How are RCA F38310 owners doing? - Page 36

Hi all F38310 fans!
Bought mine in 2001 and it finally gave up the ghost. I repaired it once, and planned to do it again, but life got in the way.
Never used the DirectTV receiver, so don't know it's status. I think the issue is in the power supply section (not the HV portion).
I have the custom TV stand for it, and the Thomson ESI Service Data CD.
Any interest? Located in St. Louis.

Hi

I just switched from Direct tv to comcast cable and now notice a light green bar of color 3" wide, floating from the bottom to the top of the screen...hmm.

Not THAT bad of a problem after all these years, but maybe a sign of thing to come?

Doesn't seem to matter the source, be it dvd, ota, or the cable, but most noticable with black and white images, and I like classic black and white movies.

Any suggestions?


Thanks

Any speakers or other magnets near the set?

Did the problem start after the cable was installed?
If you have a cable box, disconnect that completely from the TV.
If you don't have a cable box, disconnect the coax for the cable feed from the TV.

If problem stops with OTA and DVD sources, it's probably a "ground" problem with the cable feed.

No speakers, other than Bose surround sound which are shielded, and are three feet away. Moved 'em anyway to no avail.

It seems to make no difference unplugging the component cables from the box to the TV and viewing OTA and DVD sources.

The green band is barely noticable with a color picture, and only slightly on a black and white (the wife doesn't notice unless I point it out).

The cable installer said he would come back and replace the coax line from the pole to the house for free if I wanted to. I think I'll do that as the cable is years old, left over from a previous install... and he did say he would do it, no problem. Comcast service seems to have improved from the last time I had to deal with them. DTV was great, but I am saving a few bucks with the Comcast "triple play".

It seems to be the TV...too bad, as the beast has served me well, and I hate to think about moving 200 lbs, much less the cost of a comparable a new one.

Thanks guys. if anything else comes to mind...I'll be checking back.

Again I ask...
Did the problem appear ONLY after cable was installed?
Did you also remove the audio cables? Easier still... just remove the coax from the wall.

When the cable guy comes to replace your coax, ask him to verify that it is properly grounded.

Ratman!

Uhh...I never noticed the "green line" with DTV, but I figured that with the change to cable, maybe I was looking at things more critically... But, I unhooked the Coax and the line is gone! Of course then I can't watch cable, but at least I know that it's not my trusty 'ol RCA.

I'll now call Comcast and get them out to change the coax and verify the ground as you suggested. I'll bet I'll be good to go for another nine years.
By that time I'll be able to get a 4D, virtual reality, full wall display!

I should have told him to just put in the new cable when he was here the first time, but it was getting to be late.

Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.

Oh well... I've lost a good friend!

My F38310 from 2002 has finally expired. started having problems powering up for a week or two. Last night, it just powered off and will not power up. Standby power is still on, but no picture/sound and just gives a little "sigh" when I hit the power button on the FPA.

Opened up the beast to look for obvious signs of leaky caps or burnt resistors/diodes to no avail. Even if I did, disassembly would be a major task and beyond my expertise (or patience). So... out to the stores to find a new TV.

If anyone locally (Collingswood, N.J./ Philly area) wants this TV, come and get it. It's free (with matching stand and service manual). IF not, hopefully the delivery guys will take it.

Ratman:

I feel your pain. We're about to lose as well. Because nobody has extended more insightful and knowledgable advice regarding the maintenance, repair and overall use of our 38310's than you have. Good luck with your new TV buying expedition. You might want to take a look into the Toshiba 670u full-array backlight local dimming LED-LCD. The 46" version is still available at walmart's website for under a grand. The 55" version
is available at Crutchfield's for about two grand; less at some other online retailers. It's the closest I seen to a reasonably-priced, seemingly glitch-free TV that matches or beats the picture quality of a 38310. The rapidly-disappearing Pioneers and the black level-challenged Panasonic plasmas are two other (albeit higher cost) possibilities as I'm sure you know.

How 'bout keeping us posted(literally) on the progress and final result of your search for a new TV? My set's still humming away and turning out a perfect picture after nine years plus a few months but it's only one popped capacitor away from extinction. It will be interesting to see what you select as a replacement for yours.

Sorry to hear that yours croaked.

I've got 2 of them, and both were doing fine until a month ago. While one is still great, the other one suffered something bad when a friend who was helping me move the behemoth put down his end too abruptly. Since then, when I try to turn it on, it cycles itself on-and-off about 20 times before leaving itself off. During its brief few seconds of on-ness, there is a narrow white line on the screen and nothing else. If anybody knows enough to diagnose the problem from this description, and comment upon the fix-ability, I would appreciate it...

You know... 10 years ago, deciding on an HDTV was pretty simple. I wanted the largest 16:9 CRT HDTV I could find. There was the Loewe, RCA and Proscan.

For the new purchase, I spent hours researching on the net, read reviews, compared prices... yada, yada. I think I'm well versed with the technology, but I am overwhelmed with the makes, models, features, pros/cons, etc. I"m too old for this stuff and have no patience. I have a better understanding what "newbies" go through now.

The only thing I know for sure is that every set has it's "cons".

So as good or as bad as it is, I just purchased a Sharp LC46LE820UN. Comes tomorrow and I guess I'll be bitching on the LCD forum after a few days!

I have my fingers crossed and hope this set makes me as happy as my F38310 did over the years.

Good luck to the remaining F38310 owners. I'll still check in and try to help out as best I can.

I will miss "the beast".

And mine keeps rolling along, averaging ~4 hours/day of use. I sometimes find myself hoping it will die so I can get something lower power, and quieter. Something that supports 1080p, even though I really don't need that in this room.

OTOH, I dread removing it from its 4' high perch on a chest of drawers I had custom made to support its weight.

Over the years I've had mine, I swear the things have gained weight... what used to be 186 lbs (or whatever it was) feels like about 300 lbs now...

Russ, sounds like a shorted yolk. I had the same problem a year ago. Had a service contract with Sears and they sent the chassis in a number of times and it always came back marked as fine. Mine had a white narrow vertical line, no deflection. Yolk is bonded to the picture tube so there is no option for replacement.

Now, the good thing about that is there are a few 38310s out there with the common power supply problem and I was able to pick one for $40. Swapped in my known good chassis and bingo! My 38310 has a new life.

In the mean time I moved it to the basement rec room, and replaced it with a great 50" plasma, the only thing out there that comes close to the great image the 38310 has. No LCD crap for me for serious watching....

Matt L:
Question about the "common power supply" problem you fixed on your 38310: Is the DM-1 power supply module the one you replaced on your set? If so, did you notice any sign or symptom of other damaged components that might have been caused by the DM-1's failure. Reason I ask is that my 38310 is moving toward the ten-year mark. I have a brand new DM-1 power supply module under wraps and sitting up in a closet. I'm still debating after all these years if I should install the new module now as a precaution or leave well enough alone until something in the old module fails.

As Sulu would say, "Oh my!"

The new Sharp looks great. I'm a happy camper.

Ratman:
That's great. Assuming your initial reaction is based on a comparison to your recently-deceased 38310, that's even greater. The Sharp 820 is an edge-lit, 120 hz unit, right?
Or is it a full-array backlight? Either way, it's already on my short list when my RCA joins yours in pixel heaven.

Yes... edge lit LED120Hz.

Only been "playing" for a few hours, but HD (cable) looks very good, SD... well
Standard DVD's look great. HD-DVD looks wonderful.

Lot's of user level "tweaks" too.

It's not too soon to say (IMHO), this is a great improvement over the F38310.
(Even the wife was impressed, so that's something! )

Just so you know, the 810 is a tad less expensive. The only major difference is that the 820 has a glass screen. I opted for the glass screen because the grandson just loves to touch (and kiss) the screen. LCD panels aren't as forgiving as 216 lbs. of glass! LOL!

I had the power supply problem early on and it was fixed. Luckily it did not take anything else out when it went.

The last issue was no deflection, 1" wide white vertical bar. I solved it by pulling the guts out of a non working f38310 I got on Craig's list for $40. I took the chance that it died from a bad power supply, as so many have. I had a know good complete chassis. 10 to 15 minute job to swap out the chassis if you keep track of the various connections. I also went through the service menus and retweaked the settings for overscan, gray scale, color balance, centering and such as the yolk and picture tube was different. That took considerably longer...

As to swapping out your DM1 module, I'd say it's a toss up. Who is to say the new one won't go bad? I may be wrong but in reading this thread over the years I'm not aware of the DM1 unit doing any other damage when it fails. So perhaps leaving well enough alone is the router to take. I don't know.

Matt L:

Appreciate the fast response. I'm going to take the "leave well enough alone" approach and hope my set and its current power supply module gives me at least another year of use. I have a fairly high level of confidence (aka wishful thinking) that the 2011 Panasonic plasma offerings, with rising black levels eliminated, will make the prospect of replacing my 38310 a lot more bearable.

well, after many years of good service i'm thinking of replacing my rca - what'd you guys think i can get for it? also = anyone have trouble with the internal speakers? i have mine set up optical out but when i tried internal speakers they didn't work. could that be because of the optical out being used?

The going rate for a working 38310 appears to be $125-200 on Amazon or Craigslist, if you're willing to endure a nightmarish selling process. I think your best bet is asking 200-to-250 for it via bulletin boards or local newspapers right there in Deerfield or elsewhere in the north suburbs. There's simply not much of a market for 216 lb, 3-ft. deep TVs, no matter how much better the picture quality is compared to virtually all lcd's and most of the current plasmas.

p.s. That excludes your new Sharp, Ratman.

thanks- i tried looking on craigs list - didn't see any currently up for sale - thanks for the info--i have a neighborhood garage sale coming up - i may go that route.

what do you think my sound issue is?

Don't know about the audio problem because I haven't used my optical out since I moved to an A/V receiver setup. Can't you just remove the optical out setting and see if your internal speakers resume operation? If they don't, I'd guess a resistor or some other component in the audio section of the main board has failed.

I believe that there's a setting in the menu that turns off the internal speakers. Make sure they're enabled.

There's a switch that selects between internal and external speakers. You need to set it to INT if you want your internal speakers to work (and EXT if you're hooking up speakers directly to the tv).

No. The optical out is independant of the internal/external speaker settings.
FWIW, my internal audio/speakers stopped working ~2 years ago. To me, it wasn't worth the expense to get repaired. Just used optical out till the F38310 completely died. If the previous recommendations don't work out for you, then you may have the same problem I had.

I guess the good thing is... I will probably see a nice reduction on my electric bill since I don't have to power "the beast" and an AVR now that I have a new TV.

thanks for the info - i forgot about the speaker switch on the back -however -nothing worked - switch on back or via settings. i guess my speakers crapped out too! i hope to sell it and i guess who buys it will have to go the av receiver route!

ok - i'm feeling stupid now- after trying all the above to get my internal speakers to work it finally dawned on me - i don't have any audio sources attached! i hooked up antenna - ran the scan and voila - sound! however, i noticed it was really really slow to tune the ota channels and actually inconsistent. wouldn't always tune a channel. if i remember correctly i'm better off NOT acquiring off air guides, correct? i also heard a loud clicking noise once in a while when trying to tune in a channel = any ideas what that is?

Off-air guides is better IMO. It properly "maps" the OTA real channels to the virtual channels.

Is tuning slow(er)? You bet. It's almost a 20 year old tuner/technology. Takes a while to sync up with the signal. Small price to pay for good picture quality IMO.

Inconsistency? Could be poor signal/antenna.

Clicking? From internal speakers or external audio device? FWIW, I never heard clicking when using an antenna for internal or external speakers.