Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

[DXseekerMO]

Hello everyone. So for once I hope to contribute instead of take.

The other day I bought a Samsung un46eh6030fxza. The standby light came on then flashed continuously about once per second as soon as the power button was pressed. When it was pressed again the standby light continued to flash and the off command wasn't recognized. PS_on also flashed from 3 to zero volts with the standby light

I narrowed the problem down to the main board and suspected a corrupt eeprom. I tried to reset it but was unsuccessful.

This evening I was watching a video about a corrupt eeprom on a 32" Visio, in that the person said they could heat the eeprom sometimes and get it to work enough to copy the data to another one. I wondered if that may work to get the Sammy to boot.

So I heated the eeprom up.....then lo and behold the TV booted but the input button and remote had no effect so I powered it back down, jumpered GND and SDA on the EEPROM and powered it back up. 20 seconds later the set turned off, I removed the jumper and its now working!

I'll also say this....I don't think I'd have even come close to this result without the knowledge I've gained as a member of Badcaps.net. I owe that to TOPCAT for providing the forum, budm, freakaftr8, nomoresonys and everyone who's been patient and taken the time to share their knowledge with a know-nothing like me.

For that, and for everything I offer my sincere thanks and appreciation!

[freakaftr8]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

Nice! Sometimes the most odd repair is the simplest

[DXseekerMO]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

I found the info here....

https://wiki.samygo.tv/index.php/UnB...y_EEPROM_Reset

[mmartell]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

Is that a flash like Atmel or Winbond ? I'd be afraid the same failure may reoccur without replacing the IC.

[nomoresonys]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

Very nice fix, I'm bookmarking this in case I run into same condition.

[dick_barton]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

Is that a flash like Atmel or Winbond ? I'd be afraid the same failure may reoccur without replacing the IC.

If possible I would remove and read the EEPROM then program a replacement. You could be confidence that it is unlikely to corrupt again very soon and you would have a copy of the EEPROM contents.

[thoma]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

see also here

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=25810

[DXseekerMO]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand this morning it won't turn on.

At least I know the panel and the rest of it is good!

Eeprom will be ordered and installed.

[dick_barton]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand this morning it won't turn on.

At least I know the panel and the rest of it is good!

Eeprom will be ordered and installed.

Heat up the EEPROM again and check if it powers up normally. If it does I would remove it, heat it up once again and copy the contents to file then a new EEPROM

[DXseekerMO]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

That's exactly what I'm going to do tonight after work, and I'll get a picture of it so you all can see the brand/make. I'm 100% sure its bad so it will be replaced.

I need to get an eeprom reader/programmer. Can anyone suggest one for those who are technologically challenged like me and reasonably priced?

I'm also going to heat up the eeprom on the 50" vizio I posted a few days ago and see if it will come on too, after checking the fuses on the main board.

[dick_barton]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

Do a web search for "CH341A Programmer" They are dirt cheap. There is also some information on this site if you enter CH341A in the search box.

[DXseekerMO]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

Okay will do that, thank you for the suggestion!

[nomoresonys]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

Looking on ebay, I see 2.68 from china or 6.32 from north carolina both free shipping.

[DXseekerMO]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

So I broke this TV back out to order parts. I decided to re-check the diagnosis.

I isolated and heated the EEPROM....and the TV would not power on

After an hour of isolating heat in different areas of the board I can reliably get the TV to turn on when I heat the left RAM chip above the processor for just 3 seconds, not even enough to even think of burning my finger.

After heating it the TV will turn on reliably with the remote and power button on the TV but will not power off at any time with the power button on the TV, only the remote. I'm not sure if this is related to this problem but I think it is.

So I guess I'm wondering if such minimal heating is enough to revive a bad RAM chip, or am I looking at loused up solder balls, or something else?

[DXseekerMO]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

Anyone??

[budm]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

To really pinpoint the problem using heat, you can use the soldering iron tip to heat the the chips and see if the problem will go away.

[DXseekerMO]

Re: Samsung un46eh6030fxza....heat EEPROM and reset, fixed!

Actually I did that with the nearby caps, wondering if one of them was causing the problem. I also made an aluminum foil reducer for the heat gun the size of the chip, put it right on it for 3 seconds and it popped on. At this point I'm 100% sure the problem lies with this one RAM chip, be it a bad BGA job or a bad chip itself.

I do have an opinion that these RAMs don't go bad all that often.

So what do you think? Bad chip or a problem with the BGA solder?