Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

[NoEcm]

Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150
2 Years Old (Out of Warranty)

Here is a photo with no signal input:



When I turn on the TV, this symptom may first appear or sometime up to 1/2 hour later.

If I turn the TV off, wait a few minutes and turn it back on, it works fine (may have to hit the on/off a couple of times before it works though).

When the picture goes bad, you can hear a very high pitched noise, otherwise, when the picture is working good, there is no noise.

Here is a picture with signal:


Lately, it is taking more power on/off cycles to get a good picture.

Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con? or bad connection?

[randtek]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Sure looks like T-COn. Try pulling up the menu. If it looks bad too, that would tend to confirm T-Con.

[NoEcm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Sure looks like T-COn. Try pulling up the menu. If it looks bad too, that would tend to confirm T-Con.

Yes, the menu shows exactly the same pattern as the 1st photo.

[Scenic]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Try T-Con first (relatively cheap option). If that doesn't fix it at all, it's a bad panel unfortunately (which seems to happen a lot on Sonys for some reason)

Open her up and look for a panel model number (white sticker on the LCD panel itself, usually with a manufacturer name/logo like Samsung, ChiMei, LG-Philips etc.).
That model number combined with "t-con" or "tcon" in an ebay search should yield some results..

[budm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Please see my reply here:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...?t=9816&page=2

[NoEcm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Please see my reply here:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...?t=9816&page=2

Thanks, certainly looks like a T-Con issue based on your link. I'll open up the TV and look it over in the next week or two and post back.

[budm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Try re-seating the connectors on the ribbon cables between the t-CON and the LCD panel.

[NoEcm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Haven't had time to take the back of the TV yet (too many honey do's) but today I did the following:

Started the TV (took 3 on/off cycles to get a good picture) and let it run.

Ran good for 14 hours without a hiccup.

Decided to experiment. I Turned the TV off for 1 minute and restarted it. 8 on/off cycles later it worked perfectly again.

Going to have to get the back of the TV off sooner than later now.

[davis24]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Yep,its the t-con,my Sony bravia klv32bx300 had almost same problem, picture ok in upper 1/6 on the screen. But the other part had horizontal lines and flickering picture. Now the t-con For my model is integrated to the LCD,I did troubleshooting and found a problem to be a small resistor labelled something like' nZe'there are about two in the circuit,fix one at a time and test. I drew a line connecting its ends using a pencil. Thats Itif u'ld like to be guided jst email me....m2daviso@gmail.com

[NoEcm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

As a note, when the vertical lines start to appear there is a high pitch squeal coming from the TV.

After a while, the screen is covered with the vertical lines to the point where you cannot see the picture or images on the LCD screen, At that point, the high pitched squeal disappears.

Turn the TV off and then back on and the picture reappers. It may take 2 - 8 on/off cycles before the picture stabilizes and the TV can be watched all day.

Turn the TV off at night, and the next morning I have to start the on/off cycle all over again.

[cashkennedy]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Although the tcon is more likely the problem, the following symptoms youve described sound more like a power supply issue:
1) squeeling noise
2) goes away after power cycles / heated up
3) affects everything (menus and inputs)

If you took a picture of the whole back of the tv and a closeup of the tcon and power supply might help diagnose it.

[budm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

I agree with cashkennedy, it sounds like you may have more than one problem, check the power supply voltages real close, if the DC's are not steady, you can have a lot of multiple problems. Bad DC can cause a lot of strange and non-repeat problems.
Who would have thought bad caps power supply will make the screen look this. The TV turns on, sound is OK.

[NoEcm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

I'm thinking that this is the troubleshooting steps I should take after getting the back off?


1. Inspect the CAPs on the power board. Replace if necessary.

2. Measure the voltages on the power board (voltages should be marked on the board correct?)

3. Reseat the LVDS connector going into the T-Con

4. Reseat the ribbon cables on the T-Con

And somewhere in the above steps, try to re-create the problem using heat or freeze spray?

5. Replace T-Con


Any thoughts or comments on the above?

[cashkennedy]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Nope, thats a fairly good plan of action.


As a note on testing the voltages , they almost always are labeled, you should test them with everything connected and the tv off, and then with the tv on. If you see any thicker pink / white wires do not test these as they are usually really high voltages.

There should be a standby voltage that will be on while the tv is off, and the rest should only come on when you turn the set on (and should be marked in the range of 3.3v - 24v),

[NoEcm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Took the back of the TV today and this is what I've discovered:


On the primary side of the power board, the 12volt VCC is only measuring ~11.60 volts or so. Is this an acceptable output? As a side note, all of the voltages on the secondary side of the board were perfect.


(also, all the CAPS on the power board looked fine visually)


Also, the high pitched noise. Its coming from the left side of the T-Con and only lasts ~10 - 15 seconds:



Any advice or suggestions on what or how I should continue troubleshooting?

[budm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

The left side of the T-CON has a couple of switching power supplies (see the two round inductors?). It sounds like it is running at the wrong frequency due to bad DC feeding it or overloading going on.

[NoEcm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

I unplugged the power cables between the Main Power Board and the two Inverter Boards.

Hooked a VOM to the Primary outputs on the Main Power Board. Upon turning the set on, the Voltage measured 11.60 volts (the markings on the board indicate that the VCC should be 12V).

Is 11.60V acceptable? or is that too low?

[NoEcm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Well, I was able to heat up the circled area with a heat gun and get the VCC up to 12.14 volts:



I might have been able to get the VCC up a little higher but was afraid to leave the heat on the board for too long.

Here is a closeup of the circled area:



Could it possibly be one of the Radial Caps that went bad?
1ea 100uf 35v
2ea 22uf 50v


Or should I be looking at something else? Or perhaps an adjacent area (maybe the heat bled over to another nearby component)?

[NoEcm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

Well, due to heat scatter it appears that I was heating the wrong part. In order to be sure that I was heating the correct component, I found a 3/16" pencil nozzle for my heat gun and some fiber paper that I used to contain the heat to a specific area.

Here is where the faulty part is:


And a closeup of it:


Part # MIP2H2 which is known as a Switching Regulator. Upon heating it, the Primary Voltage on the main board went up to ~12.06 volts.

Using a compressed air tank to cool it and the Primary Voltage dropped to 11.5 volts.

Now the big question, can I just replace the MIP2H2 Switching Regulator to repair the problem? Or should I be looking at something either upstream or downstream?

[budm]

Re: Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 - Are These Symptoms Of A Bad T-Con?

I would check the ESR and value (check them when they heated and cooled) on those caps in circle and also the one next to the SMPS IC. The voltage is only off by 3% which is acceptable.