2000 RCA Entertainment Series 27" console model G27647 problem

[pac.attack76]

I give up. My whole goal here was to save crt sets from ending up in the dump. I got close with this one and now it looks like this

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by pac.attack76

I give up. My whole goal here was to save crt sets from ending up in the dump. I got close with this one and now it looks like this

That could be a corrupt eeprom. These chassis *must* have the tuner grounds soldered and the two heatsinks tabs - the horiz output and the LV regulator.

Not soldering these grounds will absolutely corrupt eeproms. I remember changing an eeprom in one of these in warranty for no audio. Two days later it was back. These chassis were new at that time and we had little experience with them. A call to RCA about the failed eeprom was to solder the tuner and heatsink ground tabs. RCA issued a "goldenrod" about this about a week after I ran into this.

You could solder the grounds and then get into the service menu and reset the vert height and centering. Normal values are between 0-63 IIRC but sometimes we'd see values that didn't make sense, like numbers in the hundreds or with letters instead of digits.

John

[pac.attack76]

Originally Posted by JohnCT

That could be a corrupt eeprom. These chassis *must* have the tuner grounds soldered and the two heatsinks tabs - the horiz output and the LV regulator.

Not soldering these grounds will absolutely corrupt eeproms. I remember changing an eeprom in one of these in warranty for no audio. Two days later it was back. These chassis were new at that time and we had little experience with them. A call to RCA about the failed eeprom was to solder the tuner and heatsink ground tabs. RCA issued a "goldenrod" about this about a week after I ran into this.

You could solder the grounds and then get into the service menu and reset the vert height and centering. Normal values are between 0-63 IIRC but sometimes we'd see values that didn't make sense, like numbers in the hundreds or with letters instead of digits.

John

Hey John. I turned it back on and it's running normal again. Should I go ahead with the grounds?

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by pac.attack76

Hey John. I turned it back on and it's running normal again. Should I go ahead with the grounds?

The TV may be working normally now, but the next time the ground connections come loose the problem will return and could corrupt the EEPROM chip. I am no expert on these by any means; I only worked on TVs, the old tube-operated ones, as a hobby years ago (my basement was full of them, trash finds, in the '70s) and have absolutely no experience at all with modern solid-state sets. Your best bet would be to look for someone who is well-versed in this type of repair, but as I said, I would at least try resoldering the grounds; this may get the set working again unless the EEPROM chip was damaged by static charges, etc., in which case the only solution would be to replace the chip. In a TV this old (23 years), it may not even be worth repairing; in fact, some repair shops may not even touch it.

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by pac.attack76

Hey John. I turned it back on and it's running normal again. Should I go ahead with the grounds?

The grounds should be done in any case. Your eeprom isn't corrupted because they don't "fix" themselves when they are.

It would be the tuner grounds specifically that are causing your issue with the picture even when using AV inputs. The ground to the jungle IC runs through the tuner (stupidly).

The tuner is a surface mount affair and is delicate work. You have to remove the tuner cover (soldered down) and then solder the tuner perimeter and several ground pins in the middle of the tuner.

There is an alternative if you don't plan to use the tuner - solder a ground wire from the cage around the micro and jungle IC and bypass the tuner directly. I've never done this but if you want to try, the point you need to solder your wire to would be on the lower right corner of the tuner when the board is oriented where the tuner input connector is facing straight up. There is a ground point that has a wire soldered to it on the top side of the board.

John

[pac.attack76]

Ok, in a couple days, I'll get in there and get that done. I mostly use the av and s-video. While I have the board out, would it be advisable to do a "board wash"? It's really filthy.

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by pac.attack76

Ok, in a couple days, I'll get in there and get that done. I mostly use the av and s-video. While I have the board out, would it be advisable to do a "board wash"? It's really filthy.

I wouldn't unless there's a sticky grime that on the board that you can scrape off with your fingernail.

I used to wash boards in the old days strictly for aesthetics. But I would remove *anything* on the board that could trap water. In your case,that would be the flyback and SMPS transformer and any tunable coils, but I don't think your chassis has any.

My favorite solution was a product called Parson's sudsy ammonia (I don't know if it's still around). The boards would come out so clean they'd literally shine.

I had a hot box built with a small hole to put in a low temperature hair dryer snout and a hole on the top of the box. They'd dry for at least an hour before going back into service.

John

[pac.attack76]

Alright. If I do, I'll heat dry it, then it'll sit for a few days just in case.

[pac.attack76]

Cleaned up everything real good. Everything done but tracking down the focus issue. I'll be getting a probe soon so maybe that'll turn something up. Everything else looks good. I do have one other issue. Only the speaker on the right side is working. Nothing from the left. Going through the audio settings in menu changes nothing.

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by pac.attack76

Cleaned up everything real good. Everything done but tracking down the focus issue. I'll be getting a probe soon so maybe that'll turn something up. Everything else looks good. I do have one other issue. Only the speaker on the right side is working. Nothing from the left. Going through the audio settings in menu changes nothing.

When the grounds act up, they typically cause bit corruption in the eeprom (more often than not). Since there are no mechanical adjustments except F and G2, *any* adjustment including tuner alignment can be tweaked off.

First, go in the customer menu and see if the TV has a balance control. If it does, move it far left or far right and make sure it stops at either extreme. Often, the pointer will run through the stop and appear on the opposite side. Keep moving far left or right until the pointer gets "locked" inside the ends of the balance range. The pointer can often run through the stops several times before you get it centered. That might fix it.

John

[pac.attack76]

Originally Posted by JohnCT

When the grounds act up, they typically cause bit corruption in the eeprom (more often than not). Since there are no mechanical adjustments except F and G2, *any* adjustment including tuner alignment can be tweaked off.

First, go in the customer menu and see if the TV has a balance control. If it does, move it far left or far right and make sure it stops at either extreme. Often, the pointer will run through the stop and appear on the opposite side. Keep moving far left or right until the pointer gets "locked" inside the ends of the balance range. The pointer can often run through the stops several times before you get it centered. That might fix it.

John

I found the balance and ran it left and right. Stops where it should. All the way to the right, I have sound. All the way to the left, nothing.

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by pac.attack76

I found the balance and ran it left and right. Stops where it should. All the way to the right, I have sound. All the way to the left, nothing.

Sound problems other that corrupt eeproms are uncommon in these. For the heck of it, did you verify the speaker itself?

The 169s had issues with leaky caps making the boards conductive and upsetting the audio output ICs causing int sound, squeaks, squeals, and no sound, but I never saw any later RCAs do that, but on the other hand, these are another ten years older, so...

John

[pac.attack76]

Originally Posted by JohnCT

Sound problems other that corrupt eeproms are uncommon in these. For the heck of it, did you verify the speaker itself?

The 169s had issues with leaky caps making the boards conductive and upsetting the audio output ICs causing int sound, squeaks, squeals, and no sound, but I never saw any later RCAs do that, but on the other hand, these are another ten years older, so...

John

No but I have thought about it. I'll get one tomorrow for and put it in there to see if it'll work.

[pac.attack76]

I've yet to try the audio on this thing. I have a pair of speakers from another set I will try. I've been thinking about the whole focus issue lately. It doesn't start messing up till it warms up. Could it be caps and which ones? I'm thinking on changing some out.

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by pac.attack76

I've been thinking about the whole focus issue lately. It doesn't start messing up till it warms up. Could it be caps and which ones? I'm thinking on changing some out.

I doubt it's a cap. That type of focus error (absent of any other picture symptoms) is going to come down to a bad flyback, a bad CRT socket, or a bad tube.

In the order of probability, I'd put the socket first, tube second, flyback third.

John