Sharp lc-45gx6u AVC box failure...help - Page 3

Has anyone found any further options in terms of repairing the board? Mine will turn on with the heat gun trick, so it appears to be the same power board issue.

I lost my LC45GX6U to the WSOD on 2/1/11. After finding this thread, I pulled my DC/DC board and found the tell-tale discoloration.

After checking all the third-party suppliers in this thread and coming up empty, I chanced upon Andrews Electronics, who said they had an RDENCA089WJZZ board on backorder and could ship it on 2/7. I promptly placed an order.

2/7 changed to 2/14. Then 2/14 changed to 2/28. And so on.

Around 3/1, inspired by Quintard's and GreatDane's posts, I decided to try Plan B: repair. I was able to identify IC952 as a SHINDENGEN MD1222N (datecode 00+). I found this part at:
http://utsource.net/ic-datasheet/MD1222N-1746119.html

Cost was $3.00 + $19.00 S/H. Great response, prompt service, UPS delivered it in 5 days from order.

Unfortunately, I have never desoldered anything that small before. I was able to get the chip off, but I somehow pulled a couple of the pads off the PCB as well. I put it aside before I could do any more damage.

Back to Plan A. On Sunday 5/1, I emailed Andrews Electronics again for a status update. Yesterday (5/2), I received the following:


So this afternoon I called Sharp. After breaking out of 'IVR hell', I got hold of someone who seemed sympathetic. They got me on the line with someone from Dispatch who seemed to know what she was talking about - not only was she able to pull up a timeline of the 'estimated delivery dates', she was able to pull up the list of pending orders, including mine from Andrews Electronics.

She told me:
a) Sharp does not sell parts direct to consumers. I would need to contact a Sharp Authorized Servicer and have them order the part using my make/model/serial.
b) SharpUSA did not have any RDENCA089WJZZ in stock, and it is still on back-order. They have an order in for it, but the dates have been pushed a number of times. She guessed that it would probably be several months before they ever get delivery of that part.

I asked if she was just trying to find a nice way to say 'discontinued', and she said: no, we have the order in and we have pending orders waiting for this part. If it was discontinued, it wouldn't be in the system. She asked me a little bit more about the DC/DC board issue and I told her about this thread.

So I went down to my local Sharp Servicer and explained the situation. He put in an order for the part, and now I will just have to wait. In the meantime, I am going to try and find someone who might have the tools and expertise to maybe recover my original board and replace the MD1222N.

I will post again if I get any new information.

Thanks for the information hrtserpent6. I've been in the fortunate situation that I've only had the WSOD once and the heat gun restarted it. It's been fine since. However, I think it makes sense to plan ahead for a repair.

Can you tell me how you determined that IC952 was the MD1222N? Was this on a schematic or just read off the face of the device? Are you assuming that IC952 is the culprit or did you make measurements like quintard?

Thanks also for the information on a board purchase. I may follow your same route and see if I can order one too. For $150 or so, I might pick up a board and store it. I hope that the board is not further delayed given the earthquake in Japan.

Z

My board also recently went out. I have some co-workers who probably have the skill to fix said board if I can get the schematics to them. Can someone who obtained the manual and schematic post them or a link to where they can be purchased?

Thanks

My AVC box finally went out. The WSOD kept showing up. At this point, my options were to dump the box and drive the display differently or attempt a repair. Based on the experiences of others, it seems that buying a replacement DC-DC board was not going to work. Who knows if they will ever be available again?

Since I had nothing to lose, I decided to attempt the repair. I used the link provided by hrtserpent6 and bought a couple of MD1222N chips from UT Source. They were $5 each plus $28 for Fed-X. You can get the chips sent post, but they ended up coming from China. I'm guessing that if they were sent by post, it would take weeks. For $40 total, it was not a big risk.

I'm fortunate in that I work at a facility that uses techs who regularly solder stuff under a 15X microscope. We used narrow width solder wick with the occasional tiny drop of flux on the wick to remove the solder from the pins.
Care does need to be taken to not get aggressive and lift the pad under the pin. Slow and careful works. Once all the solder was removed, my tech thought that the chip might have been glued down, but he seemed to have no issue popping it off. Once removed, installing the replacement chip was easy for him. Overall, it took him about two hours being patient.

I took the board home - installed it - and crossed my fingers. I really figured it would not work since I had no proof that IC952 (MD1222N) was the culprit. I was just relying on the work of others in this thread. I hit the remote and the blue light on the AVC came on. The GX was alive again!! I tested several off/on cycles and power unplugs and it consistently turns on.

This effort may not be worth it for those who are looking for an excuse to buy the next new thing. There are certainly other solutions using more hi-tech boxes to drive the display with likely better results. I'm kind of old fashioned and the idea of attempting the repair was worth it. I still think that the GX was one of the better Sharp units ever produced.

I think that if you want to attempt the repair, finding a hobbyist who is skilled with a fine tip, low wattage soldering iron will work.

On a different note, I noticed that the AVC unit has a cooling fan. Mine did not run during a short power up. I'm guessing that it's tied to some temperature sensing circuit. Does anyone know if this is true or if the fan should run constantly?

Put in my order on 2/21/2011. Just got a notice that the part shipped! MCM shows them on back order again.

Hi All,

This thread has at least given me some hope. I too have just been the lucky recipient of the WSOD, and after the run around on the phone I finally resorted to the NET...and came across this thread.

Ok, I get the fact that my AVC is probably now better used as a doorstop, and that there's probably no way to get it fixed or replaced (way to go Sharp!)...but what I don't get is this:

I figured, no biggie, I don't need the AVC anyways...but not so fast...

Apparently my DirectTV box cannot talk directly to the LCD no matter what I try. I have tried several DVI-to-HDMI adapters, I have tried switch boxes, I have tried pretty much everything I can think of...but I still either get nothing (white screen), or I get a garbled image in the upper left 1/3 of the screen.

Now here's the kicker...If I plug the LCD's DVI connector into the back of one my computers, it works and looks great! So I know my LCD is still in great working order. I should also point out that if I connect my DirectTV receiver to my 22" Samsung LCD, it works great as well.

So what gives? Please tell me there's a way to get this working. I need to be able to connect my DirectTV receiver to the LCD...what is the process? I thought "cableup" had some kind of explanation, but I wasn't able to really follow it, and it seems it involves more boxes/hardware than I have.

Thanks in advanced, and thanks for this thread, it has helped relieve the stress and frustration I've been having for the last week.

-Kry

The reason that the DirecTV receiver doesn't work is because it does not output 1080p at 60fps which is the only resolution the LCD panel will accept. The AVC box scales everything up to that resolution. Your computer is capable of this resolution and that is why your computer looks great. In order to use the panel without the AVC box you need to have an external scaler or an AV receiver that can output 1080p/60 to the panel. I've tried both a scaler and AV receiver and both work with my panel.

My Onkyo AV receiver accepts several HDMI inputs... should it provide the propper scaling? Because it doesn't...so I'm wondering if I'm still doing somthing wrong. What scaler do you have...and by "work with my panel", do you mean you also have DirectTV and it works using your AV receiver?

My DirectTV receiver is an HD receiver with recording capabilities (brand new model, just got it last week)... So if it's not putting out 1080p, what is it using?

Also, I thought that the LCD was only capable of 1080i (or 720p)...if it's capable of 1080p, why wasn't the AVC every able to use that resolution?

Thanks for the quick response, I really appreciate the help...

What model Onkyo? I have an Onkyo 886 that does scale to 1080P/60. It depends on your model number whether it will scale to this resolution or not. Yes I do have DirecTV (1 HR24 which is probably what you have if you have their newest HD DVR, 1 HR21 and 3 HR20's). They all work through my Onkyo 886 and the scaler that I tested with. The HD DVR's will output the following HD resolutions: 720P/60, 1080i/60 and 1080P/24, so none of these will work directly with the Sharp LCD panel.

I had a Key Digital (don't know the model number off hand) scaler.

Good luck,
Murray

Hi Murray,

Well, it appears that I might be out of luck once again... My AVR is the Onkyo TX-SR506 ...and from what I can tell it's just a passthrough, no scaling...but it seems that the only DV device that doesn't work when attached to my AVR is the DirectTV HD DVR...every other device works just fine (PC, XBox, PS3, etc...).

I guess that means I need to go get a new AVR...but I'm reluctant to spend the money since I can't be sure that it will definitely work. I'm assuming a scaler is cheaper than a new AVR ???

Thanks again.
-Kry

A scaler MAY be cheaper than a new receiver, but they are not cheap. You might want to check eBay. If you decide to go that way, you could hook up your HD DVR output to the input of the scaler, scale it to 1080P/60hz then hook the output up to one of your TX-SR506 inputs and it should work since your PC, XBOX, PS3 are working at 1080P/60hz. If you want to confirm that the output needs to be 1080P/60hz, you could change the resolution of one of your devices that is working and see if you get anything.

Good luck,
Murray

Hey Murray,

Thanks again for your time...

I'm a little more concerned now... I just hooked up (painful move from upstairs to down stairs) my Pioneer VSX-74TXV1 Elite receiver, thinking that it would definitely work...but got the same results... a garbled image in the upper left 1/3 of the LCD... Given the amount of money I spent on that AR, I was certain it was going to work...but no joy.

So just wondering, since you seem to know a lot more about this stuff than I do, should the Pioneer have worked?

I'm now going to try the multiple resolutions test from the PC side and see if things work or not...based on what you're saying, anything that is not 1080 should fail....correct?

-Kry

Well now I'm really confused... I was just able to take the resolution down to 800x600 and all the different combos in bewteen with zero problems... I had the LCD displaying at 800x600 through the PC connected to my AR's HDMI Input 1, and the LCD connected to my AR's HDMI Ouput (via a DVI-to-HDMI adapter)... I then went through all the other available resolutions, and they all worked as well.

So now what? What does that mean (if anything)? What ever the other devices are doing the DirectTV DVR apparently is not, in fact, I tried the other 2 DirectTV receivers I have, and they all do the same thing....so does that mean this is really an issue with DirectTV?

Man I'm so frustrated...

Thanks,
-Kry

Great to hear that the boards are available again. I might even consider buying one in case something fries again and it's not the MD1222N.

I'd appreciate it if you could let me know if the cooling fan comes on when you power up the AVC. Thanks.

So was the whole screen being used to show those lower resolutions or was only part of the LCD area being used? I am not really sure what else to suggest...sounds like your panel is acting different than mine. We are talking about the lc-45gx6u correct? If you set your DirecTV DVR output resolution to 720p does that make a difference? Maybe it is a progressive vs. interlaced issue.

I just noticed that MCM has 11 more in stock...so I just ordered one...hopefully they do actually have them, and it does actually come.....and it does actually work... Otherwise, I think I'm quickly running out of options.

Thanks again for all the help you've provided.

Update:

I received the part from MCM and it seems to have solved the problem with the box... However, in the mean time, I also purchased one of these:

HDMI-to-HDMI

...and finally, after getting it to ouput 1080p60, it works very well and has good screen adjustments for contrast, brightness, color, etc...

So it seems I now have 2 solutions... and right now I'm sticking to the converter box since it takes up far less space in my enterainment unit.

Thanks all for this thread!
-Kry

No success! I replaced my board this weekend and my AV box still won't turn on. Visually the old board looked very good and I didn't see any blown capacitors or discolored areas.

I'm sorry to hear that. It seemed like we were on to the root cause of the WSOD problem.

I'll make one suggestion that I'm sure you probably double checked. Make sure those white plastic connectors are fully engaged. They should make an audible click. After I made my repair, my AVC would not turn on until I rechecked all the white connectors. I ended up finding one that wasn't quite together.

Thanks zane8, I was very careful getting the right connectors in the right spots and making sure they "snapped" into place.

I need some help guys. After 7 years, my power supply board (RDENCA085WJZZ) is headed south and in need of replacement. I'm trying to remove the back cover of the set, but the top doesn't want to come off. Is there a trick to get it to release? I'm sure that I removed all 26 screws, but only the bottom is free. Does anything else need to be done with the cooling fans, cable-card slot, or button panel to make the top release? The service manual doesn't say anything else needs to come out except for the screws.

Thanks in advance.

You definitely don't need to take out 26 screws. I think there were 8 or 10. Once all the screws come out, you just need to pull the cover off towards the back.

On a side note, if anyone lives in Montana, I just saw this on ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...E:B:SS:US:1123

I finally got it. It was stuck on the button panel. A little help from a small flathead freed it.

There are 26 screws on the GD model. Maybe you are talking about the GX?

It is definitely the power supply board (RDENCA085WJZZ). I took a few pics of the issue, but have no idea how to upload. Anyway, if you position the board so that you can read the id numbers, there is what I assume is an inductor at the lower lefthand side surrounded by two grey caps. Normally, the caps should be shiny, but mine are melted and opaque. In fact, the melted goo is touching the inductor coils.

I bought a replacement board from discount-m​erchant.co​m for $100 plus tax and shipping. I didn't want to mess with trying to unsolder the gooed caps.

I hope I don't screw up putting the thing back together.

I just wanted to thank you and the other guys who did this research! My Sharp developed this WSOD problem over the summer, so I thought I would chance it, that it had the same cause. utsource.net is now charging $4 each, so I ordered 2, and paid $8 for post shipping and $1 fee for paypal. It took a few weeks to arrive, but I'd been too busy to work on it.

I took the board to work where we have a fine-tip soldering iron, and I was able to get the old chip off with the board surviving mostly intact. I lifted a few pads off the board, but it turns out they were all no-connect pins (only 20 of the 32 pins have connections). I put it all back together tonight, and TV is back to life, as good as new!

Perry

Long time listener, first time caller.

Same WSOD problem on the LC-45GX6U. Fired the old AVC up a few times with a hair dryer, and then found the power supply board in stock at MCM ($150 incl. shipping).

I needed to remove 13 screws: 5 on the back, 2 on each side and 4 holding the board in place. The lid pops off easily and the whole process took less than 5 minutes. The old board looked intact with no signs of wear and/or scorch marks.

One troubleshooting note -- the AVC will not power on without the monitor attached and turned on. I spent a few nerve-wracking moments with the AVC clicking away with no lights coming on until I made the connections.

Thanks for the heads up, everyone. You just salvaged my $4,000 paperweight!

Hello All:

I have thoroughly enjoyed my Sharp LC-45GX6U for over nine years now, however, I am experiencing a problem, and would like your advice.

When I use the remote to turn on the TV, after about a 30 second pause, the Box shuts off, and the grey/white screen appears. If I repeat the process, maybe five times, the green light on the display comes on, followed by a click and picture. A picture, I might add every bit as good as the day of delivery.

Reading through the forums, I am not alone. Others, more technically oriented than I, have replaced a ‘power board’ with great success. Unfortunately, I do not know what a ‘power board’ looks like, much less how to replace one. Still, I hate to part with an old friend, if reasonable repair can be made. I have considered leaving the TV on 24/7 until it burns out, but do not want to terminate a salvageable product.

Is there somewhere I can take/ship the Box for diagnosis and repair? Would the cost of same be reasonable? I live in Fort Lauderdale, FL, an easy drive to Miami. Any advise would be appreciated.

All good things,

George

I ordered the ‘power board,’ listed on this thread, and will seek the advise of a techno savvy friend for the installation.

Cheers:

George

Good luck. Installation is really easy.

I replaced the DC/DC converter board in my Sharp AVR TU-GD10U-T with p/n RDENCA089WJZZ purchased from MCM Electronics, as recommended by other posters to resolve the slow start/ no start problem. There was no change or improvement. As with the failing circuit board that I replaced, I can eventually get a picture and sound if I repeatedly cycle the on button on the AVR for 10 minutes or so. Are there any suggestions on what to do next?