coordinate things. even though they're close i'm stilling having them come over, the F38310 is one of the most obscenely heavy tubes of all time, and it's so fat and deep it won't fit in my car. i guess i had forgotten how truly hideous and oldschool the thing was (still love the picture!). it's not my primary HDTV display anymore but even with its geometry issues i have to hide with overscan, i prefer its picture to any plasma i've seen after i calibrated it (outside geometry could NOT be fixed on this..i'm talking about the pinching on the sides).

it's a (relative) relic, i'd like to keep it alive if i can do it without spending too much.
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#6
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6/8/05 at 8:02am
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38" 16:9 Tube?? Unique and probably worth keeping around for sure.

John

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#7
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6/8/05 at 8:07am
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have them look at your overscan also.

Ive been able to get it to do 5 % quite easily.

Best wishes!!

Gregg
The Sonodome - circa 2001
The Newest Sonotube - circa 2001
Gregg's DVDs updated...sometimes
Lion Audio Video Consultants usually current
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#8
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6/8/05 at 8:08am
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yeah definitely. anything interlaced looks horrible on it, but progressive dvd and especially HD look great on it. in fact if it wasn't for the overscan i have to live with and the fact it's not a flatscreen, i'd say it's one of the better HD monitors i've seen.

yeah, it's a 38 (almost 39)" tube, but it's almost that deep too!!. it has to sit a far distance from any wall. it's way too deep.
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#9
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6/8/05 at 8:25am
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Gregg -

i know how to change the overscan, it's pretty easy in the service menu (which i haven't accessed for a couple years!)

problem is, i have to have it at around %15 (maybe it's 10%, i'm estimating...it's not bad but i see what i am missing when i watch the same program on my projector).

if i don't have have that overscan set, i see really badly pinched ends of the picture...in the forums i think we used to call it vertical pinching or edge pinching. there was no cure for it. it's like the ends of the picture got squeezed thin on the ends, by the speakers. it was VERY distracting with panning shots.

i would say it's an average amount of overscan, but obviously zero overscan is what is preferred (but could never be acheieved with a tube - like you said, 5% is GREAT for a tube and i envy your F38310 to be able to do without geometry messes!).
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#10
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6/8/05 at 12:35pm
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I'm still using a 40-inch 4x3 Mitsubishi tube, picture still looks great. I would have gotten one of these RCA TVs but I heard they just weren't reliable, plus the one I played with would only let you show 4x3 pictures with gray bars on the side- that's just too distracting, I need one that shows black instead. I'd also want it to automatically switch aspect ratios on DVDs that have mixed content.
Are there going to be any more picture tubes of this size or bigger in the next couple years? The ones that are out now are just too small, and I don't like the picture quality of projection sets (and having gray bars on the sides for 4x3 instead of black is unacceptable in my book.) Every time I've gone to look for a new TV lately I haven't found anything I'd consider buying, hopefully my Mits will hold out at least until the HD disc formats finally come out.

Home video oddities, old commercials and other junk: http://www.youtube.com/user/eyeh8nbc

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#11
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12/28/08 at 5:53pm
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Re: help! my F38310 rca hdtv just died (i think)

Hello everyone,

Sean, you have exactly the same problem as my set.

Please let me know what you have done to fix yours. If you put it to the curb, let me know as well.

We love this set, and to tell ya the truth, my curb is a long ways from the family room!!! This thing heavy........ heck, the stand is as well!!!!
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#12
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12/28/08 at 5:57pm
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Re: help! my F38310 rca hdtv just died (i think)

sean, my set died , with the same symptoms as yours. Grenn light on.....fan running......no power to tube....

What was your fix??

Thanks!!!
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