Fluid change on Philips TV... anyone wanna help? :)

I finally decided to attempt to change the coolant in my Philips 60PP9601 myself. After speaking with several repairmen, only one said he'd do it for me, but he hasn't returned my phone call since our initial discussion. So, I'm basically left with no choice.

I'm in the N J/PA area and was wondering if anyone would like to come over and help? :-) I wouldn't expect anyone to work on it, just an advisor with an experienced eye to help... I'd be willing to repay the favor with whatever you need help with. I'm an engineer and a highly experienced weldor and fabricator. I can make just about anything and I'm highly experienced with cars and motorcycles.

Anyone have or know where I can get a copy of the service manual for it? The $50 charge was a bit steep for me... someone out there's gotta have a copy!

Hi MOtvGuy. Thanks for that link. I think I've seen that thread before, but I'll be sure to use it when I take the TV apart. I was hoping someone would have the service manual for my TV already. I thought I found it online for $25, but I e-mailed them and they said it doesn't have that procedure.

Hi John. No, I haven't looked down into the CRT's yet, but I've posted pics of my problem and everyone agrees it needs to be done. It's a 2001 TV and it's never been serviced since new.

What do you think?

Also, is there any way to prevent this from happening again? I remember reading somewhere about needing to use radiator paint on the aluminum frame to stop the problem. Any comments?

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Hi John. Thank you so much for your help. I'm going to take your advice and remove the back coverplate this evening and take a look at the lenses to see if there's any contamination. I must tell you that I have already ordered the ethylene glycol solution for all 3 tubes from a supplier.

I have tried all of the correction features and alignment featues that are available via the remote. Nothing has stopped that blue glow around any and all bright objects.

One thing I did notice was the picture looked great while playing xbox this weekend, and when I played Star Wars episode II. I didn't notice any glowing on that dvd, but I noticed a ton while watching The Matrix DVD's and regular TV. I wonder if it's an issue with the DVD's I'm watching and the fact that I don't have the HDTV box from my cable company (not watching real HDTV).

Well, I just opened up the TV and looked inside. I honestly can't tell if the fluid is dirty or not. All 3 look the same to me. There's a big mirror in the way of viewing directly down into the guns, but I can sneak my heads past and look in. I looked in with the TV on and with it off using a flashlight. I can't tell if there's stuff in there or not. There is a film of dust on the lenses though... maybe I should start by cleaning those? If yes, what's the safest stuff to use?

Ok, I just took it apart a bit more so I could see everything. Looks scarey...

Here's pics of the blue, green, and red respectively. First set is with tv off. Second set is with tv on. Hope someone can tell me something here...





And the "guts" shot:


If anyone needs a specific type of shot to help, let me know and I'll take it.

Ok, this is what I got.

Again, there's dust on the lens and it's not helping me taking pics... I'd like to clean them but I don't know what is the safest stuff to use...



When I look inside each one, they all look clean (I think). I'm no expert so what do I know...

Agreed. The dust on the lens does make it difficult to see inside and even more difficult to take pics. But when I look inside with the tv on or off (with a flashlight) I can honestly say that I don't see anything floating around or any buildup on the surface of the lens. Of course it's really weird looking into this thing and trying to focus my own vision in there, but from what I've been reading, it seems like if there was any algae growth in there, it should jump right out at me... am I wrong in presuming this?

I'm going to take a clean cotton ball today with some non-ammonia based windex on the cotton and carefully clean the lenses.

What makes me curious is why are the red and green guns look the same, and the blue gun looks completely different? The blue looks nothing like the other two. There's even a paper ring at the top which seems to do nothing...?

Ok, I cleaned the lenses and I must say... they look great!

So, I just snapped some pics of the guns with the same screenshot as the other day... maybe someone can tell me if I have bad fluid?

ALL CLEAN!!!

I forgot to mention that I did play a little with the focus settings on the blue gun... it only made things worse when I moved them from their spots, so I put them back.

The glow is still there, but I think everything else is a bit clearer due to the lens cleaning...


I'm baffled here... what could this be? To me, the fluid looks uncontaminated. Could it just be a little cloudy and I can't see it? Could something else be wrong?

Wow John... you must really know your stuff... most of that is "Chinese to me"... :-) I'll be sure to re-read and become more knowledgeable about this so I can clearly understand...

The only reason I'm posting that same image is to give an accurate comparison after I mess-with/change something. I can assure you that the glow happens around any light-colored or bright image on the screen. To confirm this, I played a lil xbox last night and the glow was around any white lettering or anything really light in color.

When I pull up the tv menu, it's blue and the boxes that pop up are almost not even boxes. They glow as well making them look like ovals. I can take pics of that tonight if anyone wants to see.

The cables I'm using are 2-3' gold plated monster cables.

This is so frustrating... at first, I was willing to pay a tech to come out and fix this thing... I thought I had someone, but he disappeared! I can't reach the guy! And nobody else is interested in coming out to help. One place wants me to bring it to them. No way! It was hard enough getting it in my trailer to get it home... it's not moving again! Besides, it'd be all messed up by the time it got home from the repair shop anyway! I'm so frustrated now with these techs, that I don't even want to hire any of them! It amazes me that people won't come out to me... nobody seems to want to work. I'm glad these people aren't construction workers... if I wanted an addition on my house, they'd say they need to build it at their house, and I'd have to go pick it up from them to put it on my house!

I'm working on very limited funds right now due to a recent issue that has severely impacted my financial status, so I can't just go spending $$$ frivolously to get this fixed. I really need to figure out the problem first, and then go from there to either doing it myself, or if necessary, paying someone to do it.

I'm not opposed to paying for phone consultations, but since it's an "unknown" problem, there's no telling how long it will take to figure out what it could be. It could take multiple phone calls... and the minutes/hours would add up quick! I simply can't afford to take that chance as the cost could end up being through the roof!

So... where should I go from here?

PS- I'd like to add that John has literally pm'd back and forth with me about 150 times in the last few days trying to help me. John, I thank you. Mr. Bob has been e-mailing with me as well (kick-ass). And I thank everyone else out there that's been helping me. It's very nice to see others out there willing to help as much as I do (in other forums). I'm new here simply because I just got this TV and I've never had a big TV before. I'm on a bunch of car and motorcycle forums where I've helped others out a lot. The last person I helped dropped his brand new bike. The upper fairing (plastic piece) broke and he was very upset. He also couldn't get a new one yet since it was an early-release bike and replacement panels aren't available from Italy yet. So, I offered to weld it for him (yes, I can weld plastic) for free. (It just seemed like the right thing to do.) He sent it to me, and included return postage. I put about 4 hours into it, burnt my leg in the process from an accidental dripping of the melted plastic, and got the panel done. I'm shipping it back to him today. So, again, thanks to all helping this noobee out...

I don't think it has gotten worse since I got the TV initially. I think I may not have been paying enough attention to different formats. I didn't notice the glow while watching Star Wars II, but that could've been because everything moves so damn quickly in that movie and I just didnt notice it. I'll be sure to check that again when my friend brings it over next time.

Cable TV is using the regular coaxial imput. DVD player is using that YPbPr HD input specifically for the DVD. The Xbox is using the Video 3 input which is the front access port. I don't know what resolution the DVD puts out, and I'm not sure how I would find out that info. I can tell you that I'm using that 3-wire monster cable for the DVD as seen in the pic above where it shows the guts of the TV. The xbox cable came with the xbox. Just a regular 3-line RCA.

The TV was hooked up to a HD box for the majority of its life. I unfortunately don't have the luxury of affording that (even cable TV for me may go by the wayside... all depends on what happens in the upcoming months). This was my brother's TV and he said he never noticed the glow while he had it hooked up to his HD box. Maybe it happened gradually and he never noticed? Maybe it wasn't there? I don't know...

When I crank down the brightness, picture, or any setting that lowers the overall brightness of the picture (anything that makes it darker), the glowing reduces. If I set the picture to "warm" the glow goes away. The brighter I make the picture, the bigger the glow.

I need to become more educated so I know what some of the things you mentioned are.

In the meantime, here's 2 more pix from regular TV:

I just changed the temp to warm and you guys are right! It didn't go away!!! I seriously thought it did... I think it might look like less when there's a regular picture because there's less white-on-black, and less bright images altogether since the warm setting seems to darken and dull things a little bit. But when there's a black background and wehite lettering on the screen, it's clearly there... Here's a pic of the same screen with it at warm:

No, it's always in 16x9. Panoramic looks good too though...

Ok, here goes...

I got as close as I could with these shots from Lord of the Rings:


And this is on an angle to show the edge of the CRT:


I wasn't as successful with the white... the camera had nothing to focus on:


And finally, the same image as before:


Did this help any?