2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

[tom66]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

Black heatsinked device is 100Hz motionflow processor, for creating fake frames in between real ones.

[ajshoe]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

installed new TCON board = same result.

[schulmanaudio]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

Hey Guys! I picked up a 46" Samsung LCD on craigslist, model LN46B630N1FXZA.

It has evenly spaced horizontal lines across the entire height and width of the screen, which suggested to me that at the very least it was not a bonded tab issue because from what i've read that tends to affect a part or section of the screen rather than the entire thing and in a much less uniform manner as what I have. (evenly spaced and across the entire screen)

Anyhow, the TV starts up fine, displays both an audio and video signal through an HDMI connection perfectly, except for these lines (that do vary in color, and kind of blend in with movies, but don't move at all) so I figured, Power Supply, Mainboard, Inverter and Backlight were fine.

Thought it was just a matter of a faulty TCON. Ordered my first replacement TCON and got a bad one as the image not only didn't improve but actually got worst instead of at the very least staying the same. Put the original TCON back in and the image gets a lot better, being able to view a movie with just some slight horizontal lines.

Considering the first replacement TCON I got was bad, I went ahead and ordered a second one from another seller on ebay, guess what, this time the TV didn't get better OR WORSE, it just stayed exactly the same as with the original TCON.

Which leads me to two possible conclusions, either I've been wrong about the TCON being the problem from the beginning and should consider another component being the culprit, OR that this second time around I managed to get a TCON thats neither in better nor worse shape as the original TCON, just equally bad and thats why I get the same exact issue with either the original TCON or this latest replacement.

The lines appear on top of everything, including the menus, the TCON only has two connectors that go from it to the panel, I've also turned the tv on with only one of those connectors connected at a time, the problem doesn't go away, the half of the screen that I keep connected to the TCON looks exactly the same with or without the opposite side of the panel connected. So from what I've read in this post, and to differ from the original poster, I'd assume that neither half of the panel is driving down the TCON because of some bad bonded IC or something.

I've also removed the metal frame and ran the plastic handle of a toothbrush every so gently across all the bonded tabs of the panel while it was on, and there was no change whatsoever, no new lines appearing or others disappearing, and like I said, they are all evenly spaced out, (the lines look blue over the check for signal background when I turn the TV on with nothing connected)

What do you think guys? I'm pretty sure the first replacement TCON I got was bad. Then I get a second replacement TCON from a different seller that makes the tv look exactly the same as it does with the original TCON… could it be that both replacement #2 and the original TCON are just equally bad?

Or is the problem coming from somewhere else like too much ripple from the power supply? (caps look fine, but it does buzz near the inverter coils or transformers, is this normal?) Could this be a mainboard issue? (The main board seems to be working fine at least as far as me getting audio and video signal and responding to the remote just fine) the lines appear whether the hdmi input is selected or the cable input is selected and they appear above everything including the menu.

Here are some pics, in one you can see when I disconnected the left half of the panel from the TCON, left half is black, but right half still has same symptom as before. Thanks a lot for your time!!!

[kev81]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

@schulmanaudio
Did you have any joy with this?

I have had the same thing occur only yesterday, but only down 2/3 of the screen. Bottom 1/3 is absolutely fine.

I am going to do some tinckering tonight, but any suggestions would be great.

TV is a 40" Samsung LE40D550.
K

[tom66]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

Your D-series TV is a likely victim of "Samsung Panel Death". D-series has a lot of panel failures, far too many. Sorry, it probably isn't fixable.

[schulmanaudio]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

Hey Kev, I really haven't fooled around with the tv since I made the post, was waiting to here from one of the experts on this forum like tom66... Tom, you mentioned Kev's D series probably has a bad panel... What's your take on my LN46B630N1FXZA? Thanks!!!

[tom66]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

Seen a few like this on here, don't know what causes the failure yet. But it does appear to be panel related unfortunately.

[hotchex]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

I've had a similar "horizontal line" issue with my 3 year old ln40d630 for the past few days.

It's only in the top half of the display and there's a lot of ghosting with elements towards the edge of the image repeating throughout the lines. Seems like I'm screwed and it's a display issue but is it possible that it's a tcon board issue? Any ideas?

[tom66]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

Sorry that's a dead panel, very common for D series Samsung CCFL LCD and LED LCD panels.

[stinger381]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

That white screen reminds me of a TV we worked on while back of mine. The t-conn had a separate logic board and it was the logic board that was bad. Do you have a board that the t-conn feeds into before the panel? If so I would replace it and see if that brings the picture back.

[hotchex]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

UPDATE: I've since discovered that my TV's main board has what looks to be corrosion and burn marks on the underside of it. All the other components look fine...

Stupid question (perhaps), but is there a chance that the horizontal lines on the top half of my LN40D630 are due to this? The lines seem to be repeating information from the top of the screen, hence the appearance of ghosting. Tom66 seemed confident that it's a bad panel and I appreciate the feedback but wonder if this new information would change his or anyone else's opinion?

Obviously that would be awesome if it's the main board's fault, wishful thinking?

[hexpope]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

I have the same issue with another TV, It's funny as I cleaned and then while the TV was turned on I started playing around with the ribbon cables and everything and nothing changed it was exactly the same. Now after two hours of looking around and checking voltages, it has some mysteriously come back perfect.

Would this be a TCON board issue, or the set ribbons leading to the different sections on the main panel ?

NOTE: It's the ribbon cables on the Panel. Time to restock the parts bin and send the rest to the recycling Centre..

[vandals909]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

I have a similar issue and was looking for some advice/help. My ln55a950 now has green and mostly red vertical lines randomly through the set. When the issue started last week after being on for 5 minutes they would go away. The time for them to go away increased over the week up-to 1 hour. Last night they would not go away. Then today after having the set on for about 1 hour it cleared up. Once the lines go away they never come back until the set it turn off for a period of time.

Any idea what this could be?

[vandals909]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

i'm not sure if it is helpful but this is what the screen looks like right after I turn it off when the red lines are present.

[vandals909]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

I turned the TV on this morning. It had the red visible lines going vertically. I decided to push on the panel gently and nothing. I then flexed the TV gently and the redlines went away. Sounds like a loose connection? What could possibly be loose?

[budm]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

You can try re-seating the cables between the LCD panel and the T-CON and see what happen, you can also may have bad tab bonding (but I never seen bad tab causing this kind of picture).

[jdryyz]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

After six and a half years, I have joined the party.

Narrow (one or two pixels tall) horizontal black lines starting from the left and slowly fading passed the center of the screen.

I like the idea of checking ribbon cables because I feel comfortable doing that myself. I experienced something similar within the first year of ownership, except it was one or two purple-ish vertical lines. They ended up going away on their own and never returned!

My photo isn't very clear but you should be able to make out what I am describing. Based on all of the other problem descriptions, I wonder if my case might fall into the simple fix category. I sure hope so. I'm in no position to replace the set at this time and, even if I were, the current technologies have not stablized yet in my opinion.

In a perfect world, I would like a 65" 4K OLED (not curved) with enhanced color space and high dynamic range at an affordable price. I think we're still a long way away from that.

[jdryyz]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

Cleaning ribbon connections on the TCON did not help in my case. So the next logical step is to replace the TCON board itself? I've seen a few posts where this did not work. Are there examples where is HAS worked?? I wouldn't want to put more than $50 maybe into the possibility of the board being bad. Looks pretty straight-forward to replace. Are there any factory settings that will be lost or is that (hopefully) stored on another board?

[killjoy2013]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

Replacing the tcon board shouldn't affect settings. I'll let the gurus here confirm that for you.

I believe I still have the original Sammy tcon + the certified used tcon from TSM sitting here in an anti-static bag. I paid $76 for the TSM board back when I was troubleshooting this myself (post #3 & 5). I could probably be talked into sending one your way for $50 inc shipping, if interested, assuming you're in the US. I just never got around to putting them on ebay. Or if you want both boards, call it $76 and I'll be back at par for what I spent on the one!

(I can send you the TSM receipt over PM too if you want to see the $76 spent.)

Let me know - no guarantees it'll fix your problem. Low batting average in this thread anyway.

[jdryyz]

Re: 2008/9 Samsung LN55A950 Displaying Horizontal Lines

Yeah, so far, the odds would be seem to favor the panel being bad. I would really like to hear about reports of success with the TCON replacement but not finding much online.

Thank you for your offer. I may take you up on it. From what I have gathered, it is important that you use an identical part number to the board that you have installed. So, just because it is "for the A950", does not mean it will be the same one I have. I have seen .1 and .3 identifiers also. I do not know which one I have since I have not yet removed the metal cover.