Patient #1 - Sony KV-1396R, circa 1985

First sign of problem was that it shut itself off randomly. Now it won't power on at all; no relay click from power buttons. Left to sit unplugged for a few months, it will power on and work fine for a little while, so I don't think it's terminal, but now it refuses to power up again.

I'm actually kind of fond of this little guy, and would like to keep it as a spare bedroom set. It has the gently barrel shaped tube, and came from a time when Sony still kinda meant something. It's a nice companion to a ~1970 Sony 9".


Patient #2 - Panasonic CT-31SF23

Power switch responds with relay click, but no picture or sound. Checked the 6.3A fuse, which is good. Visual inspection only reveals a single cap which looks slightly burnt at location C552. Interior of cabinet is amazingly clean and dust-free for a 12.5 year old set. No other issues when set was working.

I'd like to keep this as well, if it's a simple fix. I might replace the darkened cap and see if it helps, but searches yield no common solution.

Appreciate any pointers.

On the Sony it's most likely dried electrolytic capacitors in the power supply. Does the standby LED come on? It should be a simple and cheap fix regardless.

As for the Panny, caps don't blow by themselves. Check the area for any shorted transistors or ICs.

U should had seen my circa 2000, 27" Trinitron, perfect working condition, $10 at eBay and no takers, so I gave it away to my neighbor.

If you can fix them yourself and have a need for them sure go ahead and repair. If you are going to pay somebody to repair them it would be a LOT cheaper to find a free or cheap working set on CL or Ebay.

U should had seen my circa 2000, 27" Trinitron, perfect working condition, $10 at eBay and no takers, so I gave it away to my neighbor.

You probably should have tried craigslist. My circa 1997 27" sold for $50 and fairly quickly too. Of course that was last year so things may have changed.

Thanks for the feedback.

I might tackle the repair myself on the 13" if I can get the board out. The only thing I can't seem to get disconnected is the thick lead to the flyback transformer. Is there a trick to it? This model doesn't have a standby LED, only a "sleep" LED to show that it will turn itself off after a short period.

It's not worth it to pay for repairs, but I dislike the notion of discarding either one of them, since the faults are not catastrophic. Both are in great shape otherwise.

Yeah there's a trick to it (try squeezing the center while pulling on it), but is the cable that short that you need to remove the HV lead? Normally you don't have to, and in fact, you shouldn't. You'll probably end up accidentally touching the wire, and it will have some juice left in it.

Getting zapped by 27kV at 1mA won't be dangerous to your health, but leaping back in response to the shock towards the nearest sharp corner, will.

Yeah there's a trick to it (try squeezing the center while pulling on it), but is the cable that short that you need to remove the HV lead? Normally you don't have to, and in fact, you shouldn't. You'll probably end up accidentally touching the wire, and it will have some juice left in it.

Getting zapped by 27kV at 1mA won't be dangerous to your health, but leaping back in response to the shock towards the nearest sharp corner, will.

Yeah, the board slides out to the rear, and with the flyback located on the rear of the board, there isn't enough slack to remove it from the chassis without disconnecting it.

My search for a new set is consuming right now, so by the time I get around to looking at it again, all residual charge will hopefully have drained off.