Vizio VP50 HDTV10A

[Dangermoose007]

Bought this TV off CL with an issue powering up. The owner said it would take 2 or 3 times to get it started, and that progressively got worse. Once the TV got going it would work fine so long as it was left on, but if it was turned off, it would take a long time to get working again. The owner had some success putting a small space heater in the back, and managed to turn it on that way after warming it up, but it recently stopped powering up all together.

After looking up the model, saw that bad caps on the PS was a recurring theme. After taking it home and opening up, low and behold about 10 bad caps bulging, 2 with leakage on the PS.

Will be replacing caps, and let you know how it goes. Any other possible causes other than PS caps would be welcome of course, in case the cap replacement doesn't do the trick

[tom66]

Re: Vizio VP50 HDTV10A

There are a few issues with AC detect on this model, but that's not too difficult to fix either.

[Dangermoose007]

Re: Vizio VP50 HDTV10A

Okay, I replaced the caps (Cherry popped!) and now the TV starts up almost instantly!

Which would be great if it wasn't for the red snow, and ghost like "reflection" of the No Input image. Now this may be caused by the panel being loose ( I may have undone more screws than required.) I see Ysus boards are likely culprit, but the owner indicated it wasn't having any issues except for the slow powerup before it stopped, and the PS cap replacement resolved that issue.

Any suggestions?

[Dangermoose007]

Re: Vizio VP50 HDTV10A

...and then it stopped...

I went to take a picture of it to upload to this thread, and as soon as I lifted up the camera to take a picture, the red sparkles stopped. They appeared almost exclusively at the top half of the screen, and most concentrated at the top 8th of the screen, and must only last until the unit "warms up" (I'm fixing it in my garage, and it is November).

When I plug in the set, or turn it off, I do get 10 yellow/green alternating blinks on the front LED light, which I assume is an error code

it also had a burn in ghost image of the No Input box before when the the TV first started, before the No Input error popped up.

[tom66]

Re: Vizio VP50 HDTV10A

Maybe loose LVDS cable causing red snow.
As far as image burn in, you were probably observing image retention which has since faded, common with older LG plasmas.

[Glitcher]

Re: Vizio VP50 HDTV10A

I had this model with also the red sparkles on the top half of the screen. Turned out that some of the voltages were off spec (Vs, Va, etc) I readjusted them and the red sparkles were gone.

[Dangermoose007]

Re: Vizio VP50 HDTV10A

the burn in is now gone after watching a bit of TV. The red sparkles have yet to come back, but when there is a signal, there are areas of the TV that kind of flash and sparkle. I tried to take a picture, but my camera can't seem to pick it up, so i'll try to describe it;
1. The areas are about 9 pixels high and 27 pixels wide, so little rectangles.
2. their placement is static, so no matter what channel I'm on, they are on the same spot on the screen
3. they do not appear if the section of the TV they are on is a uniform color, so if the background of a commercial is all blue, you can't see them, but the portion of the commercial that has lettering or a product that touches some part of on of the trouble areas, the flashes appear.
4. they appear to alternate between white and black in 3 9x9 blocks within the overall 9x27 footprint.
5. They appear on black screens from an input (digital rabbit ears that have no tv channel selected but is powered on), but do not appear anywhere on the mostly black No Input screen.

Tom, I'll check the LVDS cable to make sure its nice and snug.

Glitcher, how do I adjust the voltages? Better yet, I have a multimeter, but how do I use it to TEST the voltages?