Samsung LN52A550P3F Weird OTA Tuner Behavior

[Maxstang]

Working on an LN52 which had bad caps on the power supply. When viewing Over the Air HDTV it will randomly lose the signal and show the "Weak or no Signal" box and then go back to the program. This happens on ALL channels at seemingly random times but about every minute or two regardless of the actual signal strength. I've pulled up the menu that shows signal strength and the signal will go from full strength to nothing and then back to full. Other TVs on the same antenna do not demonstrate this behavior. I saw a posting SOMEWHERE on the internet at one time that Samsung had a problem with a bunch of tuners and had to adjust the Service Menu on the TVs to keep the tuners from freezing up. Could this be one of them? If so, what do I need to change? Thanks.

[tom66]

Re: Samsung LN52A550P3F Weird OTA Tuner Behavior

With such a problem, I would install latest firmware update from Samsung (via USB memory stick) as a first step.

[Maxstang]

Re: Samsung LN52A550P3F Weird OTA Tuner Behavior

Good suggestion. I've been a little leery to do that as I've seen several posts from folks with the same generation TV have the tuner completely stop working after the update... I'll check and see what version I currently have. Thanks.

[Maxstang]

Re: Samsung LN52A550P3F Weird OTA Tuner Behavior

Solved this. When I got the TV it had two obviously blown caps on the power supply. I replaced only those two and got the tv up and running quickly. After noticing that the weak signal box appeared even though the TV showed that the signal was full strength, I got the idea that ripples in the power supply were causing the effects I was seeing. I replaced ALL the capacitors in the supply and the tuner works fine now. Interesting repair.

[tom66]

Re: Samsung LN52A550P3F Weird OTA Tuner Behavior

Nice to hear, perhaps the 33V tuner voltage was low too. This is needed to tune the IF mixer for OTA signals.