Old sony 35" in need of some repair (1 Viewer)

[EricTut]

Hey gang-

I have an old 35" Sony TV. Its the series that came before the XBR and Wega stuff... Piano black case, flat glass top to bottom, but curves left to right.

Anyhow, it has had this wonderful trait the past few years; it will occasionally stop firing the tube. When I had sound running through it (runs through my onkyo amp now) I noticed the sound would still be on. Its like the tube just shuts down.

If I turn it off and right on again, it sits there and tries to turn on the tube, but cant. If I wait awhile, the problem wil subside. If I get all Fonzy on it... I spank the TV from the side, no joke... it comes back fine, and wont shut down for a few weeks or so.

TV has a great picture, and I want an HD flatty, but I dont have the money now- maybe in 6 months or so.

I would however like to keep this TV around. I am looking for any advice in repairing it myself. I am a PC techie by trade, also do a fair amount of electrical work on my house. My weekend project is running 2 coax lines from the box, and one phone line to the same TV setup- for my Tivo due monday. Yay Tivo!

Speaking of, if anyone wnats $50 off the price of a tivo from directv... call up cust service and ask for the deal. When they say no, ask for customer retention department. Man, did that work out nicely. Tivo, new reciever for other room, delivered and installed for $65 total.

Back on subject- anyone work on these Sonys? I have a hard time believing this is more than a single part failing, probably has bad connects that are affected by humidity or temp, or both, and is tough to swap out.

Thanks for any ideas guys!

Eric

PS- I asked about this a long long time ago, maybe in another forum, cant remember, and someone told me it was a single part replacement. However, the problem stopped for months, so I forgot about it entirely. Just wanna keep the ol' gal running for a wee bit longer.

 

[Steve Berger]

We need a little more information here. XBR has been around longer than you can imagine and all Trinitron tubes are flat top to bottom and always have been. The full model number would be a starting point. Each chassis design has it's own characteristics on shutdown and blanking. When you say "tries to turn on the tube" do you mean it's blinking on and off, or that the picture is distorted in some way prior to settling down?

 

[EricTut]

Thanks for asking Steve-

Dont know why I didnt think to post mod number... sorry bout that.

Model KV-35s40
Manufactured Dec. '98

Sometimes it does flisker before the tube goes out, sometimes it just goes out. No blinking though. And it usually just goes. If we "whack it" a bit, or just leave it off, the problem will go away for a few days.

Any info/thoughts appreciated greatly!

Off to start planning my day running a new coax line and phone line for my tivo...

Eric

 

[Jerome Grate]

The first suggestion I make is of course contact Sony for an authorized service center. Contact them and tell them the porblem, sometimes they can give a diagnosis over the phone based on what you tell them. The next suggestion is to figure out what are willing to spend to fix this t.v. A hundred, a couple hundred, what's the cutoff?

 

[Steve Berger]

Believe it or not, I am an authorized Sony servicer, but I doubt that I'm in your service area.

First, turn it off and pull the plug. Right now you probably have a relatively minor problem. Some of those minor problems will become major if you continue using the set.

The most common problem that will cause your symptoms are "cold solder joints". They occur with time and thermal stress on larger, hotter components. In this set they are usually in the vertical output, horizontal output, and horizontal drive circuits. If it is the vertical output then the only long term problem will be that it gets worse; if it's in the horizontal then the output transistor will short out taking the power supply with it (the chain reaction takes about 5 microseconds).

As a carry-in repair (carefull not to press upwards on the bottom of the cabinet) you could be looking at anything from a $40 - $120 repair depending on the shop you deal with. I would suggest a servicer with experience on Sony's to insure they will cover all the potential trouble spots, not just the current troublemaker.

If you feel that you are comfortable with board level repair then PM me for a list of components to check out.