CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[kjrowland]

The convergence seems to be off and I can not change the screen to anything but "expand" this is causing a distortion. It makes everything look like you are watching a 3D movie without the glasses on. Is something I can fix or do I need to call a repair man? I do not have the original remote, (do I need it)?

[Clarence]

Post a screenshot so we can tell if it needs a simple convergence alinment or if a chip on the convergence board has failed

[kjrowland]

Does this help?

[/img]

[ecrabb]

Oh, lordy - that is bad. I'll let the techie-heads here chime in, but that definitely looks like a bad convergence board or component on the convergence board.

SC

[macgyver655]

Yeah, looks like convergence chip failure. Lots of soldering to replace parts and you need the original remote to adjust when done.

[Rolls-Royce]

I have lots of trepidation here about disagreeing with macgyver, but it may also be that the convergence ICs just need to be resoldered. It's a common failure mode for many brands of these CRT RPTVs (I had to do my 46807 a couple of years ago) due to thermal expansion and contraction of the solder joints. The ICs are run hard in these applications, and the heatsinking used is just enough to keep them from burning up. Some of that heat gets conducted out to the joints where the ICs are soldered to the board and they eventually develop fine cracks. Under magnification a cracked solder joint can display a tiny ring on the joint around the pin-looks kind of like a miniature nipple and aureola.

The service manual for your set details a procedure for removing the entire light box and mainboard assembly as a unit. It's much easier and faster than trying to remove just the mainboard. Remove it, turn it upside down on some padding, and the IC joints will be right there for resoldering. They'll also be easier to replace if you want to go that route. If you do want to replace them, make sure you get Sanyo ICs. Craig Rounds ("CIR Engineering" on this forum) has more information on this repair and which ICs you'll need.

[Curt Palme]

Hey, I've got no problems disagreeing with ya!

I've seen that too, rings around the solder joints, but some wave soldering seems to do that without causing solder joint issues. The problem is that the IC leads break loose from the actual chip substrate, so if you suspect a convergence chip, just change it already. Resoldering the chip MIGHT reseat the lead temporarily on the chip substrate, but several on/off cycles and it will die again.

[Curt Palme]

Hey, I've got no problems disagreeing with ya!

I've seen that too, rings around the solder joints, but some wave soldering seems to do that without causing solder joint issues. The problem is that the IC leads break loose from the actual chip substrate, so if you suspect a convergence chip, just change it already. Resoldering the chip MIGHT reseat the lead temporarily on the chip substrate, but several on/off cycles and it will die again.

[Rolls-Royce]

Hi, Curt. Like you, I've seen other rings on solder joints, too. However, with this particular manifestation, the ring IS the crack and you can see a tiny shadow in it with good lighting and a magnifier. I agree that this may be a temporary fix, but on my set, the resolder has lasted at least 2 years with no problems so far. Now, just to be on the safe side, right after I did the resoldering, I got the proper ICs and they're in my stash in case of an eventual failure.

[petercheck]

It does a great job and the pictures from it are crystal clear. I even marvel at the improvement in the Cox Cable signal n this set.As far as price it starts at 3k but you can get it on sale for about 2800.00, and you can even beat them up on price then.The sound isn''t bad,at least to me, its just that the quality doesn''t match the picture.

[Rolls-Royce]

[AnalogRocks]

[AnalogRocks]