Sony GWIII Owners thread - Page 130

If so, congrats! Bask in the glory of that very honorable achievement.

My November 2003 GWIII is still going strong. Changed the bulb twice and that's it. Knock on wood...

I've used 2 bulbs on my Dec. 2003 GWIII. I think my second one wasn't of the highest quality and it is about time to get a 3rd. Got over 6,000 hours on the original bulb and nearly that many used on my first replacement. Haven't checked recently to see what my second replacement bulb life is like.

my GWIII is working fine.. I checked the lamp door last week and it is perfect.. Never had an issue with it at all..

Thought I would add another chapter to my journey with the GWIII I got in 2004.
Optical Block went bad in December 09
I took Sony to small claims court in 2010 and won $600 plus court filing fees $30
The TV was always usable but had the blue haze that was getting larger by the week. About 6 months ago, I tried to use it and it developed a yellow streak that looked really bad.
Fast forward to last week, I found the optical block was available for about 300 new from Tri State Modules. Decided I could restore it to former glory if I did the replacement myself. I followed the pictures I found on here and the blog about the TV on google sites. I was able to get the new optical block in and working, but there was a blue tint already on visible as well as some white light spots. I called Tri State and they said they would replace it. I am expecting it by tomorrow so I can have my 60" GWIII working for the superbowl. It's still a great picture when it's working right.

My 50WE610 just developed a distinct red haze over everything. Help please

My Dec 2003 GWIII is still running great. I've never changed the bulb! Should I change it if I want to get a couple more years out of it?

My Sony 50WE610 just calved.....was running dim for a long time so replaced the light....also had the blue blob issue but lived with it....the other day was watching an it shut down completely.......green light flashed red and now won't fire up....was wondering if its time to bury the old girl....has been a grea tv but it was purchased new in 03...so can't really complain about its sevice....

Im confused about a few things.

I have the TV hooked up to cable without a box just a coaxial into the back. Its showing the channels incorrectly (ie channel 25 on this set is Histroy channel but on my other sets its something diff). Also, it wont show channels above 25... ESPN should be 35 but I get snow.

I have tried auto program and it doesnt help.

My other issue is in the menu I cannot see Cable on or off. I thought turning it on might fix the channel issue but "cable" is not an option in the menu. Owners manual says it should be.

Anyone know how to fix this?? Thanks in advance.

Hello all,

I have a KF50WE610 TV that I bought November 2003. I had some problems when I first got the set and Sony sent me an extra bulb. Last month the original bulb finally blew! I can't believe it lasted that long! I installed the new unopened bulb that Sony sent me back in 2003. The TV started up and everything was OK. Then a couple of days later when I tried to start it I got that buzzing sound and it did not start. After unplugging it a few times and restarting I got it to come on. If it buzzes really quick it wil start up. If the buzz is longer it won't start. I have removed the Lamp and cleaned out the contacts and reseted the cover and door but this has gotten worse now. I cant get it to come on at all. Is this a Lamp problem or Lamp Driver? It is weird that this happened after the old bulb blew. Which it did. We were watching TV when I heard a loud pop and then no screen. Thanks for you help.

Dom

The buzzing is a sound that means the ballast is working. If you get no light it means that either the connection between the lamp and ballast is bad or the lamp is bad.

The ballast has a spark gap device on it, all UHP lamp ballasts do. The 5-15KV used to light the lamp creates the buzzing sound from the spark gap device. You can see the device light up in the dark. It looks like a big white resistor, near where the HV wires come off the ballast.

Sonys go through the light-up sequence three times, each about 20 seconds apart. If no joy it then declares a failure.

Check the backside of the lamp connector as well. It gets hot and eventually can get brittle and fall apart.

Hey Chuck, Thanks for responding. When the TV was working properly there was no buzzing sound. The TV would just click and Start up. Is the buzzing sound from the ballast normal or is it arcing off something? It is odd that the TV was working fine when the old Lamp blew and after I changed the Lamp it started to do the buzzing. I heard there is a class action suit against Sony for these TV's. After I removed the door that covers the Lamp housing I noticed it was melting and warping. Do you think I should call Sony or is the set too old? I can always change the ballast if that is what it is. When the TV works the picture is still excellent. I would hate to trash the set. Thanks for your time.

Does anyone use a CableCard in this GWIII set. I have an M card and cant seem to get it paired. I think the problem is on Comcast's end. This set was designed for a S card ... but the info from Cable labs is that the M card is backward compatible.
Can anyone confirm using an M card?

When the lamp is good, it will light so quickly that you don't hear the buzzing sound. As soon as the arc is established the ballast switches to a much lower voltage of 50-150VAC or so to run the lamp.

There was a separate deal only for the GWIII because of the overheating. Call them.

It's been a few years since I posted in this thread... I have a 60" GWIII that we bought back in 2003. We went through 3 of them inside a few weeks of purchasing the first one from Circuit City because of the "buzzing" sound and lamp indicator light issue that no one knew was caused by a faulty batch of lamps at the time. Once Sony got that figured out and got us a good lamp, we've been good to go all these years without so much as a hiccup or even a bulb replacement... until now... of course.

Believe it or not, I checked the service menu and the original bulb has over 20,000 hours on it. I was amazed.

A week or so ago, I got the 6 blink standby code... checked the thermal sensor on the lamp and it was ok, then checked the voltage on the G1 board and it was low... around 11v or so instead of the 17v. Of course I called Sony for parts, and low and behold no more parts available for this "old" tv. The lady said I must love my TV since I was looking for parts and asked me "why" (marketing research on my time) and I said I loved it cause I paid a lot of money for it and don't really have the expendable cash for a new one right now. She "understood" and proceeded to offer me a decent deal on a 2011 LED/LCD flat panel tv.

I dunno. Really stinks that only 8 years after you spend $3500 on a tv the mfg doesn't have repair parts for it. I haven't even been able to find a used G1 board except through an online source that has a terrible reputation. I would also like to find a new blue polarizer for the optical block... but also seemingly unavailable.

I did put a new bulb in it the other day... when the tv would still turn on once in a while. Picture was a lot brighter, but now you can really notice the blacks have turned a dark greenish color... probably the polarizers being degraded or perhaps the lcd panels themselves.

I took the G1 board along with a block diagram to a local electronics repair guy. I hope he can fix it... the $1800 sony offered me on a KDL60EX723 is decent, but still too much money right now.

At any rate, for some reason I felt the urge to vent...

cheers

Hi,

I have a Sanyo LCD projector the same Blue channel input polarizer fault, I read on a post that you managed to get a camera polarizing filter that would fix this proplem is that correct? if so what type of orange polarizing filter to I need to buy please?

thanks,

Graham

Photographic polarizing filters are unlikely to be designed to take the heat, mostly because they are probably acetate. Generally they are sandwiched between pieces of glass, so you would have to take it apart. Better to just find the raw material, a LINEAR polarizing material made of polyester. You can try sources like polarization.com, anchoroptics.com, or edmundoptics.com.

The orange appearance of some of these is irrelevant to its operation. These are dye-based absorption polarizers, and whether the dye is orange or the traditional neutral gray doesn't matter.

The problem with all of the above, even polyester ones, is that they are not made for the intense light inside a light engine, and will fade quickly, like in as little as two hours. (It's the dye that is being bleached by the light.) Once the dye fades, the filter will no longer act as a filter.

This is your most convenient option, if you can afford it: http://www.tristatemodule.com/p-16567-991300090-9-913-000-90-sony-blue-polarizer.aspx

It would actually be cheaper to find a Sony 3-LCD RP tv on Craigslist. I've seen WE610's selling for as little as $20, or free. In Sonys the input polarizer on the blue channel doesn't tend to fry like it does in some designs like the Zenith or Panasonic, or perhaps your Sanyo. BYW, I trust that you have narrowed your problem to the input filter and not the LCD panel itself.

Linke's site is a good primer on 3-LCD tech: https://sites.google.com/site/sonylcdrptvproblems/