sony wega problem: screen loses almost all color (1 Viewer)

[Blake Nelson]

(i did a search and didn't find anything that seemed to match my problem, though i could've missed something...if so, sorry!)

i turned to this forum a few years ago when looking for speaker recommendations and got a lot of great advice - so i'm hoping someone can help now with a TV problem.

i have a 32" sony wega direct-view set that i bought approximately 5 years ago (late 1998) (can't recall the exact model #), and it has served me well over the last few years. however, lately it's started having this problem where the colors on the display suddenly disappear, leaving me with a black screen and faint red and blue outlines of what i *should* be seeing. i switched the cable input (still on analog cable here) from an intermediate connection at the VCR to come in directly at the TV, and that *seemed* to fix it....but it's back. if the screen goes haywire on me, sometimes i can go up or down a channel and the colors return. if that doesn't work, turning the tv off for a few seconds and then back on usually clears it up.

any ideas on what might cause this? i *could* use this as an excuse to upgrade to an HD set, but i'd rather put that off for another few months if possible. the problem w/ my wega hasn't gotten bad enough to drive me nuts - yet - but i fear it'll only get worse.

one additional note - i haven't noticed the problem occurring with alternate video sources (VCR, DVD), but that could just be because 80-90% of the set usage is for plain ol' TV...

thought i'd come here and see if i could get any suggestions...
thanks for any help you can give me!

blake

 

[David Abrams]

Blake,

You could have some loose solder connections on the input board. This could have happened over time or someone may have yanked a cable to hard at one point and because of the loose connection you are loosing some of the information. This is just a guess, there could be many other things that are going wrong with the display, but I have seen this happen often over the years. Next time it goes out you may want to very gently wiggle the connected cable at the connector of the display and see if it comes right back in and out.

Regards,