vizio amber light E321VL

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Nice video from youtube that demonstrates the production process

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qk5v...eature=related

[infringer]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

This process is not exactly new and the imaging technologies have gotten better as well certain things will always make it by these technologies but failure rates will and has improved as time goes on the one exception that I am not happy with is BGA mounted processors this has to be one of the poorest ideas that has came to the playing field within the last decade or so... Anything that is going to need a heat sink should not be BGA mounted period. Over time the solder develops "tin whiskers" and as this happens the whiskers spread like cat whiskers basically and touch a ball next to it which causes it to malfunction. The only way to prevent this is cooling. But the problem is no one wants their electronics to sound like a rug scrubber so we try to run the fans at the tipping point or in some cases do not use fans at all and its hello whiskers. Anyhow this is a real problem and many manufacturers should really consider using sockets like amd or intel does for there CPU's. The cost is not really that much higher in the long run and it will enable manufacturers to place confident and longer length warranties on their products. Besides this there is so much electronics waste that if we allowed graphics chips in laptops or processors in gaming consoles or other devices to be replaced or possibly even upgraded. This is an upgrade society everything is constantly being upgraded someone needs to start thinking about the impact this is having on things as well as think about the potential capitol that could arise by simply allowing easily accessible upgrades in these areas. There is all of this plus companies would save their rear from class action lawsuits due to poor production quality as well as the dreaded recall.

The answer is obvious use a socket which costs you pennies or spend millions and millions of dollars servicing faulty equipment and the salaries of service people. It is just nuts like at the XBOX 360 or the PS3 these could have been great machines with a long life if it were not for there BGA mounted CPUs and GPUs.

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

I just changed another Vizio board in my friend's tv this morning with my reworked board and he is up and running again. I will recycle his board and use it again. I'm telling you that this solves the issue. Yes, I'm adding heatsinks to the BGA Ic's also as an extra precaution. If you have no expert soldering skills, this is not a project for you.

[johnz]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

can you post pics of your work?

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Just started using this site. How do you attach pics directly to the post. I have one on the desktop at high quality if you can explain how.

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Figured out how to attach a photo per your request

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

My board is out of a 42 inch and more complex but the same pricipals apply. Same Amtran crap.

[budm]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

So what did you resolder?

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

infringer, I don't disagree with one bit of your statement but my talks with Vizio yesterday only proved that they simply don't care.

Trying to get eeprom data from them was a joke. They simply would not give it or acknowlege that a corrupted eeprom would stop the set from coming on. They insisted the set would update itself though a lan connection when my model didn't even have that port or wireless card. So much for that theory, they don't even know their own models lol.

It sounds to me like you have great familiarity with computers so what happens to an eeprom when data transfer is suddenly halted? The loss of these connections is causing just that to happen.

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

budm,

The question is not what did I solder, but what didn't I solder? There is about two hours of patient rework in the photograph.

[budm]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

OK, that was lots of work on your part, good thing that it works out for you.
Vizio does not really make the TV themselves, they are just rebadged of of the TV OEM casing in Vizio case and frame. If you look up the remote codes in the universal and see what other brand uses the same codes, then you will get some idea which models of Vizio are made by whom.

http://www.brighthub.com/electronics...les/46859.aspx

http://www.rescuecom.com/blog/index....-create-vizio/

http://www.vizio.com/about

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

I have service manuals for almost anything and everything. I'm very well aware of who is using these boards and the money I will make from the discoveries of how to fix them instead of buying board after board. My work with test cases makes my selling business profit more so my interest is genuine to get to the bottom of it. Oddly enough, not one of these companies has offered to hire me so I'm becoming a self made man of sorts. Their loss.

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Update, the reworked board I installed in my buddy's tv yesterday morning has lasted all night. Even as his son fell asleep with the set on and is working again today whereas; before it wouldn't come back on after about 20 minutes of heating up. It requires patience to do this job but, is much more solid than the factory solder job. I'm satisfied with how things are looking.

[DULLTV]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Where is the eeprom you changed located ?
Thanks

[miguelon69]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

I found the location of the eeprom it is u18 i swap from a good board to a bad board and bad board worked OK .
I don't have a eeprom programmer right now but i think it can be cloned from a good on to a bad one.
I took some pictures and i will upload today .
My name is MIKE
p.s. I did't re solder anything on the board i just swapped eeproms
some people say you have to re solder everything i checked with my microscope and on my board everything look normal.
if any body has more info on what kind of programmer we can use will be nice to share the info.

And if we can help i work for http://www.itvrepair.com

[johnz]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

so is it the eeprom thats going bad or the solder?

[studle65]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

I would say it's the mx25L6405 chip I took 2 bad boards swapped chip between them & they both work now.(P.S. Thank you Mike)

[johnz]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

so you swaped one with the other?

[miguelon69]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

the eeprom was the problem on my board with the amber light symptom
and no power when you press power button nothing happens.
i order an eeprom programmer and we will now if we can reprogram the mx chip.
it will take at least one week to get the programmer.....
i didn't re solder anything on the board except of swapping eeproms between boards..

[DULLTV]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Thanks mike !!!