Philips 42PF9631D HD Plasma - Page 49

Well the saga continues. I was hearing a high-pitched warble that was barely audible after replacing my 3300 caps and still getting the seven blinks so I thought I narrowed it down to a 47uf, 450v cap. I replaced it tonight with one from Digitech and now I get SIX red blinks. Not 6 & 3, just SIX. This is going to drive me crazy. I looked on the forum for six blinks but still didn't find anything conclusive but it's got to be fixable. A difference now is that I can use the power switch to turn the blinks off. If I hit the power button as soon as the front panel turns green (after plugging it in) it clicks, then starts the flashing. But now I can press the on/off button again and the blinking stops. The high-pitched warble is still there too.

Is it really worth all this hassle to have a 42" tv? Sheesh.

What, did I kill the thread? No one has experience with six flashes?

No I had the reverse of your problem. Started with the 6+3 blinks and then I change out the two caps and got 7 blinks. In the end I just changed the board with a rebuilt one that only cost me $60. I am good now. Sorry can't be more help here.

Sixty? Where?

eBay. There is actually one on there for $99 now. Check it out.

We've never determined a simple fix or cause for the 6 or 6+3 blinking LED's.

What irritates me is the Philips engineers know exactly what causes it but they'll never say.

That's what we're here for. Who knows, maybe an engineer is here to help, but in disguise.

Ok guys after changing the power board since changing out the caps didn't work...got picture now but no sound. Tried all outputs and no luck so I changed the main board. Did that and nothing so I am giving up as it seems to beyond my reach unless there are some last minute ideas?!?! Let me know soon!!!

PhillipsPhanatic...I am really looking to u and the rest of the team here!!!

We have the Error Terminology and Sympton guide -- that tech manual PDF someone posted over a year ago.

I feel at a loss....I don't know what to recommend.

Go back on this forum into the 20's and 30's (page numbers) and find that Service Manual with all the Error Codes.

If you have 7-blinking LEDs and yet no sound, then it has to be something linking up from the capacitors to the audio circuits. But that's above my paygrade.

Can you hear static/anysound with the volume at maximum ? You've tried all the inputs, including the side ones ? Swapped component cables/HDMI for new ones ? Cable/Sat box is OK ?

Did you check that fuse that caused the 7-LED problem for a few people ?

If you go back to when the 7-blinking LED light problem was narrowed from the entire circuit board to just needing to fix the 2 capacitors, there was 1 guy here who was an engineer or very knowledgable about stuff like that and he diagnosed it very nicely.

I would try and go back to the 2008 or 2009 posts and find that poster (very detailed posts, maybe posted pics too) and directly contact him.

This "no sound" problem could take 2 minutes to fix. The problem is alot of the old veteran posters who are experienced at fixing the 9631 don't post here anymore.

Hello all, Me and my Dad bought this plasma a while back at sears. I really have never calibrated the TV and I can't believe i haven't. Been reading this Thread since pg 8 and have found some of the previous poster's settings and they seem to look great! I've noticed PhilipsPhanatic has committed to this thread alot up to today and really thanks! lol. But my question is if anyone ever professionally calibrated their TV ? also, My TV has been displaying the blue sparkles on the upper left corner of the screen. I hope anyone can take the time and help us, it will be greatly apreciated! good night all!

I don't have any blinking LEDs. I have picture just no sound

No static sound whatsoever.

Changed the fuse.

Don't know what to do!

Could be the speakers went.....have you tried external speakers ? Hook up someone who has them, even cheap ones, just to see if bypassing the internal ones shows something.

Never got the calibration, heard it sometimes made a huge difference, heard from others disappointed. Probably not a bad thing to get on a TV but probably more important on a very big 1080p HDTV where you are fairly close. Not sure it's as important on a 720p if you are distant and/or it's not a 63".

Blue sparkles -- do they fade when TV gets warmed up ? How noticeable -- visible on video/sports or dark movies or both ? Could be a Y-board discharge as I recall someone posting here a few pages back, but not sure. Unless it's major, just ignore it.

oh, well the blue sparkles used to just fade away as you say, when it was warmed up. but now they have almost extended from that top left corner of the tv to the bottom left corner and they are always there.

I seem to remember someone corrected their sparkles by adjusting voltages. The answer is in this thread somewhere.

thinks men gooood job

Yes, but that doesn't seem like an easy thing to do....if someone finds the post or if someone does it, please post details. Sounds like a very tricky job, you're not just replacing something, you're adjusting it.

yes i've read about this too. Ill go through this thread and if i find it i will let you guys know. thanks.

I've searched and found a post dealing with sparkle fixes. Here's one and here's a summery of it.

Some folks on this discussion mentioned service techs lowering a particular voltage, so, I noticed a few variable potentiometers, and tried one, no change, then another, near the connectors for those side boards, and it got rid of the sparkles very noticeably, I could easily make it come or go by turning the vr pot just a little bit. This was VR8005, at the top left of the power supply board. I am now watching the tv, and it looks great, no problems, and am happy, feeling like it is likely working properly.

The proper voltages should be on a label inside the TV, put a pencil mark on adjuster before adjusting so you know where you started.

I put this in google to find the links... adjust voltage sparkles site:http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb

Great job, this is the VOLTAGE ADJUSTMENT FIX for those who need it.

Right now, mine isn't a problem when I watch TV on my 50" from 9-10' away.

Again, my recommendation is unless you are comfortable monkeying around with the voltage OR the problem is really noticeable to you at normal viewing distance (i.e., without looking for the problem, it really interferes with your HDTV watching), let it pass.

But at least now we know what to do.

thats awesome you found the fix for voltages, my sparkles are very noticeable, mine are mostly green though not blue, seem to be all along the left side (top to bottom) and across the bottom. i equate this to me watching espn a lot and thats where their status bars and scroll bars are located. maybe next time i need to open the tv up ill mess with the voltages but as of now although its very noticable i dont see the need to toy with it.

Thanks to all for the valuable info! My 50PF9630A/37 died the other night with a 6-3 code. After reading all the posts I brazenly got the TV laid down on a table and removed the back. Sure as hell, there was old number C8059 blown. Following the excellent advice I received from all, I found a parts store here in Atlanta called ACK Electronics that has the 3300uf 16V caps. Brought them home, soldered them in (I wonder if people don't realize that the longer lead is the positive lead.) and voila. It works like a champ! Cost me less than $6 to fix and $10 in gas. Better than the $130.00 the TV tech wanted. I can't thank you guys enough!

Glad your problem was fixed, but that's strange, you fixed the 6-3 problem with the capacitor fix from the 7 blinking LED problem. Others couldn't.

My 50PF9630A/37 is doing something odd. It's acting as though I have it on ZOOM. It wouldn't bother me too much except tonight when I was watching Survivor the text that the players say is cut off so I can only read the top 1/5 of it. It does this on all channels, i.e. cutting off the channel logo. I've reset the tv to factory AV settings but that didn't help. I've gone through picture formats and that didn't help.

Are you sure your cable/satellite box isn't on a zoom-like picture format ???

Does it show up with a DVD/Blu-Ray ???

If it's a Hi-Def feed....you should only be able to see AUTOMATIC and WIDESCREEN using the Philips remote format settings. Are those two showing up only ? Any difference between them (it shouldn't affect a 16:9 Hi-Def format picture, but in your case I want to see what happens).

Thanks PhilipsPhanatic, I believe my Directv receiver was in the wrong mode, a simple reset on it fixed the problem. I don't know how it got that way but it's alright now.

Glad to have helped....yeah, sometimes a wrong button gets hit and you think the TV is on the blink !