Philips 42PF9631D HD Plasma - Page 45

yea its heavy, i keep my tv on most of the day usually. im surpirsed the caps lasted as long as they did honestly.

Yeah....very much so, they are rated for 7,000 hours....not sure anybody has gone as long as you have on the original capacitors (well, I think 1 person had 5-figures on the usage). Most of us had the caps go at 6,000 - 8,000 hours on the (lower) PDP count.

Mine went at 6,800 and 4,800 (the 50" probably built up more heat inside on the caps).

What kind of usage did the TV have -- was it on for long stretches during the day (like mine have been used) or did the TV go ON/OFF 6 or 7 times during the day ? Mine are rarely turned ON more than 3 times a day.

PDP is the amount the TV has actually been on?

Yeah, the lower number is actual hours....the one that 'sticks' at 4,000 (no idea why 1 number freezes and the other counter is fine )....the 1st number (the higher one) adds 1/2 hour each time the TV is turned ON/OFF. Service guys must want that info.

If your TV goes on like 6-7 times a day as opposed to 1-2 times a day, then that gap between the 2 numbers increases. My higher number went up alot when I had to do PLUG/UNPLUG (which counted as an ON/OFF each time I did it to turn the TV on) even though the actual hours I used the 42" at that time were very small. I think viewing hours went up by like 40 hours but the higher number went up by like 300 !

yea my tv was usually on all day, in the winter is the heat source for my room at times lol, jk, but it saved me from using my heat a lot. it could easily be on for 12 hrs a day, some days more. some days less.

the scary thing, is for a total of about 8 months of those 5 years, the tv wasnt used at all.

Cheese, keep us posted on your 9631 situation; not sure if you got the capacitors to do the work this weekend but hopefully you can still get the TV on to watch the NCAA's.

Hey all,

Though my profile shows me as an extreme newbie, I've been reading and learning from this forum for years. In fact, it's precisely because of the wealth of info on here that I HAVEN'T posted anything.

But now I've got an issue I just cannot figure out and it's driving me nuts. I've got the 50" version of this TV. Let me say up front that this is NOT the usual capacitor issue. I fixed that about a year ago (thanks to this forum!).

Before I get into the problem, I've got the service manual for this series of plasmas (multiple sizes). I've never seen anyone offer it for download or refer to it anywhere, so here it is. It's on my own server, so it won't disappear unless I accidentally delete it. Hope it helps someone.

184.154.126.130/~laurelhi/philips_manual/philips_service_manual.pdf
I'd attach it to the post, but the file is too big.

Ok, my problem has the following symptoms:
1. Front LED is green (always)
2. No picture on screen
3. Ambilights work fine and react to the 'invisible' picture

Diagnostic notes:
1. All voltages coming from the PS are as they should be
2. Power supply has all three green LEDs lit
3. Main Logic board green LED blinks as usual
4. Main SSB board has green LED as usual

Things I've done:
1. Service guy said it was probably the Y-sus and possibly the Y-buffers
2. I replaced the Y-sus -- no change
3. Replaced the Y-buffers -- no change
4. Replaced the SSB -- no change
5. Replaced the Main logic board -- no change

It was at this point that I stumbled across the service manual online, which is fairly helpful with a troublshooting flowchart and test instructions. In going through that procedure, I discovered that my REPLACEMENT Ysus had a bad fuse at F5001 (hadn't noticed this tiny thing on my own). My ORIGINAL Ysus fuses were all fine. So I just moved the fuse from my old board to the replacement board.

So at this point, I figured I would put ALL of the replacement parts in the TV and if it worked, start putting the old boards back in there one by one until it stopped working again, which would tell me for sure what went bad, resell the boards I didn't need, and move on in HDTV bliss, having fixed my own TV for the second time, etc. etc.

Well, when I did just that and powered it up, the screen did indeed finally light up but with a bunch of [mostly] pink snow. I hit the MENU button and the Amblights perked up as usual but no menu on the screen, just more pink snow. It was about this time that smoke started rising from the area of the Ysus. I powered it off immediately, of course.

Now I'm stuck. I'm afraid to try it again because obviously something is not right, I just have no idea what!

Any brilliant minds out there with some ideas? I'm at a loss.

Thanks,

Jeremy

Jeremy, with the Service Manual and with your wealth of knowledge on multiple circuit boards I think you're ahead of us here.

Clearly, if something is smoking there's too much current going to that board.

You've replaced most or all of the circuit boards...found and fixed a bad fuse....what I would do is try and get the TV on and enter the Service Menu and check the ERRORS log for any code.

At some point, you're gonna have to turn the TV on again to get it fixed. Doesn't pay to take it in, you're gonna have to do it yourself.

Double-check all your connections....would it maybe pay to reverse-engineer your steps and take the interior circuitry back to when you couldn't get a picture (but no smoke ) ? I say that because FOR NOW you just want to get into the Service Menu and look for ERRORS....you can then go-forward again with what you did and bring the TV back to the current state interior-wise and then see if it works again (assuming you didn't find something material checking the SM ERRORs log).

Keep us posted. And I trust that nobody on this thread or on the older 9630 Thread has anything to add on the various circuit board as you seem to know what you are doing and pretty much did what they did when they had problems that weren't capacitor-related.

havent received the caps yet, i can get the tv on to watch NCAA or whatever else i want, i believe the caps are expected here on wednesday, if i get them i might be able to work on it wednesday depending on my friends availability, if not prolly the week after (ill be away from thurs to monday i believe.

Cheese and Rush...any progress on your TVs ???

got the capacitors today, no date set to do the opening of the tv and soldering yet. i believe i read that after replacing the capacitors and putting the circuit board back in i can just turn the tv on and see if the ambilight works and that means the tv should work right?

You can't get the Ambilight on without turning the TV on.....and as a general rule, you should turn OFF the Ambilight before turning off the TV.

When you power up the TV and Ambiligh was left ON, it means the TV has to strain more to power up the set as it has to power-up the TV and also turn on 2 sets of lights. Like starting a car in the cold with a CD player, air conditioning, and lights all set to the ON position.

yea i get it, i rarely leave the ambilight on when turning the TV off anyway. just figured id ask because i read somewhere in this thread about that. hopefully ill be attempting repair this week/weekend sometime.

hopefully attempting the repair tonight depending on my friends schedule. i plan on laying the tv face down on my bed to open it? any other suggestions? i was told all i need is a torx t 20, torx t 10, and small phillips screwdriver (for the circuit board i assume) then the caps, soldering iron, solder, and desoldering pump? for the job. also i assume that the shorter antenna (marked side) is the negative side of the capacitor? i bought digikey 493-1754-ND (part #) 3300 micro f, 10 v, 105 C capacitors

(1) Observe polarity on the capacitor switch ! I'm not sure which, should be apparent when you remove the circuit board. Otherwise, GOOGLE it.

(2) Bed should be OK, but if you put it on the floor get 2 flat boards to lay the Philips down alongside the left/right bezels. This keeps the glass OFF the floor or surface (no scratches, pressure on glass).

(3) I think you have all the parts -- never heard of desoldering pump.

yea we plan on using the bed. its 5 ft from where the TV is anyway so it should be the easiest place to put it. you didnt do the soldering yourself right? i believe once i open the tv and take a look at the caps it should be pretty obvious as to whats what. but well see. my friend and i arent exactly stupid i just dont really want to risk screwing this up so i figured id ask questions anyway. the pink snow problem that some people have been mentioning, is that associated with cap replacement or something else? i dont have any but im just curious if that comes after replacing them sometimes. also i just read that the caps in the tv originally are 16V, i bought the 10V caps. dont think it should make too much of a difference, especially since theyre the same ones you said you used.

Ditto....just make sure glass is elevated using wood on bezels or has some clean covering on bed so it doesn't get scratched/dusty.


Nope....friend who has experience with TV's and soldering did it for me.


It really isn't that complicated....I could PROBABLY do it all now (except the soldering/unsoldering) but since I don't do it regularly, I say "Why risk it?"


You have more information than many of us....check out the YouTube video, that is GREAT.....when you take out the circuit board, either take pics or mentally note which cord strips go into which socket (for the most part, you can't easily get them mixed-and-matched wrong)......watch the polarity on the capacitors...trim the antenae once the new ones are soldered in.....be careful in not touching other capacitors or things on the circuit board. One of you solders/unsolders, the other holds the board.


Pink/red snow is probably a voltage problem on the Y-Sus board I think. It is tough to see from beyond 6' and once the TV is warmed up and also when not viewing dark scenes. If you look really hard, you can see it -- so don't look hard. If that's the worst thing that happens to my TV's, I'll take another 3-5 years of that from each very happily.

The original caps are 10v not 16v. Don't know anybody here who found 16v ones installed.

Keep us posted, good luck, and don't forget the YouTube video !

i think i have the red/pink snow then, ill see when im done if theres any change in my TV, can you post the link to the youtube video? or tell me what to search on youtube to find it, thatd be really helpful, id like to watch before my friend gets here and then show him when he does.

I wonder too.

i watched part of it before doing the work, we had no problem once in. didnt take long at all to get the tv off the stand, unscrew, or any of that. toughest part was the soldering because we didnt have the optimal tools. overall success though. tv works just as it did before and no red blinking lights upon power up. tv still doesnt click off quickly though =/ still takes a few minutes which im slightly concerned about. any idea as to why that might be? im going to watch it tonight as i go to sleep with the sleep timer on. the true test will be to see how it performs tomorrow when i go to turn it on. for now i believe we did fine though, thanks for all your help philipsphanatic.

?????????????????

Great, TV working is the key. Glad to be of help.

I am not sure why the delayed 'click' is still taking a few minutes....my TVs had long delays when the capacitors went bad, as soon as new ones were inserted they were back to clicking within 2 seconds once TV was turned OFF. As long as the TV is firing up when powered ON that's the key. Time the delayed click and report back, I'm curious. And see if it starts to lengthen -- my capacitors went when the delay went to about 5-7 minutes or so (right now my delays on my two 9631's are 2 seconds for the bedroom TV and about 10-12 seconds for the living room 9631).

BTW, write down your two hourly usage readings from the SM in the Philips manual as well as today's date.

yea, the tv turned on with the remote this morning. after hitting the power button it takes like 3-5 seconds for sound to come, then picture appears about a second after that. thats how it was before any issue. and i will time the TV when i turn it off later and report back. maybe the caps arent the only issue in the click on/off?

Could be....but a few of us detected the lenghtening as the caps went, and then it became near-instantaneous once new caps were inserted. Dunno....

Time yours and get it down to the nearest seconds...time it again in a few weeks/months.

Don't forget to check your hours used in the SM, write them down, and also re-check to make sure the 2nd PDP count doesn't stick at "4,000."

yep, just timed it for the click off, 2 min and 6 seconds. i got the hours, and i reset the 4000, to 0, thats counting up again, ill check back to make sure its not stuck at 4000 again when the time comes. i wonder why mine isnt instantaneous, i was expecting it to be based on what you and everyone else said, maybe because of my heavy use im not sure. ill monitor it. the next few times i turn the tv off, most of the time im "turning it off" is with the sleep timer after im asleep so i wont too often unfortunately.

Sleep timer or remote control shouldn't matter. The 'click delay' we all seemed to agree was related to the age of the capacitors. I'm guestimating but I would say a 2 minute delay is consistent with maybe 1/2 the capacitor life being done which obviously shouldn't be the case as they are a few days old. That's why I said to track it.

My 50" clicks-off in under 15 seconds despite over 1,500 hours whereas my 42" clicks-off in 2 seconds with about 200 hours or so.

Again....I wouldn't worry about it....so many moving parts who knows what is responsible for the click-off...worst case, you have to change the capacitors again in 3,000 hours instead of 7,000 it costs you another $4 in capacitors !!

yea took 8 seconds for sound, and 11 seconds for picture to come on as well. yea i bought 4 caps so i still have 2 unused left as well so it shouldnt be a problem. ill keep you updated with any issues, but as for now ill prolly stop posting on a regular basis unless i see something specific i can help with. thanks again for all your help. ill update my times as they change. sorry for no pics or anything from my work. we started working late at night and just wanted to get it done relatively quickly. all the pics you gave me links to and the youtube video helped greatly though.

No problem...stop by here every now and then to keep us posted.

If you check back in a few days I'll give you CLICK-OFF times to the nearest second and the hours on the new capacitors for both of my TV's. I'll also time how long for SOUND and PICTURE to come on (that could also be a function of the Cable STB, but I'll do it anyway).

Check back in a few days for my figures. Remember to write down all your data so you can see how long the caps last and also if the CLICK-OFF or PICTURE/SOUND ON times lengthen.