Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

[philtvman]

Picked this TV up from liquidation about a month ago and it's been sitting in my closet while I move. I turned it on after I got it to make sure screen was in tact, etc. and everything worked great. I set it up last night, tried turning it on, and no picture. After about 5 minutes, the picture popped back up just fine.

If I leave it running, it will work for 1-5 minutes before throwing up vertical bands. The show still runs in the background, but the screen freezes on this. After 1-5 minutes, it goes away and the picture works fine. It's in a constant loop of this.

The TV is a Sony XBR-55X900C. Figured I'd post it here in case anybody had any experience with this before or had a good starting point. The attached pictures show the screen working fine, then what happens after about 5 minutes. These are two instances of it.

[dick_barton]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

Have you cleaned (alcohol) the flat ribbons to the TCON and check they are all seated correctly.

[philtvman]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

Not yet, wanted to get an opinion on where to start before I messed with it. Wasn't sure if the ribbons would make it cycle like it is.

[philtvman]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

Have you cleaned (alcohol) the flat ribbons to the TCON and check they are all seated correctly.

Cleaned and reseated all the T-Con ribbon cables and it worked for longer (maybe 15-20 min) before throwing up pink vertical bars. Unplugged from power for a minute and it worked fine again.

Odds that it's a bad T-Con vs. a bad panel?

[dick_barton]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

It may be worth checking the gold contacts are not damaged using a magnifying glass. Also perhaps carefully clean the sockets the ribbons attach to.

[philtvman]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

It may be worth checking the gold contacts are not damaged using a magnifying glass. Also perhaps carefully clean the sockets the ribbons attach to.

The TV just got worse, maybe works for 25 second increments then turns to the pink bands or distorted frozen picture. Most of the time, it doesn't show any picture at all, just backlight. I ended up swapping out the T-Con just to check and couldn't get it to produce any picture at all. Read voltages going to the T-Con and from what I could tell they were fine.

Ribbons all look clean and secure. Any other ideas? I'm figuring the panel is just shot, which sucks for a higher end 2016 model.

[vinceroger69]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

does heating/cooling any boards make the fault change?

[budwich]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

I doubt that the banding as you show is a panel issue. I hope you also had your glasses on when you were cleaning / seating the tcon cables. I also hope you reseated the lvds cables. Further, I also hope you checked / reseated the other end (at the panel edge boards) of the tcon cables.

[philtvman]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

I tried heating the boards to see if it would change anything, but it didn't. Tonight I'll try cooling them.

I did use glasses when reseating the cables; did both ends of T-Con and LVDS. I noticed on one of the LVDS cables on the T-Con end that there was a small scratch on one of the pins. Do you think that would be enough to cause this? Tried getting a picture of it, was tough. Thanks for you help, would love to get this TV working.

[freakaftr8]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

My honest opinion would be that I noticed you said you clean the lvds cables with rubbing alcohol and it seemed to last longer like 25 minutes or so you moving around the cables is proving that the cables themselves may be bad. The more you fuss with the cables the worse the pictures getting.. maybe try swapping out the cables?

I have dealt with Sony Bravia TV with these type of clip in cables, I have had them go bad

[kristobg]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

I think that you have a faulty T-Con board. Dont think its panel fault, or lvds cables. Try to reball the T-Con board with hot air station.

[budwich]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

I tried heating the boards to see if it would change anything, but it didn't. Tonight I'll try cooling them.

I did use glasses when reseating the cables; did both ends of T-Con and LVDS. I noticed on one of the LVDS cables on the T-Con end that there was a small scratch on one of the pins. Do you think that would be enough to cause this? Tried getting a picture of it, was tough. Thanks for you help, would love to get this TV working.

that doesn't look like a scratch... it looks like some sort of imbedded material like part / portions of a conductor.

Of course, you have tested the panel leaving one tcon cable disconnected and looked at the resulting picture and how long it survives. Do the same, the other way... what happens?

further to help discussions, post a picture of the back of the set (back off) and identify which cable points you have cleaned / played with.

[petehall347]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

maybe too late now but you said its 2016 model so surely should have warranty left on it ?
if for some odd reason no warranty then fit for purpose clause should get it fixed or replaced for free .

[piernov]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

I've had some vaguely similar issue on a computer display, caused by a bad 3.3V LDO regulator. As it would heat up, the display started to flicker (though the cycling period was of a second or so), showing a similar pattern if I remember fine. This regulator was on the LCD panel's board, I pinpointed it by blowing some hot air to this board. It would almost immediately start to flicker.
Replacing the regulator fixed the issue.

[philtvman]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

that doesn't look like a scratch... it looks like some sort of imbedded material like part / portions of a conductor.

Ended up taking some contact cleaner to it and used a little more elbow grease, think you were right...was able to remove the line from the gold contact. So far, been working for about an hour with no issues. Fingers crossed that was it!

[budwich]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

I switch from glasses to magnifying glasses when needed :-) I hope it works out. It is not a panel issue for sure... either connection or board. Since you changed the board once, the connection was / is the next best guess. Now all I need is to find me one of these types of sets... seems like an great "hobby".... :-)

[freakaftr8]

Re: Sony 4K Pink Vertical Banding

Sweet FIX! Hopefully that was it. I couldn't see lvds cables being super expensive it had to replace it if it goes out again. Like I said Sony's with thier clip in lvds cables seem to have issues. I had a similar issue with a KDL - 55 HX 720