My plasma TV repair LEARNING ADVENTURE!! Many pics inside

[newls1]

Some of you may or may not know that about 1 month ago my 50" Element Plasma 1080p HDTV 600hz tv started having very weird issues. I bought this TV back in 2010, and in 100% seriousness only has MAYBE 5hrs of service life on it. We NEVER use it as it just spends most of its life on the fireplace mantle looking pretty But when the tv went south, and i removed it from fireplace mantle i realized how "nekid" my livingroom looked and how much i missed the tv

I removed tv set and decided to hit up youtube and watch several 100 videos on tips on how to service these types of tv's. Im VERY computer inclined and have built more then likely 1000 PC's so far in my life and new that by watching all these youtube vids that servicing these tv's is more or less the same concept. Plasma tv (and lcd tv's for this matter) are surprizingly VERY cheap to service parts wise, as the screen is where all the money is, and thank god my screen (Which is SOLID fucking glass) is NOT my issue. Upon taking the DMM to the power supply in my plasma tv, and checking the voltage points (which are clearly printed on a sticker and give you the exact voltage readings they should meter at) Ill show you a pic of it:

I learned that the Power supply was NOT my issue as all my voltage readings were 100%. .. I then scoped around every board inside plasma tv and looked for bulging caps.. I did find some (what i thought were bad caps but they were NOT after neighbor checked them with an ESR meter) so now im like FUCK!!! I decided to go back to youtube and watch more vids and came across this youtube channel ( http://www.youtube.com/user/norcal715/videos ) which ultimately upon watching most of his plasma repair vids i learned how to repair my unit.

My whole issue with my tv set was i had very bad "sparkles" and "horizontal white lines" through out every input and always displaying on screen.... weird. SO i learned about one of the pcb's only found on plasmas called a "Y-Sustain Board" and looks like this might be my issue. I hit up Ebay and searched for parts by my modle number of plasma tv.. TO MY EXTREME LUCK, I came across a LOCAL business selling EVERY INTERNAL PCB for my set harvested from a "damaged in shipping" claim and fedex DID NOT want the set, and busniess had already recieved there replacement money... So it was a win win type of situation for me, and local business. I was able to pick up the parts for 48$ (YES 48 DOLLARS!!!!) Extremely awesome deal, and removed the Y sustain board, and replaced with my new Y-Sustain board.... Here is where it gets very interesting... Watching the guys youtube vids that i posted above, he states that when ever you replace the X or Y sustain boards that you MUST replace upper and lower buffer boards that control screen, or the original buffer boards might go up in smoke (For what ever reason) Well, I thought that since my unit had such LOW LOW hours of service life that, that little step might not be needed for me.... I WAS WRONG and scared the bajesus out of me! As soon as i installed new Y-Sustain board, power up tv, hit power button..... POOOOOOOF, smoke was coming out of upper buffer board! However, since i have all these new replacement parts (thank god) I wasnt that upset, other then all the work and time it takes to remove all the EXTREMELY FRAGILE ribbon cables that go fromo buffer boards to the screen, and if you fuck one up, YOUR FUCKED!!!!!! have to buy a new screen, and as we all know by now after reading all this, that a screen replacement IS NOT cost worthy as its more then the value of the TV... Here are a few pics of the internals of the TV before i go any further:

I removed all ribbon cables (if you're looking at pic about of the tv guts, look to the left side of pic, you will see 8 ribbon cables, these connect to the upper and lower buffer boards, and the buffer boards are powered/connected to the Y-Sustain board Installed all new buffer boards, connected all cables up again, made 100% sure all was tidy before i plugged tv cord in

(please let me state this before i go any further, SERIOUSLY HIGH VOLTAGE INSIDE PLASMA TV'S SO BE VERY CAREFUL WORKING ON THEM, I did get a DAMN GOOD shock buy accidently touching the top of a 4400mf cap on the power supply and the tv was NOT even plugged in, lit my ass up and scared the fuck out of me, so be careful guys)

plugged tv into wall, and turned her on. I was greeted to a beautifully clear and vivid image again, and at this point my issue was fixed/repaired. I saved a shit ton of money and learned so much by working on it myself. Plasma Tv's are very BUSY, much more so then LCD's. So many more parts involved in a plasma tv, and ACTIVE cooling for them is a must, so siince my unit doesnt have any internal cooling fans, BUT.... The power supply does infact have a 4pin connector for a fan, thats what i will do next weekend, install some active cooling!

Conclusion of my findings and thoughts of what might have caused this unit to break down with such low hours on it.... Upon talking to MANY repair places in my area (atlanta area) EVERYONE of them all said same thing....... Power Filtering! Plasma TV's are VERY VERY unforgiving, and need clean power constantly as the Power supply in a plasma tv is its weakest point. They all said make sure you have tv on a surge protector, and not a POS one, a good quality one. Well, all i was able to muster up was a UPS850 backup unit which does have active power filtering ability. As im sitting here, the unit has beeped 2 times indicating a minor surge already... amazing!! I guess our direct wall power is very inconsistent and might have very well been the issue the whole time. So to wrap this all up, im watching tv now while typing this up, picture is great, and nascar never looked so good

I hope someone learned something from this write up!

[gally]

damn...looks like plazmas are more dangerous than PCs...in an electrical way

[newls1]

uh, yeah obviously.... PC's other then the internals of the PSU are 12v's....

[pa-pa-platypus]

good write up seth

[newls1]

why thank you sir

[shogen]

nice!! I used to repair rear projections ... plasmas were too risky

[newls1]

i see this isnt a very popular topic, but just wanted to update this thread and say my fix is still working great.... Anyone ever needs plasma tv rebuild help, i highly recommend the channel i posted above.

[Trey_Dog650]

Awesome! When you installing the fan

[newls1]

over the weekend, I no longer have a "working" drill, so i have to mentally prepare myself to unscrew 200 little damn screws again FML

[big dee]

I'm glad you got it going bro! I just had to work on one for a client at work. Parts are cheap too I would have never thought it ether .