If you have had intermittent, infuriatingly hard to pin down problems with these units, please see this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...5#post18948575
All units listed use the same power supply board - PS board for short - and have the same issues. Please disregard the opening pages of this thread, except for the problem descriptions. Avoid the fixes, they will only get you into trouble, more about that later.
At that time we were all shooting in the dark as to what the causes were. Now it has come to light that the entire PS board on these units - and many in the following year's models as well - was badly soldered by Pioneer, causing cold solder joints that would crop up years later, after countless cycles of heat and cold due to power up/down commands and countless regular viewing periods.
If you are noticing any intermittencies - blue flashes, fluctuating brightness, lack of picture even tho the unit's green indicator LED is still up and showing ops without any shutdowns - you're up and your board has finally failed. It will not get any better on its own, any more than needed dental work would.
If so, STOP USING YOUR SET. You must not allow it up to normal operating temp again, not even once, until this situation has been completely resolved.
Resoldering the board PROPERLY is the only way around these problems. Newbies opt out NOW. If you're a repair, design or assembly professional who does soldering every day and you are highly experienced, have at it, you can fix it yourself. If not, PLEASE don't make this your initial entry into the world of soldering! Far too much is riding on it, it has to be done right the first time, every time, before firing the unit up again. Nothing can be left to chance, and this is an impossibility if you are inexperienced and new to this sort of thing.
If any solder bridges are allowed past the inspection process, or any of the critical solder joints are left unresoldered - and 99% of them on that board need to be resoldered for permanent repair - I can't promise you exactly what would happen, only that it would not be good. Doing a partial job of the resoldering process - resoldering only those joints that are presently bad - only exacerbates the situation. Your set will work again, seemingly properly, but will go out again after awhile. Doing only a partial job - like most local service techs will do, spending only a modicum of time on it, the smallest amount of time they feel is absolutely required - makes your set all that more vulnerable to damage later as new solder joints go thru more continued heat/cold cycles, weaken and then go out themselves. The initial ones that go out and give you the warning signs are almost always not the highly damaging ones. Curing just those and continuing to use your set is a sure recipe for disaster, it's like playing Russian Roulette with your set.
If you are qualified to do this yourself, be my guest. This is a DIYer site first and foremost.
If you're not, please feel free to contact me and I'll get your set going again for you, even if you live far away. Boards are being sent to me every day with this problem, and I take care of them and send them back. Seems when you spend $5K, 6K, 7K - and I have heard of as much as $12K paid for the 710 back then - on your Pioneer Elite CRT set, as owner you want it to stay alive from then on, and these sets are only midway along in their life cycles. They were built to last. You paid for that, you deserve to have it.
And the HD they were designed to produce is to die for, properly dialed in. It is legendary and timeless. There is no reason to buy new, if you own a Pioneer Elite CRT. You just need to honor it with the proper attention.
I am here for that. I have extensive experience in this problem - I am all over that thread, which has been going on for more than 6 years now, since 2004. Read the last few pages of it. If you want this thing done right, please contact me directly, no pm's please. I have so far saved literally TONS of these elegant and top-performing HD Elites, which are still in their prime. Many screenshots of finished products are in that thread, ready to be viewed.
Please help me save your set!
Mr Bob
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...5#post18948575
All units listed use the same power supply board - PS board for short - and have the same issues. Please disregard the opening pages of this thread, except for the problem descriptions. Avoid the fixes, they will only get you into trouble, more about that later.
At that time we were all shooting in the dark as to what the causes were. Now it has come to light that the entire PS board on these units - and many in the following year's models as well - was badly soldered by Pioneer, causing cold solder joints that would crop up years later, after countless cycles of heat and cold due to power up/down commands and countless regular viewing periods.
If you are noticing any intermittencies - blue flashes, fluctuating brightness, lack of picture even tho the unit's green indicator LED is still up and showing ops without any shutdowns - you're up and your board has finally failed. It will not get any better on its own, any more than needed dental work would.
If so, STOP USING YOUR SET. You must not allow it up to normal operating temp again, not even once, until this situation has been completely resolved.
Resoldering the board PROPERLY is the only way around these problems. Newbies opt out NOW. If you're a repair, design or assembly professional who does soldering every day and you are highly experienced, have at it, you can fix it yourself. If not, PLEASE don't make this your initial entry into the world of soldering! Far too much is riding on it, it has to be done right the first time, every time, before firing the unit up again. Nothing can be left to chance, and this is an impossibility if you are inexperienced and new to this sort of thing.
If any solder bridges are allowed past the inspection process, or any of the critical solder joints are left unresoldered - and 99% of them on that board need to be resoldered for permanent repair - I can't promise you exactly what would happen, only that it would not be good. Doing a partial job of the resoldering process - resoldering only those joints that are presently bad - only exacerbates the situation. Your set will work again, seemingly properly, but will go out again after awhile. Doing only a partial job - like most local service techs will do, spending only a modicum of time on it, the smallest amount of time they feel is absolutely required - makes your set all that more vulnerable to damage later as new solder joints go thru more continued heat/cold cycles, weaken and then go out themselves. The initial ones that go out and give you the warning signs are almost always not the highly damaging ones. Curing just those and continuing to use your set is a sure recipe for disaster, it's like playing Russian Roulette with your set.
If you are qualified to do this yourself, be my guest. This is a DIYer site first and foremost.
If you're not, please feel free to contact me and I'll get your set going again for you, even if you live far away. Boards are being sent to me every day with this problem, and I take care of them and send them back. Seems when you spend $5K, 6K, 7K - and I have heard of as much as $12K paid for the 710 back then - on your Pioneer Elite CRT set, as owner you want it to stay alive from then on, and these sets are only midway along in their life cycles. They were built to last. You paid for that, you deserve to have it.
And the HD they were designed to produce is to die for, properly dialed in. It is legendary and timeless. There is no reason to buy new, if you own a Pioneer Elite CRT. You just need to honor it with the proper attention.
I am here for that. I have extensive experience in this problem - I am all over that thread, which has been going on for more than 6 years now, since 2004. Read the last few pages of it. If you want this thing done right, please contact me directly, no pm's please. I have so far saved literally TONS of these elegant and top-performing HD Elites, which are still in their prime. Many screenshots of finished products are in that thread, ready to be viewed.
Please help me save your set!
Mr Bob