Sony KDL-70R550A - Fixed Side Tab Issue - Now Vertical Color Bars on Half of Screen

[o10037936]

First off, what a great community. I've learned a lot so far. Thank you all for your commitment and insights!

I started off with the 5 red-blink error code on my Sony KDL-70R550A (just outside of the warranty timeframe of course). After following the steps in another thread to disconnect cables from the T-CON board to Panel to determine which side was acting up, and then removing those corresponding side tabs, the fix worked!

I had picture again, but now when the TV started up, only the left half of the TV was viewable in normal condition (this also happened to be the side I removed the side tabs from). Most of the right half now showed wide and solid vertical color bars. Menu items or any input source showed up behind these color bars. I went ahead and replaced the T-CON board with the exact replacement item, but the same problem persisted. I cleaned all of the ribbon cables and re-seated them all several times, but that had no effect as well.

My last resort is to purchase a new logic board and see if that makes a difference. Does anyone have any experience or insight with this issue? Is it worth trying a new logic board, or do the above symptoms prove that the panel is bad? Or am I missing something else entirely obvious? Any help is appreciated! Thank you!

[budwich]

Re: Sony KDL-70R550A - Fixed Side Tab Issue - Now Vertical Color Bars on Half of Scre

:-( my first guess is your disassembly / reassembly didn't go well.... check the boards on the bottom edge on the side in trouble and ensure they are not touching any of the metal frame.

Although the test of disconnecting the tcon cables is OK... it doesn't provide the "full" picture at the time of the test because half the screen will not be powered, but the set will power up. Your problem could have been a problem on the bottom boards as opposed to the side. A better test is disconnecting the small corner cables at the bottom corners of the set that interconnect the bottom to the sides.
Anyway, without seeing the actual results of your previous "testing" of disconnecting cables, it is just a guess at this point. The large area of vertical lines suggests a problem with the bottom tab in that corner of the set... inspect the area to see if you notice anything. NOTE: bottom tabs are NOT removeable and are delicate so be careful.


One last question... you said the "fix worked and you had picture again"... did you ever have a full good picture???

[o10037936]

Re: Sony KDL-70R550A - Fixed Side Tab Issue - Now Vertical Color Bars on Half of Scre

Thanks for the reply budwich. It was your comments in another thread that got me to this point, so I appreciate all the help so far!

During initial troubleshooting, I did also disconnect the cables at the bottom corners while leaving the main T-CON to panel ribbon cables connected. It was only when the left (when viewed from the front) side tabs were disconnected that the TV would power on. During this boot time, I recall seeing half of the Sony logo appear just fine on the right side of the TV and the color bars weren't present. I should have taken pictures... I figured from all of this, that the next correct step was to remove the left side tabs. Doing that allowed the TV to power up and gave me back the left half of the screen error-free, but then I gained the vertical color bars on the right side. Maybe I did mess up the right side bottom bar on the reassembly.

So to address your last question, no, I never saw a full good picture. Only one-half of a good picture at a time, and now, I've got what is seen in the above pics.

I will definitely inspect the bottom tabs on the right side of the tv later today and report back if I find anything. Thanks again for the help!

[budwich]

Re: Sony KDL-70R550A - Fixed Side Tab Issue - Now Vertical Color Bars on Half of Scre

oops...

I re-read your last post. It appears that you indicated that with the small corner cable disconnected, you got a "good picture".
IF so, then perhaps there was a "handling problem" during the removal operation... do your checks around the bottom board area with focus near the corner where you see the vertical lines. Post a picture of that area with as close as possible.

this still applies:
One other thing.... make sure you check the cabling seating at the tcon as some people without their glasses on... :-) have been known to mis-align the ribbons causing issues.


old initial post...
well the "the fix works" might have been a bit "over the top"... "works" normally means the set goes back to display a good picture... :-)

Anyways, I think that you may have gone down a "hole following a rat". It probably would have been wise to post your effort at the start as perhaps some thing different could have been done. I think that when the disconnection of the corner cables didn't work.... this action removes the side drivers from the system... it was a sign that your problem was not likely to be a side driver problem because you still couldn't get the set to start / display. The test removing the tcon cables removes some of the source drivers along with any associated side drivers. With this result, it would have been "wiser" to do some voltage tests to confirm things at both the tcon and source driver boards (bottom edge boards) before doing anything else. :-(

It is possible that the tcon may have issues from a tab driver fault but for my limited experience, a sharp based panel (which sony has), the system tends to shut down before the tcon gets ruined. On vizio sets, there is no such mechanism and usually the tcon gets taken out.

Anyway, you have things that you can check and you might still get lucky but the vertical lines are not a good sign.

One other thing.... make sure you check the cabling seating at the tcon as some people without their glasses on... :-) have been known to misalign the ribbons causing issues.