32XBR400 turns itself off.... (1 Viewer)

My beautiful (well, except for some "uneven brightness" issues that I was willing to accept) 32XBR400 has begun to misbehave -- naturally, just weeks after the 1-year standard warranty expired.
While watching the HBO show "Six Feet Under", the set began to shut off when the screen went to one of the show's frequent fades-to-white. A few weeks later, it's now turning itself off after about 1/2 hour of viewing ANY material. No amount of tweaking white level/black level will mitigate this behavior.
Turning the TV on in "diagnostic" mode shows a count of 1 next to the "low B" item, and 0's for everything else. Oddly, the "low B" count doesn't increase with repeats of this problem.
I've found some posts regarding this in the Yahoo 'sony-wega' discussion group. A call to the store where I bought it and another discussion with a local TV service shop indicates that this is actually a rather common problem. However, I couldn't find anything about it in this forum -- where I would expect people to explode about such a problem.
The tech I spoke with recommended that I call Sony's Consumer Affairs number and complain ("although you didn't hear this from me"). She didn't feel that I should have to pay to fix it, as the problem is 'widely known'. She indicated that, even though I'm out-of-warranty, I should push to have it repaired in-house or even replaced. She said that the parts to fix this problem are on back-order -- a sign that this is, indeed, a rather common occurence.
Has anyone here experienced this? If so, have you had any luck getting Sony to 'fess up to the problem and fix it? Or am I the only poor schlub to encounter this problem AFTER a year has passed (that's what I get for jumping on the first one I could get)?
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John Robinson
"E=mc^2 (+/- 3dB)"

Thought I'd follow-up on this, in case anyone actually cares
I called Sony. They acknowledged the problem and gave me an "E-number" which will allow an authorized Sony service center to be reimbursed by Sony after they come out to my house and fix the problem (hooray, no hauling!). There was no problem at all getting this, even though I acknowledged that the set was just out of warranty -- a surprising result from a MegaCorp like Sony!
Now, let's see whether replacing the main chassis board fixes the "uneven brightness" problem. That would REALLY be swell!
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John Robinson
"E=mc^2 (+/- 3dB)"

My 36XBR400 just did this to me this weekend...arggggggg. How did you make out? Did this fix your problem? Tweeter is ordering the board and sending a tech out to replace it. It will take longer than a week...Man. (what board is this?) I assume all my settings will be lost. It's about 6 mos. old. Anyone else out there have this problem?
Randy

It turned out well. A tech showed up on September 11th (on that day, oddly, my TV was working just fine! Perhaps it knew that functioning properly was important that morning).
He replaced one of about three big boards inside the chassis. I'm no tech, but there appeared to be a lot of stuff on that board; heat sinks, the works.
I expected all of my settings to be gone, too -- but they weren't. My video inputs were still labelled correctly, and all of my red-push tweaks, etc. were retained.
I DID have to redo the convergence, and (alas) I can't get it quite exactly right (shouldn't have signed that receipt until I was perfectly satisfied; however, I don't think a lot of us were functioning at 100% that morning). However, the uneven brightness problem is MUCH less severe, and now the TV stays on as long as I need it to stay on.
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John Robinson
"E=mc^2 (+/- 3dB)"

John,
How exactly do you "redo" the convergence?? Doesn't that require adjusting the yoke on the set?

There are quite a few convergence issues that can be corrected electronically. I'm at work, so I can't indicate the settings -- but it's clearly marked in the oh-so-handy service manual. I got the TV looking pretty close to perfect.
However, the one item that can't be corrected is the problem I have -- bowing down in the lower-right-hand corner. *sigh*
Question for someone with Avia Guide to Home Theater: I thought there was a test pattern showing overscan somewhere on this DVD, but I can't find it any more. Can someone point me to it?
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John Robinson
"E=mc^2 (+/- 3dB)"

Just how common is this problem? I'm concerned. Do owners of FV- and FS-series Wegas report similar anomolies?
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Something to know about the repair by changing boards is that out of warranty it will run about $500 ($370 in parts plus tax) and boards are traditionally unavailable after about 18-24 months. The boards are not considered "modules" and are priced high with core charges $100-$200 above board cost. The board can be repaired but probably not in-home. Very few servicers will attempt component level repair on double-sided boards along with a tedious adjustment procedure on the living room floor.
It would appear to be a board specific problem and might affect other sets but it would take a lot of research to match part numbers with specific sets and still might not mean anything due to running production changes. There will be a narrow band of sets affected, not all of any model.