TV OR NOT TV...

[DAN BOLTON]

Can anyone give me a clue as to what may have happened to my TV? It's a 2001 Panasonic 36 inch Tau that sudenly developed a slight white broken line in the upper left corner of the screen that rapidly over the next several d\days became a 2 inch wide band that exiended over the top of the screen. The picture began to take longer and longer to "come in" when the set was first turned on, and eventually lost color as it did, only to "blotch" the colors and then even them out. The picture became much darker, and I couldnt control it anymore with the controis...at first the brightness and color and tint did work. I always had sound immediately...but the picture would take a couple of minutes to come on. All of a sudden, it died during the Malaysian Grand Prix...just shut itself off... no sound or picture, and I couldn't turn it back on...

It's an SDTV, and with money tight, I have a smaller set I'm using; but with Fuchs' Dystrophy, I have to have it about 4 feet in front off me to see the details. It's a 24 inch SDTV...

Does my Panasonic need a new picture tube? If so, it;s not worth it...



Dan

 

[Rudy]

Sounds like the circuitry inside--something (like a capacitor) may have gone bad in it. Maybe the complete "shut off" was the result of that component shorting out, or maybe causing something else to fail along with it.

I had a Sony 36" RPTV, from 1987, that would go dead except for the faint green text on the screen. Each time, it was the same small inductor coil that would burn out. The last tech that fixed it put in a big, thick coil from a Mitsubishi, and it never quit. But, by that time, the green tube had gotten gassy, and the picture was fuzzy. Since the tube was a special size, and no longer available, it couldn't even be replaced (unless I looked around on trash night).

A picture tube going bad, usually just starts getting dimmer or fuzzier over time, very gradual. If some circuitry inside the tube went bad (similar to a filament in a light bulb), then it could go dead. But from what you're describing, the circuitry inside seems more like the culprit.

If you can't afford for someone to fix it, call some of your local school districts to see if they have an electronics class or technical school that fixes TVs. My old district has a Career Technical Center that high school students can attend for half a day, and I believe that TV and electronics repair was one of their class offerings. The repair shops charge a small fortune to come out and look at it. Much less if you take it in to the shop, but they'll probably still charge $50 or more just to crack it open and see what's wrong.

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Thanks, Neil. My son, the Radio Shack techno-whiz seemed to come to the same conclusion that it probably wasn't the picture tube. I'll call around and see what I can come up with as far as getting somebody to work on the set. The problem is that it weighs about 300 pounds, so it's hard to move.


Dan