Odd "fixed itself" problem - Videokarma.org TV - Video

AiboPet · #1 07-10-2012, 08:19 AM

Okay....I know I've seen this on here before in different places.

I got me a little Sony S5-305 from an ebay seller. It's only in "okay" shape. Looks like it was stored outside for a bit, but came up playing...but with REAL dirty pots of course (ALL of 'em)

Weird thing is, I turned it on and noted several little things I was gonna have to tend to at some point (mostly linearity problems). I let the set run for several hours on my little desk at work really just for fun. I don't speak Spanish, so really was paying NO attention to it. I noticed after coming back from another office that the linearity issue I saw for well over an hour....went away.

NO amount of letting it sit and turning it back on....or fiddling with the (still dirty) pots will make that problem return.

Question is.....What exactly is at play when I see reference to electrolytics "coming back" after playing a set that has been sitting a LONG time? I suspect something somehow "fixed itself" just from giving the set some time running. This is a solid state set (one of the "tummy" TV sets)...so I don't suspect "just had to warm up" when it's been running SEVERAL hours...then OFF all night, and then does NOT have the problem in the morning.

Obviously the set has a few little TINY issues that still have to be addressed (I have not taken it home and put a crosshatch on it yet), but the GLARING problem seems to have completely gone away. It's a VERY cute but quite dirty little Sony I paid like thirty bucks for.

bob91343 · #2 07-10-2012, 10:18 AM

I have a similar set I would sell for $30.

In any case, all the parts of the sets are chemical, and chemicals tend to react, so it's impossible to guess just what happened in your case. I would enjoy it and if the problem recurs, then deal with it.

Sandy G · #3 07-10-2012, 10:46 AM

Happened to me too, over the years. Tends to re-inforce my suspicion that a LOT of electronic theory is a load of BS, it REALLY IS "Magic", just as I supposed when I was a kid...

miniman82 · #4 07-10-2012, 01:12 PM

The caps probably reformed slowly, but they won't ever be as reliable as new ones. Recap for best performance.

AiboPet · #5 07-10-2012, 05:57 PM

Yeah.... This IS gonna become a recap project. Likely a very minor one.

I also just realized I had posted this '60s TRANSISTERIZED set....in the old tubes section. When (if) I decide to chase down all the little caps in this set (there's ALOT, but they are on only two REAL easy to remove modules). I'm surprised how accessable this compact little set is. I have no SAMs for it yet, but it's just a board on top (Sweep)...and a board on bottom (IF/audio), and they both "swing out". Document on a couple Post-Its what color wires go where, and you can unplug like ten little wires and take the two modules out.

Hardest part about THIS recap would be chasing down all the little electrolytics. A couple look real suspicious, but not the way you might be thinking. There are some REAL bright blue caps in this thing that look new....and very obvious if you have seen "early Sony sloppiness"...that the solder is newer where these blue caps are.

Decent crosshatch, but there are still scanlines mostly across the top. This is the "fixed itself" version of this screen. BEFORE it was really obviously folded over at the top...and some scanlines were screaming across the top third of the picture. Now just very light scanlines, and VERY minor linearity issues. I notice neither of these during watching TV. Just during static stuff like crosshatches.

Just noticed the picture shows the scanlines ALOT more than I see them IRL