Sony XBR Questions

[tdvab]

Always loved the sony xbr sets. I saw a 30" in a pawn shop a while ago and they wanted $150. I passed on it but a short time later decided I had to have it, so I went back but it had sold. I kept looking and finally located a 34" xbr series 910 with its matching stand (craigs list) for $120 and picked it up. Shortly after that, I grabbed a 30" xbr 910 from a goodwill for $34.95 (which was the same price they had on all of their crt sets of which several were junk). I always wanted a Super fine pitch XBR when they were new, but prices were in the neighborhood of $2000-$3000. Anyway, the 34" began the flashing thing and wouldn't turn on. On checking the web, I ordered the ic that was suggested. Instead of disassembling the tv to get to the chip, I decided the easiest way was to use a dremel tool and carefully cut the plastic away below the chip. I then had easy access to get at the chip. While waiting for the replacement to arrive, I decided to resolder the pins securing the original chip to the board before pulling the original.....and......that fixed it! So I still have the replacement chip for future use but havent been able to use it because both sets are still going strong. This series does not have the atsc tuner but it does have the hdtv super fine pitch tube. I believe this is why the original owners probably got rid of them. Of course I went looking for a stand alone atsc tuner and found a samsung, so now I can watch broadcast hdtv, BUT I mainly use these tvs for my analogue stuff. There are several picture controls (such as clarity), which most tvs dont have .These xbrs can do wonders with laserdiscs, svhs, beta and regular vhs. With vhs going 5 for $1, it pays to have a great crt color tube so you can still enjoy the tape formats. If I would have had access to this tv when dvd first became available, I dont think I ever would have invested in dvd's because, these sets make laserdisc's look downright amazing.

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by tdvab

While waiting for the replacement to arrive, I decided to resolder the pins securing the original chip to the board before pulling the original.....and......that fixed it!

I've fixed hundreds of those Sonys, and my guess is that you will have to replace that MCZ chip soon.

One of the tricks we used to identify a bad MCZ chip was to simply heat it with a heat gun or a wide blade soldering iron across the top of the chip. If it started, I changed the chip. Heating them would sometimes restore them for a short amount of time. While it's certainly possible you had a bad connection that you fixed by soldering, I can honestly say that I never saw bad solder on the power board.

Some info from the field for site posterity:

There are two board versions - the brown and the green. The brown may have been in the DA1 and the green in the DX series, but I don't trust my memory like I used to.. The brown board is a single side board and it's very easy to replace the chip conventionally. I normally would put down a little liquid solder flux and use Chemwick to clear the pins.

The green board is a double sided affair and the solder goes through the lead holes and stops on the component side. It's a lot harder to replace the chip on the green boards. I used to add some chipquik to the original solder along with flux, then hot air the chip out of the board. It could also be wicked out but I preferred the hot air. I wouldn't use a spring loaded solder sucker on these as the recoil could damage a trace.

I never did this, but some guys would clip the pins of the chip from the top of the board with a *high quality* pair of angle cutters, then heat and remove each pin individually. Alternatively, you could also use a Dremel (if you have the swing room) with a cutoff wheel to cut the pins at the chip's body. Don't rush the cut lest you snag the pin and pull it, and don't go too deep!!

Towards the end of the Sony DTV era, there were TONS of counterfeit chips around. At the end, the only place I would trust to buy any Sony chips is B+D https://www.bdent.com/. I don't know if they have any originals left. The counterfeits would either not work, fail shortly after power up, or trash other parts around the chip. Careful with sourcing the MCZ chips.

Lastly, 98.136 percent of Sony TVs that came in for repair that had a power supply problem only needed the MCZ chip closest to the flyback, so I would only install the one chip - not both.

John