Saving a Sony Bravia KDL-46X3100 (HELP PLEASE)

[stevo1210]

Hi Everyone,

Going around some garbage that's been thrown out in my neighbourhood and I stumbled across a Sony Bravia 46" KDL-46X3100 in good condition. It was clean and seemed to have been wall mounted all its life judging by the missing stand and screw mounts on the rear.

Took it home and plugged it in... seems to turn on, but I get a fuzzy/double image thing going on.

I dunno if it's the panel or an IC of some sort that's gone bad? I heard something called T-CON and solder joint when I put it into google.

Anyone able to guide me here? (Will post photos tomorrow).

Thanks.

[Moreno83]

Could indeed be panel or t-con. Probably panel....

You could squeeze the bezel and see if something changes it.

[stevo1210]

Now that it has warmed up, the images aren't doubling up. Looks all fine and well. However, The left side is darker and redder than the right side??? Squeezing and tapping the panel made no difference at any stage when I tried earlier.

EDIT: Attached some photos. One at cold start up, one at twenty minutes in when it's toasty warm. It's cold weather here in Australia (winter).

[stevo1210]

Another few photos for reference. The bottom left corner is darker than the rest of the screen. It still works fine however just very dark and a reddish tint in that corner. You can see a reddish bleed thing in on the left of the panel and IT GOES AWAY when I go into the menu settings, despite still being a black background for that corner - otherwise it is there when video is sent through.

(The white cropped box contained my name so that's why it's in photo 2)

[stevo1210]

Now that I am wide awake, I can see the left side of the image is slower than the right hand side of the image?

I also cracked it open to take a look inside and everything looks fine. Disconnected the four ribbon cables to the T-CON and reseated them and at first i got half a screen of fuzz and half normal. Reseated again and it did what it did before.

Would I be able to confirm it’s a T-CON issue at this stage and maybe scrounge for parts?

[nomoresonys]

I'd go for a tcon, could test your GAMMA voltages and whatever else you can on tcon to help verify.

[dick_barton]

I thought that if one half of the screen was darker and sluggish it came down to the panel tab drivers at fault.

What do others think?

[tom66]

Dick is right. Bad panel. Maybe repairable with a shim but often temporary fix only. If you were going to keep it for a bedroom or something might be a reasonable thing to do. I would never sell one of these TVs with such a fix though. No guarantee of reliability whatsoever.

[nomoresonys]

Ok, didn't know that symptom ruled out tcon, well now it's down to strip it down and try a shim, use for you or friends n family as suggested or try selling parts not whole tv. I'm using an old jvc as monitor right now that I shimmed 3 years ago, the picture quality is right on par with panny, sammy, sony and lg.

[stevo1210]

Originally Posted by tom66

Dick is right. Bad panel. Maybe repairable with a shim but often temporary fix only. If you were going to keep it for a bedroom or something might be a reasonable thing to do. I would never sell one of these TVs with such a fix though. No guarantee of reliability whatsoever.

Yeah I ended up ditching the TV and put it on eBay. Sold for $1 but buyer reckons he can fix it though. Luckily he picked it up and organised everything - was way too heavy for me to lift to his truck!

But alas, thanks for the help anyway everyone!