Hey guys--

Today I found one of these TX-p3071wh tvs sitting right outside my apartment. I was just thinking recently about how great it would be to get a widescreen CRT HDTV to replace my old great SD CRT and to hold me over until OLED tech is really out-- and I was hoping i could get one for cheap-- then blam, there it is right there outside my place.

I hauled it up the stairs with difficulty, and when i plugged it in and pressed the power button.......... I get a nasty high pitched tone (not as high pitched as it would be when on, but more probably something in the 10-12khz range) and the power light blinks. The tone seems to be coming directly from the back of the unit where the the connection panel is.

Now any average person would probably dump this back out, but to me theres nothing more satisfying than getting something great out of nothing-- so I'm willing to take this on as a project, and I was hoping I could get some help here--

I'm a total novice when it comes to TVs, but i have been fixing up a vintage stereo tube amp and doing quite well with it if thats any indication of my competence level--

so any help would be greatly appreciated!

thanks

-Cody



and btw, once the TV is on, it makes the tone for a while, then stops briefly, then the tone comes back at a slightly higher pitch before switching quickly to the same tone--

That's a really nice find, not an old TV, has internal HD tuner as well. You will need the service manual try link to Manualsparadise (https://www.manualsparadise.com/ShowProductsForModel.do?model=M64285399) I checked a repair site: Bad solder of regulators, and horizontal out transistor, bad capacitors, power supply has one section out, etc. Not really specific. (PS: I repaired a couple of Dynaco Stereo 70s, a curb find!)

do you have a link to that repair site?

i really can't stand the whole service manual business... i've sort of made a point up till now of not buying them since it always seems like places are profiting off of something that they got somewhere for free.... but at least right now i wouldn't even know where to begin if i had the service manual--

nice about the Dynacos! that sure is a rare find. I've been working on a Fisher X-100

Open it up, find the chassis code, google it, and you're likely to find a free manual.

The high pitched tone most likely comes from the flyback transformer. It means that the flyback is in working condition but the voltages feeding it are not right. I'm suspecting a failure somewhere in the power supply area.

thats good to hear that the flyback should be in working order-- I found that the chassis is K60A, still not having any luck finding a free manual, but I believe there is one over at tvschematics.com-- does the chassis # mean that the service manual will be the same for the different models that have the same #?

I'm gonna try to take the board out and clean it off

ok so i'm still not having any luck getting a service manual or schematic for this thing-- but does anyone have any ideas on where to start testing?

the whining noise definitely seems to be coming from the flyback, but i've read that this might be a result of the horizontal output transistor going bad... is there any way to test this?

also if it could be somewhere in the power supply where should i start? it seems like the biggest of the caps there might have a slight bulge at the top but nothing is obviously damaged.

I'm really a novice about this so sorry to lean on you guys so hard-- any help would be great, i just don't even know where to start--

thanks!

The bulged capacitor(s) should be tested with capacitor meter, if bad will read significantly lower than its rating. I have had several LCD monitors that had swelled capacitors, tops of the capacitors split along the seams made for venting. I had smoke/oil spray out of bulged caps in a small TV one time! On my Sony TV, one cap has a very slight curve to the top, but is is OK. Replace the bulged capacitor(s) then try it. If no luck then get Service Manual from Manuals paradise. I've used them before. I don't think it will be cheaper from Samsung. The repair site is repairworld.com. Costs 9 bucks a month, or you can join for a month. They tend to be unhelpful to people not employed as TV techs though.

when i say its bulging i mean its a *very* slight bulge, i'm not sure i've ever actually seen a truly vented cap, so i'm gonna say that its probably not the issue even now... the reason i'm holding off on buying the service manual (and why i'm trying to get it for free) is that i'm just so unsure that this project will be within my ability level that i dont want to blow the money on it yet-- which is why i've been trying to figure out where to start with this thing.

as in, how could i test the power supply? for example...

If you see any capacitors that are bulged even slightly, change them. All of them. Bulged/leaky capacitors will test OK on a regular capacitor meter, you need an ESR meter to determine if they are truly bad, and that's a bit more expensive.

From this point of view, better replace all suspicious capacitors, as they are very cheap, and not replacing them can cause worse problems. You don't want to spend $20 on an IC when replacing a 30 cents cap could've avoided damage to the circuit.

To test the power supply, locate the power resistor near the flyback. It will be a big resistor of low resistance (a few ohms) and high power (7W or more). Disconnect it from the circuit, one leg will do. This way the vertical output transistor and the flyback will be disabled.

Now find the largest capacitor in the flyback area and wire a 40-60W ordinary lightbulb (not the economical swirly type, a regular filament bulb) to that capacitor. Turn the set on. If the power supply is working correctly the bulb will light up and there should be no more flickering of the LED. If this happens then the power supply is all right, and you should replace the vertical output transistor and all capacitors around it. It wouldn't hurt to check the horizontal area too - set your multimeter to resistance and measure all large transistors on the board. If you get a few ohms or zero on any of them, they're most likely shorted and need to be replaced.

Good luck. If you have trouble identifying the parts, post a few pictures and i'll try to help.

OK! thanks a lot thats the kind of info i was looking for-- I will get on it right away and let you know how it goes

i've sort of made a point up till now of not buying them since it always seems like places are profiting off of something that they got somewhere for free.... but at least right now i wouldn't even know where to begin if i had the service manual
Please stop. Working in the high voltage section of a CRT television without a schematic or understanding of the circuit is a sure way to get killed.

I don't think you need the lightbulb yet. Study the schematic a while first.

thanks for the concern whitewhiskers-- be sure i'm taking every safety precaution, and I would never work on it while it was plugged in, or go replacing any components with anything i wasn't sure was exactly what i needed-- after all working on tube audio amps can be just as dangerous--


but anyway, I've been scoping the board out for anything that looks like a power resistor around the flyback and I can't seem to find anything that I recognize, so here are some pictures of all the boards:

heres an overview of the main boards:
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/5104/img0052h.jpg (http://img223.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0052h.jpg)

the power supply:
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/8954/img0061g.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0061g.jpg)

the board connecting to the tube:
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/561/img0058r.jpg (http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0058r.jpg)

close up of the area around the flyback:
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/5506/img0063h.jpg (http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0063h.jpg)

if you want to see a clearer version of anything I can take a better picture, i just cant figure out if theres a way to disconnect the flyback from the tube itself so i can take the board out of the case

i just cant figure out if theres a way to disconnect the flyback from the tube itself so i can take the board out of the case
Gently lift up what looks like a suction cup on the tube to expose the anode clip. You need to somehow discharge the clip to a good ground to bleed off any charge on the tube, it can be enough to send you flying across the room otherwise. You'll usually hear a nice snap when the tube is discharged. But sometimes not. Then you can squeeze the clip and the connection will come right off. Just be aware that the tube is under vacuum and can implode sending sharp glass into your face if you don't treat it nice and gentle.

Since you got the TV for free and you seem intent on trying to fix it, investing a few bucks in the service manual would be money well spent. Sometimes they have a nice troubleshooting flowchart which can lead you to the fault or at least bad board.

Please stop. Working in the high voltage section of a CRT television without a schematic or understanding of the circuit is a sure way to get killed.

Uh, i'm still here... Got zapped by focus voltages (5kV) more than once. Fortunately never had any shocks from the HV lead, i always avoid that thing. But as far as i know the high voltage section of the TV is just nasty, it's the capacitors in the PSU that can actually kill so those are to be measured and discharged if needed via an appropriate bleeder resistor (http://www.welwyn-tt.co.uk/CalcTools.asp) before any work is attempted on the set. And +1 on that service manual, it's definitely worth spending a few bucks on.

if you want to see a clearer version of anything I can take a better picture, i just cant figure out if theres a way to disconnect the flyback from the tube itself so i can take the board out of the case

You shouldn't need to remove the flyback lead to service the board. If you do, be very very careful, or look online for a description how to discharge it with a high impedance and high power resistor (i'm in a hurry so i can't really look myself now). Shorting the flyback, besides leaving a mark on your screwdriver and potentially scaring you enough to leap back into something sharp, might fry sensitive circuitry. If you do want/need to remove it, discharge it the right way.

As for that resistor, from what i see this is a pretty complex piece of engineering. My knowledge is limited to either 15+ year old sets, or today's cheap sets that have like 5 major components inside and that's all. This one's a bit over my head, we're definitely going to need that service manual. In the meantime, check the stuff mounted on those heatsinks. If i'm not mistaken i see a couple of LM317s there... They are voltage regulators, if they fail all kinds of weird stuff can happen.

hah-- well I'm thinking i might as well not remove that at this point, its really not big enough of a hassle that I'd want to deal with those issues...

Ok so new development--

I decided that because of all the warnings i better go get a book. I went to the library and took out two books by Homer Davidson-- TV Repair for Beginners, and Troubleshooting & Repairing Consumer Electronics Without a Schematic (the only 2 they had).

Then, after reading a section on checking the main filter cap in the power supply, I took off the power supply board and discovered a very obvious heat spot, on what seems to be a rheostat. Here are the pics:

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/172/img0091z.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0091z.jpg)

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6192/img0090jbl.jpg (http://img211.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0090jbl.jpg)

also, as you can see partially in the first picture, the entire unit has the schematic written on the bottom of the boards--

actually apparently its an NTC Inrush Current Limiter Power Thermistor, according to another thread...

It should measure 5 ohms cold, it will run hot, may be OK.

ok so i bit the bullet and bought the service manual-- anyone that would be willing to help, Th3_uN1Qu3 maybe, jdre, should i send it over to you guys as well?

Yes.

link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=00E8V1H5


but I MAY have already figured it out (fingers crossed) although it would be great to have you guys double check me--

on page 16 (figure 3-6) of the alignment and adjustments page there is a flow chart for fixing power supply problems. I ran through this until i got 0v on C802, and the solution given is to replace IC801S which is the STR-X6750 semiconductor. I found the part on ebay for 8 bucks, so I ordered it--

it seems like this problem would vibe pretty well with what had been said from the beginning about bad sections in the power supply-- as long as this doesn't go out again right away

I'll look later (Thurs Early AM or Mid afternoon). Megaupload could be handy, I can't email larger than 5 mbytes. Did you check basics (fuses?)

i didnt check the DC fuses, but i just followed the flow chart-- it talked about checking the fuses for other problems, but not this specific one.

also something ridiculous happened-- tonight i found a 30" Loewe Aconda 9383 chassis A2400 a couple blocks further from my house. The tube lights briefly and I can see a little light on the edges then a faint point in the middle then it goes out.

IC801 drives T8015, so it's a possible failure. A bit like the common Sony failure. The 30" Lowe Aconda is an awesome find, just get its schematic and set aside for later. I wonder if there was a power problem in your neighborhood or just a lack of TV repair shops around? My town has none for miles, the nearby shop just closed..I have found projects come in groups. (I had no LCD PC monitors to fix before, I got 2 and then was given a third..All are running now so far.) Hopefully you can have some good luck with those sets!

yeah its very weird, there are actually a couple of repair places not too far from here, a couple days ago i went into one of them just to see if i could get some tips and the guy had a whole bunch of good looking TVs just strewn around haphazardly, including what i'm almost positive was one of the 34xbr--- sonys, i asked him what it was about and he said people just didnt want to pay to fix it so they dumped it on him...

The AVS forum might help him fix the Sony if it's the "DA-4" chassis. The haphazard appearance is typical of any TV shop I ever saw!

yeah i dont really think he cared too much about the sony since it was a crt... he told me a whole bunch about how he much prefers fixing plasmas and lcds since they're easier, but if i ever see him again.... ill give him the advice

Wow, you found another set around the corner, AND a good brand. Hell, i wish i lived around there. Yeah i got my TV for free as well, but it's a Nokia with a nearly fried tube. It was easy to fix, but it's clearly on its last legs. Dark areas are a dark red instead of gray/black, and once every few days the whole screen goes red with retrace lines visible, then goes back to normal - i'm guessing a partial short between the red cathode and the grid. But it just keeps chugging and it has a "magical" sort of low whine coming from the tube, so i'm keeping it the way it is. Might try to regenerate the CRT someday.

Alright back on topic. MAN THAT'S A CRAMMED PDF. Didn't think they'd drop the whole PCB on a single page, that's pretty hard to follow. Let us know what happens after you've replaced that IC. The NTC thermistor is supposed to run hot, but i don't like stuff burning up my PCBs, you shouldn't either. Better replace it with a new one, leave its leads long so it sits tall on the board and does not burn it anymore. As for the Loewe, sounds like a failure in the vertical output stage causing the power supply's protection to trip.

yeah i somehow neglected to mention that the Loewe does power up to standby, then when the button is pressed it goes green, does the faint lighting thing i described earlier, then it switches back to standby, so it seems like you're probably right---

Ok guys, so i finally got my replacement piece for ICS801 the STRX6750, and put it in and.... nothing. Still the same, not getting any voltage across C802 where I should have 143v. The service manual said to replace that part--

i also got myself a better DMM, and now i'm noticing something different.

The first step of the flow chart says to check pin 1 of ICS 803, and that I should find 6.5v-- I'm seeing 8.9v-- quite a difference.

pin 2 however checks out fine at exactly 5v.

any thoughts? I'm gonna check the resistor between pins 1 and 4 but other than that i'm not sure where to go--

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8329/46725766.jpg (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?image=46725766.jpg)

I'm confused about the directions where it says "CN801 POWER PORT GND SHORT". Looking at the schematic on page 7-13, I don't see a pin labeled power port. I suspect you need to do something in the flow chart rectangle before you can measure across C802.

If you look at the main schematic on page 7-1, pin 1 of CN801A is VCC 142V. Did you short any pins on the sub-power board CN801 before you measured across C802?

hmm no i guess when i was reading that I thought it was telling me what was happening instead of what I was supposed to be doing...

i'm not really sure what that means either

I'll look at that schematic within the day, see if I can figure if that 8.9Volts matters. The short thing means nothing to me, either! I've found errors in service information before..

Okay so i figured out what it meant-- there was a pin in the pinout that connects the power board to the main board which is called the "power port ground" (a couple of them ground to this) and i needed to short the lead from CN801 to this. Once i did this i was able to take a measurement and find that the other big filter cap, C802 was reading exactly 143v as it was supposed to. However, when i moved on to the next two steps i get these readings--

C823 measured somewhere around 10v and C814 was around 15.5v, whereas according to the flow chart it should have been 8 and 16 respectively....

but it gets deeper--

C814 is shown in the schematic connecting to a pin on the pinout (CN801) which is supposed to read at 16v. the 15.5v reading would put that in the ballpark.

C823 on the other hand is shown connected to a lead that is supposed to read at 15v, which would put it too low for what the schematic shows instead of a couple volts too high.

its possible that i'm not reading the schematic right, but it does seem like theres an error somewhere here

I think the power board is checking out. Look at flowchart 3-9 on page 3-19, No Raster (when power board operates normally).

There's a person at AudioKarma, his member name is Andy. He's very sharp about fixing the modern electronics. You might want to check over there and see if he has any hints on how to fix your television.

actually it seems i misspoke, it was C823 that measured 15.2v and C814 which measured this time around 7.8v, which would place them exactly in reverse of what the flow chart is telling me they should be-- do you think this is a mistake?

i wrote a message to andy--

also i'm gonna start checking that next flow chart-- what does screen vol (up) mean? is that the screen control for the different color guns, or is it talking about the screen control on the flyback?

so i just pulled out the Horizontal output transistor as well as the damper diode next to it, and when i perform readings on the HOT it shows absolutely no resistance in any direction from any one pin to any of the other 2 (shorted), the damper seems ok

any input?

A shorted HOT isn't that unusual. It's also not unusual for a replacement HOT to immediately blow because there are often other things bad as well, like the FBT. You might want to buy at least 2 HOTs and somehow check out the FBT for shorts in the windings. Not sure you can do that in-circuit.

The HOT used to fail a lot on older TV sets, I have changed them on RCA sets many times. Hope you found the fix! Check for shorted capacitors as well. Buying two HOT is a good idea!

Hows it coming along Lessbones?

■

well Blaast-- its good timing for you to ask-- I replaced the HOT yesterday (it took forever for the transistors to ship from Malaysia and i was out of town for a week) but i did buy 2, and i popped on in, and everything started up fine!

now i'm hoping it'll last, but so far i've had it on for probably around 4-5 hrs with no problems. The picture seems a tad bit soft, i may try to adjust the focus control, but so far so good---

Congratulations on the repair! TVs often need a refocus, and are fine afterward. Hope you can start a Loewe topic soon, and the Samsung keeps on going.

Hey guys-- i'm back again with another quandary--

as i had mentioned at the end a few months back-- my samsung tv is working great-- its still going, and i'm working on calibrating it. However there is one troubling issue-- sharpness.

i had mentioned that it looked soft upon first turning on, and since then i have taken the whole thing apart to adjust the sharpness controls on the flyback twice, with no real luck. The picture looks great, but is painfully soft-- not too soft to watch, but for me it is a severe annoyance. I'm running off of an xbox with xbmc which is outputing 1080i over component-- so i know it should be pretty sharp-- in addition i've got the sharpness control cranked to 100, but it still seems only about half way there-- does anyone know if theres something else i can do, or could it simply have been burned too bright for too long?

thanks again guys--

If the black and white tracks properly the CRT is probably good, if it's way off and you can't readjust the guns to make it right maybe the CRT is weak and needs a rejuvenation or replacement.
They used to make CRT rejuvenaters like the Beltron which you can still find used on Ebay, sometimes very cheap.
I have 2, one beat to crap with hardly any CRT adapters that I was given years ago, and another I bought on Ebay for like 25 bucks shipped that had every adapter they made, some mods performed by a shop to make it work better and for more tubes. It looked brand new but didn't work so I used my other unit as a guide and tested everything and found someone had rewired part of it incorrectly for some reason, once I redid it to my other units setup it has worked better then my old one.
You should post some pics of the set playing so everyone can see what it's doing then maybe we can give you some better advice. There are things in there that can help control focus possibly as well that may need checking and maybe the tubes fine and I'm way off on my idea.
Some of the poorer made tubes would only last a short time, others would last for 20 years.

The very first page of the manual you posted, section 3-1-2 had the focus adjustment. Try running through that procedure. You can use a DVD input of a crosshatch pattern.

WhiteWhiskers--

thats the method i followed through twice but nothing is improving-- it looks especially soft when i'm in the service mode because the contrast is turned up really high--

i will post up a picture of what it looks like, but it seems to me like the convergence is off as well--

ok so i dont know how much this image actually shows, but you can see the fuzziness on the edges of the word-- it seems like maybe a convergence problem to me? i'll try to get another picture later when there is not so much glare in my apartment--

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8151/img1412tol.jpg (http://img21.imageshack.us/i/img1412tol.jpg/)

The convergence doesn't look way off to me, I've had sets that had really bad convergence issues and they were about unwatchable becuase of all the RGB fringing when it didn't line up right. That doesn't even look all that out of focus really but the picture is so close to the tube it's hard to tell becuase you can see all the RGB phosphors so clearly in the stripes. I'd try backing up a bit when it's dark in there and doing another.
Your not getting any weird green flaring around the edges like a bad CRT does so probably the tube itself is good anyways at least :)
My HD set tends to look quite a bit softer on Analog channels and SD stuff becuase of the up conversion from lesser video resolution then 720 or 1080 as well.

ok maybe this picture will make the situation clearer. (and just for the record, this is the way the tv actually looks, not any motion blur from the camera, etc, etc.)

@dartman-- i would expect the set to be softer on upconverted SD-- and for the most part watching SD is totally fine on it-- i only really decided to deal with this issue when i hooked up my computer in 1080 and found that i wasn't able to see much more detail in 1080p or 720p files than i have been with SD-- also the sharpness is cranked all the way up, which doesn't seem right to me. The photos i am taking are from the XBMC dashboard, which displays in whatever resolution is selected (1080i in this case) so the source for the image is actually full res--

something else i have neglected to mention however is that I have been seeing some strange blue areas on the sides of the picture that come and go-- sometimes coinciding with distortion in the left speaker, and sometimes the left speaker will go off all together then pop back on-- its really not that bothersome as it happens rarely, but if it could have to do with this sharpness issue, i guess its just another clue--

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/9882/img1416i.jpg (http://img197.imageshack.us/i/img1416i.jpg/)

Well it does look like the red guns are a bit out on the left side. You can probably touch it up in the service menu if you can get a good pattern on it to see whats going on. It should be easier then in the cave man days when I started playing with them. They had a convergence panel sometimes then the magnets on the neck of the tube you adjusted till it was as close as you could get it or stand to get it. The blue may be some magnetism from the speaker bleeding through but it could be other things and the speaker should be shielded considering where it's mounted.
The focus is a bit soft but not horrid from that pic, wonder if it's just the way that set displays. I haven't played with that set so can't say what it's supposed to look like when new and perfect. My Toshiba HFX84 has two focus controls on the flyback, one seems to be a course focus, and the other is fine and there was supposed to be a one then the other type of adjustment. I got it as good as I could by eye during the Olympics but it was pretty close all ready, just wanted it as sharp and perfect as I could get it.
Depending on the set and luck that may be as good as everything gets, you'll just have to try things.

Found some user reviews and comments on that set. I do remember looking at them before I ended up buying my Toshiba Cinema series set.
I do think it might have been a bit soft on the sales floor but it's been a LONG time.
The Set: I really like the set, however it's not perfect. The geometry
is a little off, it suffers red push, and PQ is a little soft in my
opinion. Of course, this may be an unfair appraisal since my other two
sets are a Mits and Sony, which are way out of this sets price/class
level.
Thats the comments one actual owner had to say. He also mentioned that he was able to sharpen it up a bit with some easily accessible service menu tweaks I believe.
Those sets had a very slim depth tube so they tended to have issues other sets at the time didn't, it was kinda a new idea to save space and make them lighter.

hmm thats interesting--

i followed the procedure in the service manual for focusing-- the flyback does have two focus pots, one is for vertical and one is for horizontal focus-- these were both tweaked as close as I could get them--

i have not seen anything about convergence in the service manual, and there are a couple options in the service menu that seem like they might have to do with sharpness, but I don't really understand how to use them, and in changing things with them i have not made any significant difference-- they are labeled as follows:

SHP_CD
SHP_F0
SHP_F1_GAIN
SHP_F1_PREOVER

Those could mean anything besides sharpness controls. Your best bet is to mark or measure the resistance before you touch them if you don't know for sure what they do. That way if it turns out to be a critical adjustment later you can reset it back so you don't damage anything. Also a good idea for any on screen service menu adjustments to write all the values down before proceeding in case you mess something up and have to get back to factory setup.
I was messing with my smaller Toshiba 20" set and accidentally found the total factory reset key combination. If I hadn't written down the settings of all the values before hand I would have been screwed as the sets picture shrank and all the settings went to default and it looked horrible.:eek:
Even with the factory service manual it wont list what many of the settings should end up being becuase each set is a little different and you have to go through and remeasure things and setup stuff to get it back to where it belongs. Some of them can damage the set if set the wrong way very quickly.
The back of the manual may have a glossary of what all the terms mean or do. But they do expect anyone using it should know a lot of the basic electronic terms and things.

Oh so you got it fixed eventually, that's great. Sorry, been out of here for a while. :) The picture looks okay to me, and that doesn't look like bad convergence at all but rather soft focus, as you said. At this point DO NOT attempt to adjust any convergence controls.

Before messing with the service menu i'd try turning up the G2 voltage (the Screen pot at the back of the flyback). Turn it up until you start getting white diagonal lines across the picture. Then using the menu controls turn the contrast down to minimum and crank the brightness to max. Now get to the back of the set again and turn back the Screen pot until the white lines disappear entirely and adjust the menu settings back to normal.

Note: The retrace lines that you will see have to be very bright white. If they have any color tint there's something wrong with the CRT or the video output circuitry.

If you are still not happy with the picture after you do this, then it's time to play around in the service menu. Whatever you do, NOTE DOWN ALL VALUES FIRST. Look for the SCT (subcontrast) setting, the loss of sharpness could be caused by exaggerated contrast, in recent sets all manufacturers have done that to make the TVs look very bright at the store. This is very very bad for the tube. In practice, on 90% of modern sets i have found 35% contrast to be the actual "maximum" value, beyond that the image starts smearing.

Oh by the way. I hope you used a high quality test pattern to adjust those focus knobs. All i've seen are extremely sensitive, and it only takes a pinch to throw focus off alignment. I think you should try playing with horizontal focus a little bit more.

thanks Th3_uN1Qu3-- i will try this-- i did find the subcontrast control, I will mess with that as well-- changing the normal contrast setting does seem to affect the sharpness pretty directly, but it seems to have to be lower than a usable value to be sharp enough-- what is subcontrast exactly? there is also a subbrightness control--

When you say "lower than usable value", what do you mean? My contrast settings are a fair bit lower when compared to other people, but most actually find my TVs more pleasant to watch. Of course, if it gets too dim to be properly viewed during the day then there's obviously something else wrong.

The subcontrast and subbrightness controls are used to center the controls in the user menu. Use them on a brightness/contrast test pattern, the kind with various shades of gray and their corresponding levels. Basically the idea is to adjust them as to get the controls in the user menu to have enough range both ways. In my experience with Samsung sets that meant "turn down SCT, turn up SBT".

Anyway, try to adjust the Screen voltage first, it's very likely that after you adjust that a number of things will need recalibrating due to the significant change in brightness and sharpness. All sets i've adjusted had to benefit from increased G2 voltage, except the Nokia i have in my room where i actually had to decrease it, because its tube has the red cathode partially shorted to G2 and increasing G2 voltage exaggerates the short (aka the whole image goes RED). Fortunately the Nokia has a very high brightness range and it compensates for the lack of G2 voltage.

In any case, you will find the brightness brought by increased G2 voltage to be more "pure" to say so, in that, contrary to user or service menu controls, the overall brightness is increased without reducing contrast or losing detail, it allows the tube to display a wider brightness range. Now if you'll ask me why the factory setting needs to be changed, the reason is that with age a CRT changes its parameters. G2 voltage is something that needs to be adjusted every 2 years or so.

i mean setting the contrast so low that there is almost no picture-- i might be exaggerating as to how much difference this makes, but theres a slight increase in sharpness going down on the contrast pretty far... maybe in that case increasing the G2 voltage is exactly what is needed-- i'll report back when i get there--

as always, thanks for the help

okay okay OKAY! So FINALLY at long last i have done the corrections suggested, and adjusted the G2 voltage-- And i've gotta say, not a HUGE difference. The convergence is still pretty off, especially on the right side of the screen--

however-- i was able to make a decent difference using the service mode and adjusting the power of the individual color guns-- bringing the red down helped a bunch, and i was still able to balance out the color well enough, also adjusting the sub bright and contrast helped with a blown out highlight problem i was having--

When i was adjusting the G2 voltage the scan lines were never "bright white" but rather a sort of dim greenish color-- also as i turned the voltage up the screen would get all washed out then change colors as i went up even more-- i'm pretty sure this tube is just on its last legs-- but its still doing pretty well for my needs, and i'm having fun fixing it up-- you guys are better than taking a class!

anyway, beyond these corrections the only other thing i can think of is adjusting the deflection yolk to try to fix the convergence issue (as it doesn't give you any options in the service menu, which seems kind of odd) but i have no idea how to do this, or of the safety issues involved---

thanks again guys-- and Th3_uN1Qu3-- you've been a great teacher so far--

ok so this was quick-- I found out how to adjust the defleciton yolk, and so i adjusted it--- WOW what a difference. The convergence is very close now, and things are looking much better in the sharpness area-- its still not *perfect* sharpness wise, but i think this is officially as good as its gonna get, and its totally acceptable now--

That's about as good as a CRT will get. My Sony 34HS510 was off convergence (tuned up now), and sharpness is not perfect, but it looks good at 6 feet away, normal viewing distance. The Samsung Plasma TV I just repaired does not beat the Sony CRT.

Great, but I don't think the G2 adjustment should be cranked up any hotter then it takes to just light up all three color guns in service mode on the horizontal flat lines. If you go to far you over drive the guns and it blows out and you get the scan lines, plus I think it will damage the guns fairly shortly if you leave it cranked way up.
I used to adjust all three guns on most sets till it became a dim white line, or at least till all 3 were dim but equal brightness then take them down till they just went out sometimes.
I'm sure the service manual says exactly what adjustment and procedure that particular set wants.
Once everything was equal then I adjusted the sub color adjustment for the guns till I got good B/W tracking and if everything was good after that button it up and watch it till something changes.
From the pictures you posted I don't think the tubes bad yet so if your happy with the way everything tracks and it's not over driven enjoy your set.

Well he did say he turned it back down. :)

Anyway, my grandparents used to have an old 30" set which failed at one time, and my grandfather managed to bring it back up but it would only work with the G2 set way high, so high that it would display very bright white diagonal lines during commercials with white backgrounds. The thing lasted 3 more years before we decided to toss it and get another one.

yeah-- bright whites are actually softer now (which might have been from decreasing subcontrast) but I didn't really make a huge change to the G2-- adjusting the deflection yolk was what really made the most difference in my case-- that and turning down the power of the red gun which decreased the red fringing pretty significantly-- and seemed to improve the tonal range of the color quite a bit--

I think you're right on spot. You can calibrate your color using the patterns here: http://www.photoscientia.co.uk/Gamma.htm ; just feed the TV with the HDMI out from your computer (or use a DVI to HDMI adapter if your computer doesn't have a HDMI out).

the tv actually only has a dvi input, so i can feed it directly from my old powerbook--- but i actually own a colorimeter and i was planning on doing HCFR on the tv-- the only annoying part is that the mac version doesnt support the DTP94 color meter (right now at least) so i would have to run the PC version on parallels on my friend's macbook-- but its a minor hassle

I don't use Macs so i don't know about it, but using Parallels sounds like a good plan. That's cool if you have a colorimeter. I rely on my eyes for color adjustments as i have very sharp eyesight, but i am saving up for an oscilloscope, mostly for amplifier THD measurements. :) I repair pro audio amps and will actually get to building some from scratch next year, so a scope will be essential.

yeah i might just do a visual calibration and save myself the trouble-- I do photo retouching for my work, so i tend to be very anal about color-- and in my experience this type of gamma adjustment where you match the interlaced lines to a solid color/shade are just not very accurate, BUT for the TV they will be totally fine-- comparing profiles on a monitor though, they tend to be pretty off-- just not enough tweaks i guess--

It also depends what type of monitor you are comparing it to. Because compared to a LCD it's obvious that it'll look different.

Besides, there's that old saying that no two meters will read the same. And it's true. :p