Sony KDF-55/60XS955 owners thread - Page 94

Personally, I would stick with a Sony brand to avoid any headache. Be sure it comes with an hex wrench.

It's a simple operation, done from the front of the TV. It's designed to be done by the consumer, so it's about as painless as something like this can be. And you'll be amazed at how good your TV will look again!

Thanks for the input. Order placed and delivered made by Sony via Fedex. I think the Phillips lamp would have been a good choice, but I'm very conservative.

fwiw, Lamp Hours were 13,015 and on/off 9787.

Replacement was so easy. Amazing result, like new again.
Edited by IamtheWolf - 12/2/12 at 6:53am

If i were you, i would clean the vents and fan on the TV as much as possible. Anecdotal evidence is that changing to a new lamp accelerates the well known light block failures. From personal experience, after I installed a new sony lamp in my 60xs955, it was less than 9 months before the blue blobs and streaks showed up. Heat is what kills the light block. The new lamp will generate more light, and therefore more heat. So cleaning any lint/dust that is limiting cooling performance will help.

A good suggestion. I also developed optical block blue blobs not long after a lamp change.

It might be a coincendence, but cleaning is a good idea nonetheless.

Thanks Drill. More light is an understatement so I'll look into this. Had the original OB replaced years ago after Blue issue occurred.

I still have the KDF-55XS955 purchased new in 12/2004 and it has been through 3 lamps and 2 optical blocks. All of those parts were under warranty/extended warranty except for this last bulb. The bulb before this last one actually burst. I was sitting there and I heard it blow. What bulb did you purchase for yours? Can you post a link? Thanks in advance.

Bought a Sony at Sony Style or Store.
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&searchType=search&storeId=10151&catalogId=10551&productId=11031384

I am thinking of hooking up an antenna for local ota programming and wondered if anyone has used the optical audio out to get surround.
It looks simple in the manual but wondered if anyone had real life experience with using an OTA antenna with this model TV.

Mainly thinking the video will be better than with our compressed comcast cable.

We've had a 55xs955 for years and just replaced the bulb a few months ago. We used a Phillips bulb - much brighter.

And we've always used OTA signals and get great audio from optical out. In fact, I prefer the pure audio coming from the TV station, rather than the compressed mess that comes through the cable. Never used satellite as a source, or FIOS, but OTA gives us the best sound in full 5.1 channels.

Harry

Hi i have sony kdf-50WE655 . & recently i changed its bulb b/c lamp light was blinking . Now after few days RED light is blinking 6 times . I dont know whats wrong with it & what part i need to change & how . Any suggestions ?

Thanks

Hi i have sony kdf-50WE655 . & recently i changed its Lamp b/c lamp light was blinking . Now after few days i have other problem RED light is blinking 6 times & Tv is not turning on . I dont know whats wrong with it & what part i need to change & how . Any suggestions ?

Thanks

It's nearly 9 years old; I wouldn't pour much more money into it. You can get a basic 50" LCD TV for about $500 now.

According to the WE655 Sony Service Manual, six blinks actually indicates a "low B error" due to "no 'DD 6V' output (G1 board)" resulting in "no picture and no sound". If you just changed the lamp, though, you might want to check the integrity of the lamp and make sure that it is fully and correctly seated in the lamp compartment. The WE655 models are also subject to melting/warping around the lamp area, so you should make sure that everything looks OK.

Thanks for your reply . Yes it was so much damage/ melt around the lamp area but the Lamp was correctly seated & Tv was working few days after that . & then suddenly the other morning when i turned it ON it was giving six flasing red lights . i read on some site that this might be because of thermal Fuse & you need to replace one . I dont know if u can help me further i will appreciate it .

Thanks

The WE655 models are very defective. Heat from the lamp often melts the area around the lamp, causing the lamp door not to engage properly, and a cutoff switch then prevents the TV from operating. The high heat can also trip the thermal fuse, which may or may not be your current problem. Sometimes the heat even burns through the wires.

Even more significant is the optical block defect wherein the LCD microdisplay panels degrade over time (particularly the blue channel) as they are exposed to excessive heat and ultraviolet energy from the lamp. This typically leads to blue and/or yellow color anomalies on the image. For details, see my web site linked below in my signature.

Sony did not actively inform customers of these problems, and they frequently did not even inform customers who called in to their support line. Sony did place notices of voluntary warranty extensions on their web site, though, for those resourceful enough to find them, although they removed all traces of them shortly after they expired. For the lamp overheating issue, Sony issued four warranty extensions. The fourth and final notice, which was released in March of 2011, extended the coverage through 3/31/2012, but that has now expired.

In theory, you could try to find a thermal fuse and try to install it (I have a service manual that I could send to you). However, that may not actually be your problem. And, if your TV is already melted, then it will likely continue to distort, and then you would have to resort to shorting out the cutoff switch and/or fuse, which could be very dangerous.

It is also likely that your optical block is already (or will soon be) showing degradation. Thus, I would recommend cutting your losses and just dump your hunk of Sony junk. Sony used to try to fix these with a different set of fans and a new location for the heat sensor, but I don't think those parts are available anymore. Sony eventually just offered refurbished flat-panel LCD TVs to those whose TVs had melted beyond repair.

Thanks i will try to contact sony & see what can be done . Meanwhile if u can send service manual & the Part number for the Thermal fuse & how to install it i will appreciate it . & i hope it can fix my problem for a while & again thanks for your support

I have a KDF55XS955, how do you get access to the mirrors for cleaning? I have almost all the screws off so the top/front of the tv is easy to separate but there's still something holding it together in the bottom/center area. I removed all the screws behind the HDTV cover plate as well. Any advice or instructions?
Edited by superlivematt - 1/19/13 at 8:16pm

I tried to remove the front screen on mine as well to clean the mirror. I downloaded the manual and it shows having to remove the light engine to access the rest of the screws. Well i chose not to remove the light engine.

So when removing everything it seems that the mirrors are pretty much in a sealed area of the tv (and clean). All the dust & gunk build up was in the optical block, on all lenses and the 3 LCD panels. The light engine sucks air in through a filter but over years lets in dirty air that finds its way to the lenses. You can make a huge difference if you remove the optical block from the light engine & use q-tips to wipe the haze away from all the small panels & lenses. Do not unscrew the LCD panels from its housing or you will cause misalignment. Worked great for me, looks great.

If you provide your email address (e.g., by private message here), I can probably get the service manual to you.

Can you please provide me a service manual & a part # for thermal fuse & how to replace one .
Thanks

I have a chance to pick up a KDF60XS955 dirt cheap...less than half the cost of the new bulb that is in it. And it has the "blue specks" problem.

I searched awhile but did not find a reliable source for the LCD replacement module and polarizer--some of the sources I found are a big vague in what they are offering. Does anyone have a link to a source for these items, or at least some part numbers I can search on? I would be doing the repair work myself.

Also from what I gathered reading the thread here and others on the 'net, the blue speck problem happens due to failure in the LCD module...but is the "clouding" due to the polarizer being overheated? This set I'm looking at does not yet have the clouding, which is why I've considered just replacing the LCD module for the time being. Are the polarizers all the same also, or are they specific polarizers for each color?

I am not overly keen on putting money into a television that I know will fail again down the road, but the overall cost to me would be very inexpensive for a screen this large.

I did find some parts at TriState Module, but they are all "harvested". Not sure I'm keen on parts of unknown origin, as the life in these may not be all that good. (The part numbers look like they are for the red and green LCD modules, which work fine but may also have a more limited lifespan.)
Edited by Wildcat445 - 5/3/13 at 10:29am

I had my optical block in my 55xs955 rebuit a few years ago by a guy here that goes by jjb220. It cost around $200-$250 and the set has been working fine since. It is specifically the blue LCD that goes bad, I believe due to proximity of the lamp and extra heat. He did a great job but I just don't know if he still repairs these. I'm sure he can be found easily enough with a search of this thread.

Chris

Click on the link in my signature, and then click on the Optical Block Removal/Rebuilding link for additional information. jjb220 is John Breton. His information is listed there. You can try the parts from TriState Module. The speckling without clouding suggests that your LCD panel is bad. LCD panel failures can also lead to clouding, but certain types of clouding can also be caused by failure of the filter just before to the LCD panel in the blue light channel. Both the LCD panel and filter are available through TriState Module the last time I checked. Please note, though, that replacement of the LCD panel requires a relatively precise mechanical setting of the convergence (i.e., you have to tweak the precise position of the panel as you screw it back onto the block). Otherwise, the blue light may not line up precisely with the red and green, leaving blue "shadows".

Thanks Chris. I will be doing the repairs myself if I pick this set up, which is why I want to find a reliable source for the parts. I am not too comfortable with "harvested" parts that have an unknown history (if the whole block had overheated too much, who's to say the scavenged part is any good?), but on the other hand, odds are that they are OK (as mentioned earlier in this thread) so it may be worth picking one up anyway.

I'm sure that if I were patient enough, I could find some of these locally being given away, or even thrown out at the curb, which I could scavenge for parts. In fact, last time I owned a Sony rear projector (the KPR36XBR), the green tube became gassy, and the service technician who fixed the set at the time (for another problem) said the only way to find a replacement color tube was to watch for these sets thrown out on trash night. The tube was half the size of the others Sony made and was long unavailable.

BTW, on further searching, I discovered that a cloudy blue polarizer would give the screen a yellowish fog, not blue. If it otherwise looks OK, I am thinking I would replace only the LCD module and be done with it.

In my case, it is either this 60" with a bad LCD block, or I pick up a 34" CRT HD 16:9 Sony. It is supposed to have a fantastic picture, but I cannot find anyone to help me lift the 200 pound beast to pick it up. Those 34" Sony sets had a problem with a couple of ICs going bad, preventing the set from turning on (with the standby LED blinking 6 or 7 times). It's a $15 fix, and the parts are so common that they are even sold on Amazon as a set.