Dying 11 year old 30" Toshiba TV. Recommendations?

Post #6,178 by Another Scott 8/21/01 9:28:36 PM Reply	Dying 11 year old 30" Toshiba TV. Recommendations? Hi All, I've got a 30" Toshiba TV which has worked fine for many years. But it's dying. A few weeks ago we noticed that the vertical size of the image wasn't right. The top scoreboard on some of the sports networks was chopped of, etc. We've lost about 2-3" of the screen - it's up under the bezel somewhere (or would be if the tube went that far). There's no "user adjustment" for the vertical size, unfortunately. It seem to have been telling me that it wasn't going to last much longer (I'd guess some part of the vertical circuit was dying.) Well, last night it decided to go into a "snow" mode. It looks like the signal is very weak on all channels. We've got cable, and it works fine on the other set. What makes me suspect the TV is that we get the same snow when the VCR is turned on, rather than the nice blue screen. Cycling the mode between TV, Video 1 and SVideo briefly gave us a better picture last night, then it faded again. It seems as if some amplifier circuit in the tuner section is dead. Any simple diagnostics I can try to make sure it's not something simple with the set? It was a $900 set when I bought it. Now comparable ones are around $400-500. Any recommendations on what to do? Moving it to a repair shop is a bit of a problem because it just barely fits in the car. And the cost of diagnosis and repair probably isn't justified (assuming parts can still be had for it). If you were buying a new TV of that size now, what would you get? The 32" Toshiba 32A61 (2 tuner PIP) looks nice to me ($650 at BestBuy), but I don't know if the 2 tuner section would work with our cable (it's a stupid system which uses one cable for channels 1-59 and a second for 60-120). My dad got a 230 pound top of the line Sony Wega set a few months ago. I don't want to spend $1300-1500 on a set right now... Any thoughts from you hardware masters (and anyone else) would be appreciated. I'll check out Consumer Reports and the like later tonight. Thanks. Cheers, Scott.
Post #6,181 by boxley 8/21/01 9:44:40 PM Reply	cynical, buy 2 15 inch sets both<$225.00 have you tried toshiba's web site? I think 11 yrs ago they were all solid state so and the last 27 inch I tore apart was 3 boards and the tube, if the kids hadna crushed the tube sensor fittings while I was waiting on an rube goldberg solution(they broke off the cable fitting and needed a couple of special fittings to solder on) it would be working. The parts may be available but ya might hafta wait on delivery. thanx, bill Our bureaucracy and our laws have turned the world into a clean, safe work camp. We are raising a nation of slaves. Chuck Palahniuk
Post #6,211 by wharris2 8/22/01 1:29:13 AM Reply	Oh box oh box When you have an entertainment center with room for one television set, or even if you only have a cart upon which you place a television, 2 15-inchers is no equivalent to a mighty 30 incher. Bad boxley. (smack smack) Women may say bigger isn't better (very possibly they are lying about this), but in the case of televisions, bigger is better. French Zombies are zapping me with lasers!
Post #6,210 by wharris2 8/22/01 1:23:05 AM Reply	Sony always been good by me The first color television my family bought was a 13"Trinitron, circa 1973, with a bonus my father earned before the mid 70's recession. It survived three lightning strikes (cable television didn't have as much protection as it does nowdays) and 20 years. They finally put it to bed 1990 or so. The Sony I bought in 1980 went bad 17 years later; some sort of color imbalance, figured it too expensive to fix. Granted, today quality miight be lower. Hell, probably is lower. But compared to the other television brands I've had experience with, it's still doing pretty dang good. Maybe Toshiba is a good buy. But the sony won't be that much more expensive. (jeez, am I suffering brand loyalty or what?) French Zombies are zapping me with lasers!
Post #6,357 by deSitter 8/22/01 3:42:36 PM Reply	Sony WEGA ..for analog TV. Unbeatable sharpness, dramatically so. Compare letters side by side with any other TV. Bigger is not better for a low-res analog picture - brighter is better. After about 27 inches the surface brightness of tube TVs falls off. I still prefer a 20 inch TV and it takes up little space. My Dad let me build us a TV from a Heathkit in about 1975. It was far better than store-bought TVs with a solid walnut cabinet and a completely enclosed metal case. Heavy as a spinet piano. I can still remember my hands shaking as I plugged it in for the first time...my Dad had a lot of confidence in me :)
Post #6,233 by Ashton 8/22/01 3:30:07 AM Reply	Depends on local repair talent.. Can appreciate difficulty of schlepping this monster around (borrow truck + dolly?) The symptoms of vert height - hard to reconcile with tuner or RF at all, though 'regular snow' from absent signal is that ol Big Bang residue. Sure your snow is like that? Anyway - usually only one thing goes, but that one thing may be a PS common to tuner and vertical. Vertical output (power) xsistor might even be the only culprit. Get diagnostic estimate from someone known to have repaired (something!) well (?) Seems a waste to trash it when maybe under $100 could get the dust blown out and convergence zeroed in.. Luck.. Ashton
Post #6,243 by wharris2 8/22/01 8:04:57 AM Reply	And if you choose this option try to get someone to come to your house. Geezus, I have a 28 incher and that thing is enough to give a horse a hernia. French Zombies are zapping me with lasers!
Post #6,266 by andread 8/22/01 9:42:30 AM Reply	Re: Dying 11 year old 30" Toshiba TV. Recommendations? I'd buy the cheapest one I could get that had the screen size I wanted Esp. after 11 years, you gotta guess that the advances in tech have been quite a few If it sucks take it back and buy the next cheapest I've never gotten to step 2 yet A (who buys a set every 6 or 7 years) Play I Some Music w/ Papa Andy Saturday 8 PM - 11 PM ET All Night Rewind 11 PM - 5 PM Reggae, African and Caribbean Music [link\|http://wxxe.org\|http://wxxe.org]
Post #6,293 by drewk 8/22/01 10:56:12 AM Reply	Ahh, PiP with cable I spent the extra for the two-tuner PiP and loved it. Then I moved to a neighborhood where you have to have a cable box. Now both tuners just sit there, eternally tuned to channel 4. And I have to split the cable before the cable box, run the second line to the vcr, and use the Aux inputs for the VCR to watch two different shows. Of course, then I can't watch or record the premium channels through the VCR. And the only reason they require you to have the box is so that you can order pay-per-view, which I never do. This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Post #6,300 by deSitter 8/22/01 11:36:11 AM Reply	Fix It! It's probably something simple, and you'll have a new and fun hobby. [link\|http://an.hitchcock.org/repairfaq/REPAIR/F_tvfaq.html\|TV Repair FAQ]
Post #6,372 by Another Scott 8/22/01 5:55:29 PM Reply	No 'scope, etc. More importantly, no time. :-( Hi, Thanks for the pointer to the repair FAQ. Lots of good information there. But I've got too many hobbies as it is!!!! :-) My dad is a EE with lots and lots of hands-on electronics experience, a 4 digit "general" (IIRC?) HAM license, etc. He's of the opinion now that "TVs are almost impossible to work on anymore." :-( If I had the time, and if it was just one thing simple, I'd probably try to work on it. But I don't. Not having an oscilloscope doesn't help. It looks like it's potentially got problems with the tuner, IF or AGC circuits (26.1-26.2 in the FAQ), and the vertical circuit (21.8 in the FAQ). It doesn't look like a simple repair, especially since I don't have the repair manual for it (and a site Toshiba recommends for parts - [link\|http://www.tritronicsinc.com\|[link\|http://www.tritronicsinc.com\|http://www.tritronicsinc.com]] - doesn't have it any more). And it might be something relatively simple like a power supply common to both functions... I'll do some final checking tonight just to make sure that it's not something simple. I'm good at missing the obvious sometimes. :-) After that, unless I have a breakthrough, we'll be doing our part to keep the economy going by buying more consumer electronics this weekend.... Thanks everyone! Cheers, Scott.
Post #6,387 by boxley 8/22/01 10:09:24 PM Reply	try looking at where the cable comes in with the cover off there is (usually) a very wierd connection to the circuit board that can fry. have ya tried icing the circuit boards to see if it is heat related? thanx, bill Our bureaucracy and our laws have turned the world into a clean, safe work camp. We are raising a nation of slaves. Chuck Palahniuk
Post #6,430 by Another Scott 8/23/01 8:34:12 AM Reply	I think you're on to something. Hi Bill, We turned on the TV yesterday and after a few minutes it was back to its old self. The top of the screen is still chopped off (as it has been for months or longer), but the picture was pretty good. It's very likely an intermittent bad connection where the video signal attaches to something inside the set. It's been OK for the last 12 hours or more. We'll leave it alone for a while to see if it stays stable. When I've got more time, maybe I'll take the back off and see if there's a cold solder joint or something... Ashton, I appreciate the 'scope offer. I was thinking of you when I mentioned not having one. :-) But the need seems to have passed now. I may contact you in the future though! So, no new set seems to be needed just yet. If the US economy falls into recession, you'll know who to blame... Thanks for the help, everyone! Cheers, Scott.
Post #6,570 by static 8/23/01 11:42:33 PM Reply	Dry-joints and dodgy connections. You will probably not be surprised at how many faults are a simple dry-joint (basically a manufacturing fault) or a piece that is under-engineered. Input sockets are classic favourites for the latter - when they haven't been engineered to take the weight of the typical lead and plug, well, guess what: they fail much earlier than they're supposed to. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #6,401 by Ashton 8/22/01 11:31:51 PM Reply	Heh.. scopes? I got scopes. 5 MHz would likely do = Tek 305 same size as: a Tek 335, which is 35 MHz. Both weigh just over 10#, so UPS might be tolerable - where are ya? You'd just have to treat it nice - I've culled a few super clean 335s for long term. (No one will ever make stuff this good in any present, future Corp. Money + TLAs main 'product' now) But 'time' I can't send. Can't hurt to just check PS volts at obvious points with DVM, or given your bizarre symptoms - Bill's easter egg might be it - if got good Karma. Now with a father experienced in this stuff - the physics and NTSC haven't er changed ;-) Do sympathize re no schematic, though - still, PS checks might reveal all - with nose to find fried item? Hey.. we gotta stop fillin up them landfills! ashtonb[sort-of at]jps and that horrible idea: .net
Post #6,408 by boxley 8/23/01 12:56:18 AM Reply	ya got spare scopes? hmm wait a month or so and if ya still got spare scopes could definitely use one after Oct 1st. email is William Oxley cocatenated at netscape dot net nothing better than a scope to install awe in chirrun. Needs ta wait for the eagle to shit first slow boat is fine. thanx, bill Our bureaucracy and our laws have turned the world into a clean, safe work camp. We are raising a nation of slaves. Chuck Palahniuk
Post #6,417 by Ashton 8/23/01 5:35:39 AM Reply	Umm best use my add above - I see sev. ways to interpret yours, as in ..iam_Ox... but not ..iam Ox.. but maybe --> ..iamOx.. I'll ponder on a mainly demo for kids, but best let me know what other use you might have in mind. BW goes from teeny handheld 500 KHz -- on up. Have some needing minor fixing, thus for rilly cheap. All good lab-grade Tek, some HP, no TV-tech type beaters. Even teeny 4 MHz w/ batts. Cute but jeweler-hands needed. Should see the gold plate in such as the 335 (a Sony-Tek venture in '70s). (What's amazing and of course depressing too - the occasional near-mint super lab-grade 7000 series (plug-in mainframes + beaucoup speciallized plug-ins).. going for <10% of last new cost.) Indicates to me that we are losing that always small part of population - who even know what to do with such equipment. They don't build kits; dunno how most stuff works.. and don't wanna know. They buy. Then toss, all unCurious. Supply/demand in a dumth-increasing, MBA PHB culture - focussed exclusively on boring bizness. Our techno must soon reflect this absence of new talent, new explorers. No more Numbah One, 'cept maybe in Reality Tee Vee games. :[ A.
Post #6,518 by boxley 8/23/01 3:32:19 PM Reply	No gap no Space nope, I want to do various low level stuff and am affierd that when I do need one it will be unavailable. Lat one I had was an HP with the FAA used it for all kinds of neat stuff. thanx, bill Our bureaucracy and our laws have turned the world into a clean, safe work camp. We are raising a nation of slaves. Chuck Palahniuk
Post #6,373 by tuberculosis 8/22/01 5:57:11 PM Reply	Start reading I don't have a television. I haven't had one in probably 4-5 years. I don't miss it at all. I do find I read quite a bit more without one and when my brain wants that sort of soothing emptyness I go to the movies (about once a month). Honest, you don't need it. If you should remain obstinate and insist that you do need one, buy the cheapest one you can because I suspect the HDTV format will catch on in about 3 years and you'll just want to replace it again.

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