Pioneer Plasma TV Tech

[rthuey]

there are a lot of analytical and tech savvy folk on the site so i thought i would try.
the big guy quit working. called around and found a repair place that would come get it and give me an estimate for a $125. this was worth me not having to rent a car to get it to them and wrestling the 60" beast by myself. week later get a call that it needed 2 boards and would run about $1k. having computer fixing skills i thought i would pass and do it myself. worse could happen is it would never work again. they bring it back and i am thinking i'll just search the web for what ever these 2 boards are. so the paperwork just says 2 boards $350 and labor $650. called and asked them exactly which 2 boards they had diagnosed as being the issue. was told they couldn't tell me cause i might go out n buy the boards myself. really? the thought never crossed my mind. so i tried explaining that they had taken $125 from me cash up front when they took the tv, to diagnose the issue. i would like the diagnosis. he said sure its on the paperwork.

there appear to be 6 primary boards and another 12 that work the screen itself. I have about $150 in on replacing 4 of the 6 boards. the other 2 boards (x and y drives) are about that much each. certain it is not the power supply. get identical results whether the original or the replacement (ts) is in. the other 3 boards are the i/o, main and digital. there are status lights on the front. blue, red and orange. no matter what i do the red never lights. the blue will either blink once or not at all. the orange either blinks 5, 6 or 0 times. o is for original board and ts is for replacement board.

here is what i get

group a has the original main board; group b has the replacement main board

group a1
blue 1 orange 5 ps o main o digital assy o I/o audio assy o
blue 1 orange 5 ps o main o digital assy o I/o audio assy o x drive disconnected
blue 1 orange 6 ps o main o digital assy o I/o audio assy o Y drive disconnected

group a2
blue 1 orange 5 ps o main o digital assy o I/o audio assy ts
blue 1 orange 5 ps o main o digital assy o I/o audio assy ts x drive disconnected
blue 1 orange 6 ps o main o digital assy o I/o audio assy ts Y drive disconnected

group a3
blue 1 orange 0 ps o main o digital assy ts I/o audio assy o
blue 1 orange 6 ps o main o digital assy ts I/o audio assy o x drive disconnected
blue 0 orange 0 ps o main o digital assy ts I/o audio assy o Y drive disconnected

group a4
blue 1 orange 6 ps o main o digital assy ts I/o audio assy ts
blue 1 orange 6 ps o main o digital assy ts I/o audio assy ts x drive disconnected
blue 0 orange 0 ps o main o digital assy ts I/o audio assy ts Y drive disconnected

group b1
blue 1 orange 5 ps o main ts digital assy o I/o audio assy o
blue 1 orange 5 ps o main ts digital assy o I/o audio assy o x drive disconnected
blue 1 orange 6 ps o main ts digital assy o I/o audio assy o Y drive disconnected

group b2
blue 1 orange 5 ps o main ts digital assy o I/o audio assy ts
blue 1 orange 5 ps o main ts digital assy o I/o audio assy ts x drive disconnected
blue 1 orange 6 ps o main ts digital assy o I/o audio assy ts Y drive disconnected

group b3
blue 1 orange 6 ps o main ts digital assy ts I/o audio assy o
blue 1 orange 5 ps o main ts digital assy ts I/o audio assy o x drive disconnected
blue 0 orange 0 ps o main ts digital assy ts I/o audio assy o Y drive disconnected

group b4
blue 1 orange 6 ps o main ts digital assy ts I/o audio assy ts
blue 1 orange 6 ps o main ts digital assy ts I/o audio assy ts x drive disconnected
blue 0 orange 0 ps o main ts digital assy ts I/o audio assy ts Y drive disconnected


do you think its the x or y or still one of the other ones?

i am leaning towards the x drive. oh and the original issue was 8 blue blinking lights.

[troidus]

Did you give the boards a visual once-over to check for blown capacitors? That's a good clue as to where to start.

[Bueller]

Another good place to start would be your local appliance mega warehouse. Since you are fixing it yourself it is obviously well out of warranty. With the probability of $300 + in parts and brand new 50" tv's down in the $600's, repairing your existing unit may be a fool's folly.

My first 50" plasma was $1300.00. The second one I bought (for another house) was $800.00. Both were Panasonic Viera models. Both have been fantastic. In both cases I knew all they had to do was run for two years before extended warranties would not have been good money spent, so I passed on the warranties and took the gamble. It paid off.

Sound like you are very much a fix it person like me, but I'd bet in your case it isn't sound money spent to fix what you currently have.

[rthuey]

@troidus yes gave once over with magnifying glass. couple things i thought were blown turned out to be epoxy.

@Bueller but its such a beautiful picture.

[Beemer Bob]

http://www.walmart.com/ip/20894664?a...l5=pla&veh=sem

[Bueller]

Originally Posted by rthuey

@troidus yes gave once over with magnifying glass. couple things i thought were blown turned out to be epoxy.

@Bueller but its such a beautiful picture.

Glad you enjoyed it! Buy another one with a beautiful picture and offer the blown one on Craig's list for $100 OBO. Someone will probably buy it!

[fyrfytr]

PM SniperX, If anyone knows, or know where to get the info, it's him.

[Sniper X]

OK, lets start here. The repair facility has a responsibility to tell you which boards they say went out. They charge for a diagnostic so should tell you. WE alwasy tell people. HOWEVER, many fixes take special equipment or tools to set them up right for the unit to work after the boards are replaced. It doesn't sound like in this case they do but sometimes they need alignment.

I would suggest if the unit is older than a couple years, then it might be better to replace it than try and fix it yourself as an unqualified technician. The pitfalls are many including that replacing the boards they SAY are bad might not be it at all.......and that you might not have a static free station to work at so you might screw up the brand new boards if you zap them with static off your clothing or the area you work in. Lets say you spend $350.00 on the boars, and some shipping and it doesn't fix the issue. then you are not only out the cahsola, but time and such and can't send the boards back even if they didn't fix the problem. You can buy a new nice plasma for under 700 now in a 50in and possibly a left over 60in for under a grand. I assume you now know why to NOT buy a plasma other than panasonic, and spend a little more on an extended warranty. Sorry, but in today's throw away society this is possibly your best bet unless you can spend hours on the net finding out exactly what the trouble codes are and making sure the boards will fix the issue. Often we see a trouble code, do exactly what the fix says and spend twice as much on more boards and find out they took out something else in the process when they went or when the things got installed.