Hi, I'm new around here and hoping that there may still be some people on here that are knowledgable about plasma display repair, as some of the old badcaps forum posts have been pretty useful to me so far.
For any regular plasma TV I probably wouldn't bother to go through this effort, but I have a pro-grade Pioneer plasma which I really want to use and it would be a shame to throw it out since there's not many of them still around these days. The plasma has the typical black horizontal lines that seem plague plasma displays. I've counted 3 lines on top of the screen and 4 at the bottom. The previous owner said they were initially intermittent, but in my experience so far they haven't gone away.
From reading other posts, the usual causes for these black horizontal lines seem to be either:
A. Dirty ribbon cables/connectors that connect the Y-Buffer boards to the panel.
B. Faulty ICs on the Y-Buffer boards
C. I've seen numerous people state that the panel can “go bad” and the lines can appear (not sure if this is even true) as no real explanation was given.
D. Saw one mention of the digital board, but I haven't looked into this yet.
Regarding C., I've seen the ribbon cables either blow out due to overheating or corrosion on the panel side, so perhaps this is what those people were referring to. I'd assume this is repairable under the microscope but I'm not sure whether or not the ribbon cables on the panel side are typically accessible?
So far I've reseated and cleaned the top & bottom ribbon cables, twice, with no luck or change whatsoever. Moreover, I've tested the top & bottom Y-buffer boards for any shorts, along with a visual inspection and everything checks out just fine.
The next thing on my list is to get to the panel and inspect the ribbon cables there (if they're even accessible). I'm wondering if anyone has any other recommendations on a possible fix, or something else to look at before I go through the effort to strip it down to the panel.
Any comments are much appreciated.
Best regards,
William
For any regular plasma TV I probably wouldn't bother to go through this effort, but I have a pro-grade Pioneer plasma which I really want to use and it would be a shame to throw it out since there's not many of them still around these days. The plasma has the typical black horizontal lines that seem plague plasma displays. I've counted 3 lines on top of the screen and 4 at the bottom. The previous owner said they were initially intermittent, but in my experience so far they haven't gone away.
From reading other posts, the usual causes for these black horizontal lines seem to be either:
A. Dirty ribbon cables/connectors that connect the Y-Buffer boards to the panel.
B. Faulty ICs on the Y-Buffer boards
C. I've seen numerous people state that the panel can “go bad” and the lines can appear (not sure if this is even true) as no real explanation was given.
D. Saw one mention of the digital board, but I haven't looked into this yet.
Regarding C., I've seen the ribbon cables either blow out due to overheating or corrosion on the panel side, so perhaps this is what those people were referring to. I'd assume this is repairable under the microscope but I'm not sure whether or not the ribbon cables on the panel side are typically accessible?
So far I've reseated and cleaned the top & bottom ribbon cables, twice, with no luck or change whatsoever. Moreover, I've tested the top & bottom Y-buffer boards for any shorts, along with a visual inspection and everything checks out just fine.
The next thing on my list is to get to the panel and inspect the ribbon cables there (if they're even accessible). I'm wondering if anyone has any other recommendations on a possible fix, or something else to look at before I go through the effort to strip it down to the panel.
Any comments are much appreciated.
Best regards,
William
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