Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

[rt466]

Hi there. We are uni students and our 50" plasma has stopped working. We have had it for almost a year with no faults, however a few days ago it did not turn on. Not even the red standby light turns on, and after pressing on the controller and on the actual buttons we can get no signs of life at all. We have taken the back off to have a look, and even checked the fuse with a multi meter which appeared to show it was fine. We also checked the power lead worked on other devices.

I can attach photos if necessary, but we are just wondering what the likely cause is and if it is easy fixed. From research online it appears most power issues do at least show some signs of life, such as the red light, so we are hoping the issue may be something simple, like a damaged inner wire or faulty power inlet (the part that the cable plugs into on the tv). Thanks in advance!

[R_J]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

Is there power to the media receiver, also check the control cables between the receiver and the pdp panel, Is the MAIN POWER button "on" for the pdp panel.

[rt466]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

This is the thing. Originally when we had the issue the media box was connected and showed a red standby light. But recently we have just been testing without the media box connected. Is it required to get any power at all to the tv? We thought the power lead alone would at least light up the front left red light without the media box cables connected? The main power button is on yes, its hard to know if its in the on/off position, but we press it both ways when testing. Thanks for your quick reply!

[dskall]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

Will need pictures

[R_J]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

check the power supply standby circuit. There are service manuals available but they don't show the power supply circuit. There should be a number on the power supply board (ie: AXY1053 or AXY1059)

[rt466]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

Ok I connected the media receiver back to the tv to try again. The red light does show on the media receiver but still nothing on the tv. The power supply board number is:

AXY 1053-A

How would I go about checking the standby circuit? (Apologies for lack of knowledge).

I am trying to attach all the photos below but apologies if they don't work or display well, as I am new to this forum. Thanks!

[rt466]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

Problem still unsolved, any other advice guys?

[dick_barton]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

You need to check the voltages on the "SW power supply module" and tell us what you find, which would be useful.

Can you add your photo's as attachments since they are too small to make out component numbers.

[R_J]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

This is the best I can do for a power supply schematic
Check if you have standby + 5 volts if not
On the power supply check R101 and R102 I suspect R102 fuse resistor is open. They should be low resistance, there value should be on them
Check across the contacts of relay RL102 to read there value

[theojt]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

I have a 503cmx that died similarly and I've been looking it over a bit (but no luck yet determining the real issue). You seem to have a similar problem. I know it's been a little while (more than a week) but if you're working on this still, I'll provide the little bit I've learned so far.

===============================================
Caution: Keep in mind that the voltages inside the set (to the sustain boards) is 270+, it's important to use an abundance of caution when
poking around in there.
===============================================

(1) Some Pioneer sets have a safety lock out if you power on with the back panel removed. I don't think the 503PE has it but you should double check the manual. There is a reset procedure that will clear it if you do have a lock out condition. I believe your set is referred to as a "G3" (same as mine) and I know my G3 doesn't have lock out so you *should* not have it.

(2) These sets have two failure protections "Shut Down" and "Power Down". Shut Down is when the microprocessor determines an issue exists and shuts down the Power supply. The front panel LED should provide a GREEN blink code to help ID the Shut Down condition.

Power Down is more of an emergency state as best I can tell. The front panel will blink a code in RED when the set is in PD mode. In my case, I saw a blink code once or twice but no more. When I apply power, it goes into standby but when I try to turn it on, at best I get a flash on the screen and then an immediate Power Down (not to Standby).

(3) You can try pulling the y-sus connector and the z-sus connector one at a time (or both) and see if the set behaves differently. That may give you some clues. Mine indicated a DC-DC converter failure on Z-sus but would only stay powered up if I pulled off the connector for the y-sus. I checked my upper and lower y buffer boards for shorts also, but found none. I'm thinking maybe the Power Supply itself might be the culprit?? It could be a false indication though as well since the Pwr Supply has more than a few condition that will intentionally shut it off for protection. I'm about to try the troubleshooting mode that disables the high voltage and leaves the low voltage supplies running - but first I need to see if I can "talk" to it via RS232 (you have to override the PS protection with a maintenance code), otherwise you have to pull one or two pins out of one of the connectors so the PS doesn't Shut Down.

(4) Inspect all boards (particularly the Pwr Supply and sustain boards) for caps that are bulged. Mine look okay but that doesn't necessarily rule them out.


I see someone has kindly posted the PS schematic, here's a link to the Service Manual in case you don't have it yet: https://archive.org/details/Pioneer_PDP-503PE_PDP-503PU

Good luck, please post back with progress as you may get yours resolved before I get mine done. I'd appreciate anything you can share and I'll post any progress I actually make (though I'm running out of ideas).

[kc8adu]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

its a soft start failure.
look around the relays for bad solder joints and replace the 2 big white resistors.
set should click when plugged in.if not the resistors are open likely burned out from bad solder joints on relay.

[rt466]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

Hi sorry for the delay in reply. I have to stress again, that I am getting absolutely no life at all. No standby light, no flash, no sound, nothing. I turn on the media box which does have a red standby light, then I try pushing the main power button on the TV (front bottom left). Is it possible to be one of the cables linking the media box to the tv? The cable is like a double cable with a DVI and another cable I do not know attaching between box and tv.

I also read about the safety catch on the back to stop people doing what I am doing, so I have taped it down so as the TV thinks the back cover is on and will try to boot. Thanks again for any help!

[dskall]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

its a soft start failure.
look around the relays for bad solder joints and replace the 2 big white resistors.
set should click when plugged in.if not the resistors are open likely burned out from bad solder joints on relay.

You need to check these resistors. Should read around 2ohms. If they are bad you will have no power. If they are bad the relays are the cause

[theojt]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

Hi sorry for the delay in reply. I have to stress again, that I am getting absolutely no life at all. No standby light, no flash, no sound, nothing. I turn on the media box which does have a red standby light, then I try pushing the main power button on the TV (front bottom left). Is it possible to be one of the cables linking the media box to the tv? The cable is like a double cable with a DVI and another cable I do not know attaching between box and tv.

I also read about the safety catch on the back to stop people doing what I am doing, so I have taped it down so as the TV thinks the back cover is on and will try to boot. Thanks again for any help!

If you have previously powered on the set with the back cover removed, then the trap has been tripped and taping down the switch will not have any affect. You will need to perform a reset of the trap. On most of G3 PU series sets, a reset is done by entering service mode.

You can try this (from your Pioneer remote; universal remote may not work):

Press and release “menu,enter,power” in sequence or “enter,display,power”
Exit service mode by turning off power.

Trap should be reset. If not you'll have to research alternative reset procedures.

[theojt]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

Here is another manual I obtained that may help you also:

Pioneer Plasma Field Service Guide 2007 v1.2

[habanerocat]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

You need to check these resistors. Should read around 2ohms. If they are bad you will have no power. If they are bad the relays are the cause

Thanks for your help on this. I found an open resistor.

Are you saying I should change both resistors and relays as a precaution?
TV is now working.

[dskall]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

When TV stops working. You may want to revisit this post. Treating symptoms is not treating the cause.

[habanerocat]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

When TV stops working. You may want to revisit this post. Treating symptoms is not treating the cause.

I stuck in an old wirewound power resistor I had handy.
Would the resistor I took out (don't have it here) have special switching characteristics also?

[dskall]

Re: Pioneer Plasma PDP 503PE. No Life Suddenly

The old resistor probably has a thermal fuse in it.