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Table of Contents

• Preface
  • Author and Copyright
  • DISCLAIMER

• Introduction
  • Television at the crossroads
  • Television receiver fundamentals
  • TV repair
  • Repair or replace

• TV Receivers 101
  • Subsystems of a television set
  • Why projection TVs are not just normal TVs in big boxes
  • For more information on TV technology
  • On-line tech-tips databases

• CRT Basics
  • Color CRTs - shadow masks and aperture grills
  • Degaussing (demagnetizing) a CRT

• TV Placement And Preventive Maintenance
  • General TV placement considerations
  • Preventive maintenance
  • Warning about using a TV as a computer or video game display

• TV Troubleshooting
  • SAFETY
  • Safety guidelines
  • Warning about disconnecting CRT neck board
  • Troubleshooting tips
  • Program to aid in diagnosing TV set problems
  • Test equipment
  • Incredibly Handy widgets
  • Safe discharging of capacitors in TVs and video monitors
  • Additional information on discharging CRTs
  • Removing the CRT HV connector
  • Safe troubleshooting techniques for line powered TVs
  • The series light bulb trick
  • Getting inside a TV
  • Specific considerations before poking around inside a TV or monitor
  • Dusting out the inside of a TV
  • Troubleshooting a TV with the mainboard disconnected

• TV Adjustments
  • User picture adjustment
  • Internal adjustments
  • Focus adjustment
  • Adjustment of the internal SCREEN and color controls
  • Optimal procedure for setting brightness/background and screen adjustments
  • Color balance adjustment
  • More on 'Calibrating' TV color
  • Horizontal position, size, and linearity adjustment
  • Vertical position, size, and linearity adjustment
  • Pincushion adjustments
  • Geometry adjustment
  • Why is the convergence on my set bad near the edges
  • CRT purity and convergence problems
  • CRT purity adjustment
  • CRT convergence adjustment
  • Tilted picture
  • B/W TV size, position, and geometry adjustments

• Low Voltage Power Supply Problems
  • Low voltage power supply fundamentals
  • Standby power supplies
  • Typical TV power supply front end
  • Totally dead set
  • Intermittently dead set - bad cordset
  • Power button on set is flakey
  • TV blows fuse
  • Fuse blows or TV blows up when sync is disrupted
  • Internal fuse blew during lightning storm (or elephant hit power pole)
  • Fuse replaced but TV clicks with power-on but no other action
  • Power-on tick-tick-tick or click-click-click but no other action
  • No picture or raster and no sound
  • Reduced width picture and/or hum bars in picture and/or hum in sound
  • Excessive B+ from fixed regulator like STR30123/STR30130/STR30135
  • TV power cycling on and off
  • Dead TV with periodic tweet-tweet, flub-flub, or low-low voltage
  • Bypassing the Startup Circuit
  • Shorted Components
  • Startup problems - nothing happens, click, or tick-tick-tick sound
  • TV turns off after warming up
  • TV doesn't power up immediately
  • Old TV requires warmup period
  • TV shuts down with bright picture or when brightness is turned up
  • Relays in the Power Circuitry of TVs
  • What is a posistor?
  • Flameproof Resistors
  • Width and height change with warmup
  • Problems with SCR based regulators
  • TV shuts down with dark picture or when changing channels

• Deflection Problems
  • Deflection fundamentals
  • About the vertical scan rate
  • Picture squeezed in then died
  • TV non-linearity
  • Horizontal deflection shutting down
  • TV will not sync
  • Horizontal lock lost
  • Insufficient width (without hum bars)
  • Vertical lock lost
  • Vertical squashed
  • Part of picture cut off
  • Single Vertical Line
  • Single Horizontal Line
  • Keystone shaped picture
  • Loss of Horizontal Sync (also applies to vertical) after Warmup
  • Intermittent jumping or jittering of picture or other random behavior
  • Horizontal output transistors keep blowing (or excessively hot)
  • Horizontal output transistors blowing at random intervals
  • Vertical foldover
  • Comments on vertical problems
  • Jagged or uneven vertical sweep
  • Excessive width/pincushioning problems
  • Deflection yoke testing
  • Deflection yoke repair
  • Testing of flyback (LOPT) transformers

• High Voltage Power Supply Problems
  • HV power supply fundamentals
  • What is a tripler?
  • High voltage shutdown due to X-ray protection circuits
  • Low or no high voltage
  • Excessive high voltage
  • Snaps, crackles, and other HV breakdown
  • Arcing, sparking, or corona from CRT HV anode (red wire/suction cup)
  • Arcing from flyback or vicinity
  • Dave's complete procedure for repair of an arcing flyback
  • Arcing at spark gaps and gas discharge tubes on CRT neck board or elsewhere
  • Arcing due to bad connections to or disconnected CRT return
  • Flashovers inside the CRT
  • Ozone smell and/or smoke from TV
  • X-ray and other EM emission from my TV or monitor?
  • Should I be worried about X-ray exposure while servicing a TV or monitor?
  • More on radiation from TVs and monitors
  • Flyback shot by 4 year old with water pistol
  • Blooming or breathing problems
  • Erratic focus or screen (G2) voltage and/or controls on flyback
  • Focus/Screen divider bypass surgery
  • Decaying or erratic focus or screen (G2) voltages
  • Disconnecting flyback wire(s) from CRT driver board
  • Focus or screen voltage drifts after warmup only when CRT is connected

• Raster, Color, and Video Problems
  • No color - black and white picture
  • Saturated color but almost no brightness
  • Brightness control has no effect
  • One color is too weak or too strong
  • Psychodelic color
  • No picture/dark picture/erratic picture
  • TV and monitor manufacturing quality and cold solder joints
  • Why can't TV manufacturers learn to solder properly?
  • Intermittent or missing colors
  • Some commentary on monitor and TV whacking
  • Retrace lines in picture
  • White/gray retrace lines
  • Red, green, or blue retrace lines
  • Bad CRT causing retrace lines
  • Red, green, or blue full on - fog over picture
  • Shorts in a CRT
  • Providing isolation for a CRT H-K short
  • Rescuing a shorted CRT
  • Picture tube replacement
  • High voltage to focus short
  • Dark picture
  • Brightening an old CRT
  • Picture tube brightener
  • More drastic measures to brighten CRT
  • Left portion of screen is dark or faded
  • Color balance changes across screen from left to right
  • Bleeding highlights
  • Trailing lines in one or more colors
  • Brightness changes from left-to-right across screen
  • Picture fades in and out
  • Occasional brightness flashes
  • Excessive brightness and/or washed out picture
  • Bad focus (fuzzy picture)
  • Focus drift with warmup
  • Bad focus and adjustment changes brightness
  • Charlie's comments on focus problems
  • Blank picture, good channel tuning and sound
  • Purple blob - or worse
  • Color rings - bullseye pattern
  • Magnet fix for purity problems - if duct tape works, use it!
  • Color TV only displays one color
  • Disappearing Red (or other color)
  • The wandering black blob on old Sony
  • Vertical brightness or color bars

• Tuner, AGC, and Sync Problems
  • No reception from antenna or cable
  • Picture is overloaded, washed out, or noisy
  • Jumping picture on white scenes
  • Interference when using VCR RF connection
  • RF Interference on TV
  • Problems with ground loops and video hum bars
  • Missing or noisy channel or block of channels
  • Loss of Channel after Warmup
  • Channel tuning drifts as set warms up
  • Noise in picture and sound due to bright scene
  • Internal interference - switchmode power supplies and digital circuitry
  • Those darn rabbit ears
  • Herringbone lines in picture
  • EM or RFI hell?

• Audio Problems
  • Picture fine, no audio
  • Weak or distorted audio
  • Buzzing TV
  • Chattering yoke
  • High pitched whine or squeal from TV with no other symptoms
  • Reducing/eliminating yoke noise
  • Whining when off?

• Miscellaneous Problems
  • General erratic behavior
  • Wiring transmitted interference
  • Jittering or flickering due to problems with AC power
  • TV blows fuses or trips breakers or worse when A/V connections are made
  • My TV has the shakes
  • TV displays black box with normal picture border
  • Advertising overload
  • Strange codes appearing on TV screen
  • Releasing 'demo' mode
  • TV was rained on
  • TV was dropped
  • Really cleaning a TV inside and out
  • Setup menus will not go away or hieroglyphics on screen
  • Setup adjustments lost - TV service codes
  • Service menu caution
  • Strange number in upper left corner in Magnavox service mode
  • TV doesn't work after being in storage
  • Older TVs with multiple intermittent problems
  • TV has burning smell
  • Static discharge noise and picture tube quality
  • Revival of dead or tired remote control units
  • Problems with the IR remote receiver
  • So you lost your original remote (or it fell in the toilet)
  • Loudspeakers and TVs
  • Should I replace all the electrolytic capacitors if I find a bad one?
  • Sweet little old ladies and TVs from attic
  • Phantom spot or blob on CRT after set is shut off
  • Comments on bright spot at power-off
  • Disposing of dead TVs (CRTs and charged HV capacitors)
  • Shock and/or spark when connecting cable or other A/V components
  • What is the deal with Macrovision copy protection?
  • AGC and copy protection
  • On-screen clock runs slow or fast
  • Cold problems with cold TVs - or - an unhappy Christmas
  • F-connector broken off rear of TV or VCR

• Some Model Specific Problems
  • Erratic problems with older GE TVs
  • Erratic problems on late model GE, RCA, or ProScan TV
  • Sylvania/Magnavox/Philips - no startup
  • Sony TVs/monitors and Hstat
  • More on Hstat
  • No video on late model Sony TVs

• Items of Interest
  • Various video standards
  • An informal history of X-ray protection
  • What is this goop around some electrolytic capacitors and other components?
  • What does the flyback (LOPT) transformer do?
  • Why do flyback (LOPT) transformers fail?
  • Brief comments on testing the HOT
  • CRT rejuvenation
  • Memory chips in TVs
  • How does Picture-In-Picture (PIP) work?
  • Tony's notes on setting convergence on delta gun CRTs
  • Saga and general setup for large CRT TVs
  • Liquid coupling fluid for projection TVs
  • Origin of burn spot/line on projection set
  • Blue focus different for projection sets?
  • Comments on color purity, set orientation, and doming
  • About instant-on TVs
  • About gadgets to use house wiring as TV antenna
  • Can I add an S-Video input to my TV or VCR?
  • How do I add A/V inputs or outputs to a TV which does not have them built in?
  • Can I add direct RGB inputs to a TV?
  • Adding variable volume headphones to a TV
  • Building a Frankenstein TV
  • Turning a TV (or monitor) into an oscilloscope?
  • Displaying a video signal as a picture on an oscilloscope
  • Use of surge suppressors and line filters
  • Comments on lightning damage
  • GFCI tripping with TV, monitor, or other high tech equipment
  • Multisystem TVs
  • Playing NTSC videotape on a PAL TV
  • Buying a TV in Europe
  • Could a TV be modified for 3D (stereo) display?
  • Displaying TV on a computer monitor
  • Displaying computer video on a TV
  • How can I couple 4 TV screens to make them act like only one?
  • What is Scan Velocity Modulation?
  • About Automatic Black Level Stabilization and possible problems
  • What is Kell factor with respect to interlaced displays?
  • Homemade V-chip (or at least viewing limiter)
  • What is Aquadag?
  • Combined computer monitor and TV
  • Interesting TV Switch Mode Power Supply
  • The horizontal output transistor substitution jig trick
  • Ken's comments on (TV) SMPS repair
  • IR detector circuit
  • UK Satellite TV information

• International Color Television Standards
  • Brief description of international color TV standards
  • Some questions and answers about TV standards
  • Politically Correct TV Standards
  • Variations on a 'standard' - the PAL system
  • What about PAL sets WITH a tint/hue control?
  • TV, shortwave, power worldwide
  • Color television standards worldwide
  • Cable channel allocation
  • Notes on cable and broadcast frequencies
  • How did the (vertical) frame rate get chosen
  • Why is the NTSC color subcarrier such a weird frequency?
  • What is the maximal allowed deviation of the horizontal frequency?
  • Informal comparison of TV standards
  • PAL-plus
  • More information about watching NTSC video on PAL systems

• Service Information
  • Advanced TV troubleshooting
  • Service manuals for really old TVs
  • How to locate service info when all the little stickers have fallen off
  • Techical assistance help numbers
  • Web resources
  • Parts information
  • Suggested references
  • FCC ID Numbers of TVs
  • Interchangeability of components
  • Horizontal output transistor pinouts
  • How do you locate the HOT
  • Replacement power transistors while testing
  • Testing of replacement HOTs
  • Removing and replacing the deflection yoke
  • Swapping of deflection yokes
  • Swapping of CRTs
  • Decayed glue in electronic equipment
  • Repair parts sources