Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

[dominik0801]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

Well done, monsieur!
You dared to tackle the reflow yourself, and succeeded.

Another nice fellow here on the forum contacted me in pm last year, he also had a QFU-chassis Philips TV that had suffered the same fate.
I don't know why he had such stage fright that he couldn't start his own thread, because after his successful reflow I think he made an elegant solution by simply handsawing into the PLA-plastic to make room for a bigger heatsink from an old computer-motherboard:


Regarding the heatsink; if your TV-model also has the two mounting holes diagonally across the main processor in the same way as on the TV in this thread, I've realized later that the standard format distance between the holes isn't 55mm as I had measured it, but 54.6mm, so if you search for that then you will find a lot more options on heatsinks:
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=is...eatsink+54.6mm
400 micrometers makes all the difference.

The TV that I fixed in this thread is still going strong, and still remains the main TV of my friend that I fixed it for.

Generally though, to prolong the longevity of the device, you should run the brightness and Ambilight at as low a level as you can tolerate.

In a consumer agency test a couple of years ago here in Sweden, it was discovered that if you ran the brightness at the maximum level on the TV, some manufacturers were actually running the backlight-LEDs at over-voltage!
But even running the LEDs at close to their limit is very bad for their life expectancy, so try lowering the brightness and see how low you can set it and still maintain an acceptable picture.

My friend who owns this particular TV is keeping it dialed down, so we are not expecting any LED issues.
I bought the NAND Flash chip in a lot of 2 from AliExpress, so he has one more NAND chip left as backup, for when the current one eventually fails.
Then we'll replace in the last NAND chip and he'll be able to run the TV a few more years.

Sometimes I come back to the QFU series TV threads, because as dodgy they are, the more I love them.
I bought mine as faulty, because I have joy in fixing stuff for myself.
It makes me a lot happier, than buying something off the shelf.

It was nice to see my picture in your post, but let me tell you my story about this TV.

I bought the TV as used, not working, however, the problem was just the flat cable, I had to jump the +12V between the mainboard and tcon. It was working fine. This was in 2020 september, so 1 year ago.

Then one day I woke up seeing my TV's stand by led blink 2 times, not turning on anymore. (2020 december)
I read about the 2 blink issue exactly in this thread, so I blew the CPU with my hot air soldering station at like 300C, low air, for 1 minutes. I then assembled the TV back together, with the stock cooler. After a few days, I did the cooler modification in Maloobs' post. It lasted for exactly 2 weeks.

Please note, that 300c upper heating without bottom heating is impossible to actually reflow the chip, especially under 1 minutes. Just a regular VGA VRAM chip needs 450c to melt the solder balls under it, and its a lot smaller and thinner.

Then I heated the chip again, this time with 215c, as I read on another forum.

The TV lasted for 1 month. Maybe important to note, that while it was working this time, I was constantly checking the heat of the heatsink with my hands while the TV was on. This will be an interesting information for later on.
(Also, note that when I first heated the chip, I also touched and modified the CPU area of the board physically several times.)

After that happened, I heated the heatsink itself to 220c without taking off the back cover of the TV, because I was lazy. The thing is, it worked. That time I also put a small fan on the heatsink and soldered it to the 3.3V line on the motherboard. I again, checked the temps many times with my hand on the heatsink, and to be honest, it was almost COLD with the fan on, so I knew that I might have fixed the overheating issue. (2021 january)

It died again after 1 month.

Since I was trying different time and temperature values, that time I again heated the heatsink on the chip with 260c for like 1-2 minutes, put the TV back on the shelf, worked again, and I did NOT touch the heatsink anymore.. (2021 february)
not until this Monday (2021 september), when I noticed that the fan on the heatsink got a bit louder, and took it off to oil it up, then put back.
Boom, after 7 months of working, the TV died again the same day I touched the heatsink of the chip.

This got me thinking.. maybe my TV actually has a bad BGA contact, rather than a bad CPU? Dunno, but I just lazily reheated the heatsink again, but after 1 day it died again.

So... today I went against my laziness, disassembled the TV, put the motherboard on the BGA machine, and properly gave it a controlled reflow with liquid flux.

Put everything back together, TV works, and now theres just one question: for how long will it work? Time will tell!

Sorry for the long post, I really wanted to share every piece of information, in case it could help other people here.

If you would ask me, why I struggle this much with this TV... my answer would be to read the first paragraph of my post!

[Maalobs]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

Good job!
Just don't forget to handle the cooling of the processor, or you'll eventually end up in the same situation again.

[kazbayadum]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

Hello

It works for me too. Error 2 -> Code 53 -> reflow cpu -> sucess.

Thank you to all for this thread.

[Maalobs]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

Well done, monsieur!
You dared to tackle the reflow yourself, and succeeded.

Another nice fellow here on the forum contacted me in pm last year, he also had a QFU-chassis Philips TV that had suffered the same fate.
I don't know why he had such stage fright that he couldn't start his own thread, because after his successful reflow I think he made an elegant solution by simply handsawing into the PLA-plastic to make room for a bigger heatsink from an old computer-motherboard:


Regarding the heatsink; if your TV-model also has the two mounting holes diagonally across the main processor in the same way as on the TV in this thread, I've realized later that the standard format distance between the holes isn't 55mm as I had measured it, but 54.6mm, so if you search for that then you will find a lot more options on heatsinks:
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=is...eatsink+54.6mm
400 micrometers makes all the difference.

The TV that I fixed in this thread is still going strong, and still remains the main TV of my friend that I fixed it for.

Generally though, to prolong the longevity of the device, you should run the brightness and Ambilight at as low a level as you can tolerate.

In a consumer agency test a couple of years ago here in Sweden, it was discovered that if you ran the brightness at the maximum level on the TV, some manufacturers were actually running the backlight-LEDs at over-voltage!
But even running the LEDs at close to their limit is very bad for their life expectancy, so try lowering the brightness and see how low you can set it and still maintain an acceptable picture.

My friend who owns this particular TV is keeping both the Ambilight and the backlight-LEDs dialed down, so we are not expecting any LED issues.
I bought the NAND Flash chip in a lot of 2 from AliExpress, so he has one more NAND chip left as backup, for when the current one eventually fails.
Then we'll replace in the last NAND chip and he'll be able to run the TV a few more years.

[Davi.p]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

Next time what?

[Zano64]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

Hi everybody. I have very much appreciated this thread related to Philips smart TV revival.
I have a 47PFL7108 model which was randomly stopping, sometimes restarting by itself or otherwise blinking the LED two times. When in SDM mode the error code was 53, just like on your sets.
After several trials I have carefully applied the method described by NAVI.P and ALPENGEIST (thanks to them). I used a hot air gun delivering approximately 250°C, during less than 1 minute on the Fusion 120 chip, after protection of the surroundings.
AND I REVIVED THE TV SET !

I now will equip the chip with a larger aluminum heat sink, with an opening in the rear cover to have it outside the TV set for better heat evacuation.

THis is my first post and sorry but I am not able to upload photos.
Next time ?

[lsd777]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

With booting until the "cannot mount VFS something block (249,0) the NAND Flash is just fine. It's often an DDR RAM VREF resistor at the bottom that's broken. (2x 1k in series with 100nF caps over it)
It should divide 1,5Volts to 750mVRef to define what level is logical "1" or "0" for the DRAMs.

tell me the serial number of the resistors in the diagram

[Davi.p]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

Why do you think that many boards that i've seen has been fixed by CPU resoldering?

[Wiebotje]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

With booting until the "cannot mount VFS something block (249,0) the NAND Flash is just fine. It's often an DDR RAM VREF resistor at the bottom that's broken. (2x 1k in series with 100nF caps over it)
It should divide 1,5Volts to 750mVRef to define what level is logical "1" or "0" for the DRAMs.

[Davi.p]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=90061 post 12

[Maalobs]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

I'd like to read that reflow description, can you post a link to it?
I can only find a single instance during last November where you mentioned the word reflow.

[Davi.p]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

I was trying to save you from wasting time 'cause i have followed too the road of bad software, reading well all the cases in internet i have found the answer. In Italian sub forum many people succesful repaired the board by reflow or professional reballing. If you want i have explained in the month november here a homemade technique for how to reflow without powerful hot air station. Search.. Or if the method doesn't capture you it's maybe possible to enhance this method with a home made reballing. I was studying this method but the fall of money eearnings for theese complex repairs doesn't help..

[Chungalin]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

When you repair a TV that is not yours, that fine detail about what happened days or minutes before the final failure, or in what circumstances it eventually failed (while on, when turning on, etc.) is usually LOST. Even more if user is not the same person that brings me the TV (or any other appliance). I try to obtain as much information I can from customer/user, because that helps a lot to diagnose, but sometimes I cannot get any useful information other than "it doesn’t work". It’s frustrating...

I don’t know of anybody in my island who has a serious reflow station capable of reflowing a CPU as big as this one. I should have read this thread more carefully before ordering the NAND. Now I think I’m done with this TV.

Chungalin is my alias, and Calimero is Calimero everywhere.

[Davi.p]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

Yes Maalobs i did it in some Chinese boards like Akai and brothers.. often if you press enter or ctrl+c you can access prompt. Obviously if the failed partition is the system or something with programs in use the part. is locked and the job gets bigger a bit. Chungalin i've seen so many of them failing with cpu, usually the fault worsen with time, first there are random crashes or no boots, this is a proof of soldering prob. Last but.not least also the software problems are random.

Chungalin is the name in Spain for the cartoon of your icon?

[Maalobs]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

I'm afraid I don't follow your reasoning; if you have the identical symptom in the TXD-SERVICE output as me and Hermann Alpengeist, how do you come to the conclusion that your problem is not identical to ours?

See his results here:
https://alpengeist-tvrepair.blogspot...fu-12-cpu.html

I don't think it has to be the same BGA-pads that disconnect when the PCB flexes from the overheating; just any data-, address-, control-, power- or whatever pads get loose and now the processor won't boot anymore, or the 8051 standby-processor doesn't allow the Fusion to boot if it doesn't pass the power-on-self-test as a consequence of any of these loose pads.

Reflowing a big BGA-chip like that was daunting to me too, I was just lucky in that I got help from an experienced professional who did the reflow for me.

[Chungalin]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

Does your TXD-SERVICE output end on <020>K like it did for me and Alpengeist?

My Service log is identical to yours (except the very first 32bit hex number, that looks like a boot cycle counter). This determinism lead me to rule out broken CPU solder points, because something like that is not very deterministic, but rather random (broken solders will be in a given zone, but you can’t tell which one will broke first).

[Maalobs]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

Have you been able to gain root access on any TV with a current software image installed?

Back in April 2019 I read through a several years long comment thread on neophob.com about it as I mentioned in this post.
That page only remains in the Internet Archive now, but as I recall, it had been fairly trivial in the early days to gain root and then pick out the crypto keys from the filesystem for the upg-releases (the publicly downloadable encrypted archives that contain upgraded factory images to all internal memories in the TV).
Over the years however, Philips incrementally locked down the security until eventually no one in the thread was able to get root again.

RXD-SERVICE and RXD-STANDBY were totally dead on my TV so I couldn't write anything into the terminal, and I think I remember from the neophob-thread that the last thing Philips had done was to encrypt one of the filesystems in the NAND, so it wasn't even possible anymore to manually binwalk the NAND-dump to identify and mount that particular filesystem, and Philips hid the crypto keys in there for the upg-files.
I don't remember the details anymore about all the hacker stuff, but I read through all that for a possible way to get hold of a factory clean NAND-dump from the upg-file, since my running theory for my TV's 2-53 problem at that time was bit errors in the Flashmems or the EEPROM.

[Davi.p]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

If you have still some errors in mem. after succesful reflow and you gain access to linux prompt you can do fsck on it..

[Maalobs]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

Does your TXD-SERVICE output end on <020>K like it did for me and Alpengeist?
If that's the case then you probably need to reflow the Fusion processor, and I'd suggest that you wait until after the Fusion reflow before you replace the NAND.

With the Fusion processor running, you can record and inspect the output from TXD-SERVICE to see how bad the existing NAND is.
Then if you replace the NAND, you can record the output from TXD-SERVICE again and compare it to the previous output.

It's easy to compare the outputs with a diff-tool like WinMerge, the boot sequences will be a lot of mostly similar lines, this way it's easy to spot the differences.

The reflow was what got my TV working, as described in this post.
It was when I got that far and had the Fusion booting properly, that I discovered in the proper TXD-SERVICE output that the NAND had multiple bit errors too.
So I decided to replace the NAND to extend the useful lifetime of the TV.

[Davi.p]

Re: Philips 60PFL8708S/12 - QFU1.2E LA - Error code 53

No doubts, the problem is very common and always the soldering.