CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Royalman]

Well this is hopefully to Macgyver or anyone who may have knowledge. I have a 42" Akai plasma, that when it was turned on the top half of the screen went black. If you use picture in picture in the lower corner it shows the entire picture so that is the way it is being watched right now. So I guess I gotta crack it open soon to try and troubleshoot it to fix it any suggestions of where to limit my search, X or Z sustain, or main. My guess first guess is sustain. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance Royalman.

[Curt Palme]

I am guessing the Y buffer board on the Y axis that drives the top 1/2 of the image.,

[Curt Palme]

I am guessing the Y buffer board on the Y axis that drives the top 1/2 of the image.,

[Royalman]

[ecrabb]

I don't know about the AKAI, but the 42" Panny plasma I have torn apart right now has two boards - SU and SD - and that drive the upper- and lower-halves of the screen, respectively. On the Panny, even without the service manual, it was pretty obvious which was which.

Do you have a service manual?

SC

[Curt Palme]

I have never seen a s/manual for any plasma. I'd bet that Panasonic and Sony do put them out, but I've never had copies. Good luck finding anything for LG or Samsung (one of which makes the Akai, I can't remember which one though).

All I've ever found are block diagrams for troubleshooting from LG, which ain't too useful.

I agree though, usually there are two buffer/output boards for the top and bottom 1/2 of the screen. USUALLY the output of the Ysus board will be common to both of those boards, so if the pix is clear on the bottom 1/2, I'd say it's the buffer/output board that the plasma ribbon cables go to.

It's about a $100 risk on eBay, that's about what the boards will go for. Beware though:

I have a really nice 42" Panasonic here that was dead. I found a shorted upper output board. $80 on eBay, and i was all excited. Popped the new board in, the set worked... but with one line of pixels out, about 3" in from the left, going all the way to the right. I emailed the seller, and he told me the plasma itself was bad, and if I ran the set for very long, the new output board would short out.
Great.

Mind you, I've only seen that once, so it's a reasonable guess that a new board in your case will fix the set.

[Curt Palme]

I have never seen a s/manual for any plasma. I'd bet that Panasonic and Sony do put them out, but I've never had copies. Good luck finding anything for LG or Samsung (one of which makes the Akai, I can't remember which one though).

All I've ever found are block diagrams for troubleshooting from LG, which ain't too useful.

I agree though, usually there are two buffer/output boards for the top and bottom 1/2 of the screen. USUALLY the output of the Ysus board will be common to both of those boards, so if the pix is clear on the bottom 1/2, I'd say it's the buffer/output board that the plasma ribbon cables go to.

It's about a $100 risk on eBay, that's about what the boards will go for. Beware though:

I have a really nice 42" Panasonic here that was dead. I found a shorted upper output board. $80 on eBay, and i was all excited. Popped the new board in, the set worked... but with one line of pixels out, about 3" in from the left, going all the way to the right. I emailed the seller, and he told me the plasma itself was bad, and if I ran the set for very long, the new output board would short out.
Great.

Mind you, I've only seen that once, so it's a reasonable guess that a new board in your case will fix the set.