vizio amber light E321VL

[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.

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Figured out how to attach a photo per your request

[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.

[johnz]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

can you post pics of your work?

[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.

[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

Nice video from youtube that demonstrates the production process

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

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

This also explains why you can remove the board and flex it enough to have it work temporarily upon re-insertion.

Been there, done that too. But tonight, I'm watching both of mine lol. Good luck fellas!

[richpart]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Here's what I've been finding with these boards when you come to the point that you're at a total loss for explanation. I studied some videos of modern board manufacturing which; immediately raised some legitimate concerns. These surface mount boards are made using a solder paste overlay technique and after watching the system in action, I asked myself how accurate the overlay would allow paste to flow and drop down on the boards after becoming tacky from a day's production. If you have a magnifying helmet like mine; you can see close up that several surface mount capacitors on the top side especially, and bottom side also, either will have little to no solder on one side or be cracked at the bottom where they lay flat on the board. This board is all about signaling so the slightest loss to the processor can cause the condition you have described. On another note, I'm seeing symptoms of video freezing with these boards. Two things here, either the video chip needs a reflow or there has been a small string of blown solder that may have joined a couple pins during the cooling process at the mfg plant. This can also occur across the pins of the ribbon cable sockets. These defects can also result in corruption of the eeprom ic from data transfer loss. I proved this recently by soldering up the components on a bad board, switching eeproms with the same model and resulted with two working sets. All these problems are inter related to the solder work. That being said; keep your soldering iron heat at a reasonable temp when re-soldering surface mount components. Baking the board may not work because of a lack of enough solder where needed.

[johnz]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

wierd... had the main board out for a while and decided to put it back in so i could put the tv away and hit the power button and the Tv came on...had it on for about 20 to 25 minutes ..turned it off and it never came back on just the amber vizio light..?

[myjeepsbigger]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Bump. Anyone?

[myjeepsbigger]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Bumping this one back to the top to see if anyone tracked down a solution. Have a slightly different model, but exact same symptom (i.e. 5V to main board, but no 3V signal back to the power supply (when power button depressed)). I did notice that the power button is getting 3v, but drops to 1.8 (on both poles) when depressed (not sure if this is significant, or normal?). I can get the power supply to turn on (i.e. I get 12v out of it), when I do the AAx2 battery trick on the PSON terminal....so I'm nearly positive it's a mainboard issue.

F1 is 5.3V on both ends
F2 is 0 on both
Both fuses have continuity

U5: 0.52, 1.77, 3.33
U4: 2.02, 3.27, 5.30
U8: 0, 1.21, 3.30

There is also a regulator (I think) labelled TU8, but all three legs of it are 0 volts.

This is a Vizio E371VL, fwiw.

Any help from the experts would be much appreciated.

Edit: little additional information....this TV will occasionally turn on and work perfectly (will run for days without issue, if left on)...until it's shut off, then will not restart. No signs of any visibly damaged components or solder joints.

[tibimakai]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

and for that price is most likely only one component needs changing.

[johnz]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

well this one on EBay is offering repair of the main board..(Repair Service $65 Vizio E321VL TV Main Board - 3632-1512-0395) so its fixable ...

[matt2oo5]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Please anyone with ideal on this issue please email me. my tv is doing the same thing.

[Jrisman]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Hi Guys,

I don't know if I can be anymore help, but we are a liquidator and have about 45 of these tv's with the same exact problem. I have many working tv's and maybe non working. Basically when cold they will turn on and freeze @ the vizio logo. After a bit of time they will stay amber and not turn on. Same problem on all tv's. I have replaced the mainboard with working boards and it works so its definitely something on the main board. Anyone have any ideas?!?

[johnz]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Guess its repairable this person on ebay is asking for the old core back....(The core credit $50 will be refunded in full once you return your dud or defective part to us.) wish i knew how..?? Guess i'll break down and buy one...

[johnz]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

tested the button it has voltage going to it..

[cashkennedy]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

Most likely it is the main board or button board. And pratically all vizios of this period have regulator issues. So testing all the regulators would be most wise. You might also want to see if your getting any voltages to the button board, at least 1 pin should have voltage vs ground. If your not getting any voltages to the button board then you know the main board is bad.

[johnz]

Re: vizio amber light E321VL

I dont get 3 volts while pressing the button..so it is the main board...