CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Maurice089]

Hey guys... every tube of my marquee flickers and sometimes the picture gets lighter or darker for just a second

Help me please

[CZ Eddie]

Try removing the CLM, which is located at the rear, bottom left corner of chassis. Then press firmly down on all the IC's. Be careful when doing this to the IC's on it's daughterboard. Which I'm not sure an 8000 will have one, but newer models usually do.

[JustGreg]

Hello Maurice,
The word 'flicker' is open to interpretation and therefore makes an accurate diagnosis difficult without actually seeing it. On the surface I would say it needs a good cleaning; which has been discussed here and at AVS for years, but good luck getting either site to pony up results using their search functions. Googling will probably get you better results.

The Marquee's seem to need the socketed chips cleaned regularly. Arguably more so than other makes of pj given that I rarely hear of a good cleaning fixing other pj's with issues that on the surface appear to be catastrophic failures.

Get a good chip puller, a couple small cans of Caigs DeOxit, a new toothbrush (NO used ones...don't need toothpaste and abrasives added to the problems) and familiarize yourself with all the boards and daughterboards you'll need to be working with. When the VIM is out for cleaning don't forget to clean the mini RCA connectors on the ends of the mini coax cables AND their corresponding connectors soldered to the VIM.

Is the pj ceiling mounted or table? If ceiling you might want to investigate ways to keep the HDM and FCM from sliding down out of their cages. Almost everyone, myself included, who has a Marquee has beefed up the card retention design to better keep those boards tight in their sockets.

Use caution when removing, working with, and replacing the HDM. DON'T pull it around by the cables and be careful not to break the width slugs (6 round tubes sticking up). They are variable adjustments (obviously) and therefore have fragile carbon stacks in the tube that are easily broken. If you break on, try not to unwind the copper around the tube and use hot glue to make a repair to the broken tube. Best to be extra careful from the onset and handle it gently.

You didn't mention your skill level working under the hood of your Marquee but I'll assume you are skilled enough to know to disconnect the power and let the set sit for 5 or 10 minutes to discharge HV before digging into it.

Use DeOxyt and the toothbrush to clean the pins and card edges of all modules, sockets, and daugther boards. Make sure you let everything dry for a while before energizing the set. Don't go crazy with the DeOxit.

Of course you can always 'cheap out' and just reseat all the boards and chips but while you have them out you might as well do it the right way and be done with it for a year.

Cleaning is always the best place to start with Marquee intermittent video related problems. If the problem persists after a good cleaning then post back and we'll go from there.

Good luck!

[JustGreg]

jinx Eddie.

As Eddie says, use caution when pressing the chips down into the sockets. DO NOT just press down on a board without supporting it from the back. I would remove the daughter boards before pressing down on a chip but that's just me. It takes considerable force to reseat an uncleaned chip as DeOxit has a protectant/lubricant built in which makes the chips move easier in the sockets.

If you choose not to use DeOxit to clean the sockets and just press them down 'dry', you'll hear a crunch sound as the chip reseats. This is normal and nothing to be concerned with AS LONG AS you are supporting the board from the other side directly underneath the socket you're working with. Don't hold the board by the edges or anywhere other than under the chip when pressing it down in as you'll torque (twist) the board and run the risk of breaking a solder joint or circuit trace.

Don't forget to post back with your results even if you get it working. Too many people don't follow up once their problem is fixed and there are those of use who are always interested in learning what worked and what didn't. If you fix the problem with help from some other source and it was caused by something other than what we suggested we'll never know what you did.

[Maurice089]

I'll try it and tell you the result