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That's really pathetic that someone would do that. I think that sort of breed exist everywhere and they should all be put out of business. I guarantee that this sort of behavior will bite that person in the butt one day. It looks like that's going to take much time and patience to repair. Even if it can't be fixed, I'd hang on to it for future use.

There was a guy here that would do such as that and would hand over dishonest repair bills even if the repair was simple just because he knew the customer would pay it. The ones that said "fix it regardless of cost" always paid more than everyone else. He wanted me to come down to his shop and help him fix TV's. I didn't take him up on the offer because I didn't want my name ruined by what he was and because he wanted to pay me in junk TV's that he'd butchered. He's now out of business.

I picked up a Zenith console from a local dealer that had scratched "JUNK" on the top and side. Well, I fixed the set without too much trouble. My Dad bought some appliance from them and had to run his big mouth about me fixing that TV they threw out. Well, the next set they threw out was a Zenith CCII console. They didn't scratch up the cabinet; but, they busted every module half in two and cut all the wires going from the tuner / control assembly to the chassis. It was a job, but I spliced all the wires back and repaired what modules I could and replaced the rest. A new tripler and flyback got the set going again.

Is there anyway you could get rid of that cable completely?

Maybe run some very small wire from each point on the board to wherever the other end goes? Something like telephone wire might work or something smaller. Stick each end into the existing connector and when you have them all in glue a piece of hard plastic or whatever to the whole strip of wires to kind of make you own connector.

It could be worth a try as I don't see any way of possibly repairing the cable that is there.

What a shame!

Seems like if your very careful you might be able to fix it though..

Evan

i have seen that kind of ego trip before.my cousin by marriage(i have to be specific-you dont want to know) was the same way.if i cant fix it,it cant be fixed.took an elderly ladies rca colortrak portable in to have crt checked.this was in the late 80s.crt was weak.he jolted it once and it really came up well.looked great! i went over to the phone to call her and tell of the good news.he then quoted a price of 100.00 for the work! she didnt have it . i offered to pay him a fair price.40-50.00 i think was fair.while i was on the phone,he stood on the high setting and burned it up!!! hard feelings to say the least.i found a philco with a high voltage issue that had a good crt. i swapped it out for free and cut him out of a repair. he is out of business now and lives and works as a woman. he has a booth at the local flea market selling cosmetics and weed eaters.

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Oohh do I hate dishonest repair people!!

The WORST ones are the mechanics who own some small garage in the neighborhood. very convenient location...

I took my first car to such an asshole because it was stalling occasionally. Guy said he cleaned the carbeurator and charged me $75.00... I learned later that my car had fuel injection, NOT a carbeurator!

I just fixed a Samsung TV I've had sitting around, and I'm very grateful that I found it before someone came along and smashed it. They nabbed the cord, but I had a replacement from a 13" Samsung that died awhile ago.

I dunno if it looks intentional to me. But, certainly, inept to say the least.

That type of thing happens all the time. Once I took a fairly high-end car amplifier to a shop since I don't do solid state audio, and I got an estimate of about 10x what I felt was fair. So I quietly paid the bench fee of $25 (that part is fair), and took the unit back. I decided to go ahead and fix it myself much later, and I discovered a series of tiny, fine wires from emitter to base on several of the output transistors. Vandalism at it's finest! All that was originally wrong with it was the STK power module. Luckily I noticed the new solder work on the outputs, and I saw the attempted vandalism. The amp is still working today, 15 years later.

In another case, I worked on a Mitsubishi projection set which had been on a declined estimate in another shop. That tech set all the G2 pots to max, and unplugged the yokes. Luckily, I caught that too, as it was the early model with no scan failure protection, and it would have instantly destroyed all 3 tubes if powered up.

Charles

he is out of business now and lives and works as a woman. he has a booth at the local flea market selling cosmetics and weed eaters.

:lmao:

Wow. Now that is dishonest. I don't see how that could have possibly happened by accident.

It very well may be fixable though. have you tried sanding back the mylar and soldering to the conductor in the flex circuit? You'll have to be real quick, but it may very well be possible. Or, what about the driver IC's in the cable - do they have exposed legs you can solder to? You might be able to bypass the bad section of the cable.

You might try going back to the repair shop that last worked on it... Go into the shop with the person you bought the set from, and have a little "chat". Possibly contact law enforcement. If a televison is in for repair, and the shop deliberately destroys it because you declined repair - that's vandalism - they don't own the TV, the customer does.

-Ian

I don't think the cable can be fixed. Even the finest magnet wire I can work with looks like a wire coat hanger next to the damaged traces. There are 12 traces in about 4 mm.

The cable can't be replaced because it contains the column driver ICs, and the other end is glued to the plasma screen.

If I got nothing to lose, I just get creative on how to get that cable fixed since it "can't" be replaced. If it were mine, I will fix it no matter how hard it is. That is "IF" I got nothing to lose. I have no patience for having a white bar in the top middle of my screen while watching. :D

I hate taking things to shop. They may fix it alongside with making many more scratches on the equipment. Years ago I had a car amplifier and it quit getting inputs so I took it to the shop under warranty. When I got it back, it worked for awhile then same problem as before. Since it was out of warranty then I check what's under the hood and found they used very fine solid wire that was for sure to break onto RCA jacks. There's a saying "You want things done right, you do it yourself." :yes: That's what I do until I reach my limit.

I prefer to do my own repairs, that way I know its done improperly.

Evan

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great repair in a tough situation..good job. I would go to BOTH repair shops and speak to the owner with the pictures. perhaps the dishonesty is just at the bottom. armed with this information the owner can watch for similar practices in his shop..who knows..but i know this it will never stop if people dont follow up and bring this stuff to light..

I went ahead and tried to fix it because I didn't want the idiot who damaged it to be successful. So far it's working well. I had to go back once and fix a loose wire. That's the tip of a small xacto knife blade for scale. The wires I used aren't much bigger than a human hair. My main worry is about all the mechanical stress that was placed on the cable, driver ICs, and the bonded connection to the panel. The ICs are glued to the cable with a blob of epoxy, so there's nothing to solder to directly. The cable is made of a high temperature plastic that doesn't melt, so it wasn't too hard to solder to (apart from the size). I'm glad I still have young eyes!

You can see why these things cost so much. The actual TV and plasma drive electronics are fairly simple. Most of the electronics are in the power supplies. There are about 8 complex switching power supplies. I hope this thing doesn't develop bad caps because there are dozens of them.

Andy, that's incredible! Knowing myself as well as I do, I know I'd have never had the patience to attempt what you successfully achieved! Even if you don't follow through with this, you can have the satisfaction of knowing that stemcase knob didn't win.:thmbsp:

I'm very glad you fixed it. So, how's the picture? Comparable to CRT? Better?

great repair in a tough situation..good job. I would go to BOTH repair shops and speak to the owner with the pictures. perhaps the dishonesty is just at the bottom. armed with this information the owner can watch for similar practices in his shop..who knows..but i know this it will never stop if people dont follow up and bring this stuff to light..

I agree.

It reminds me so much of this thread in the Wheels, Wings, Mud and Water forum. http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=166241

Bastards I tell you!!!

Nice repair job btw. I think I would have tried to fix it myself also. You really have anything to lose in situations like this.

Denny

Heard it said that the "pin in the flyback" was a common sabatoge back in olden vacuum tube TV days.

glad it worked ,repair on new units ain´t easy :banana:

I went ahead and tried to fix it because I didn't want the idiot who damaged it to be successful. So far it's working well. I had to go back once and fix a loose wire. That's the tip of a small xacto knife blade for scale. The wires I used aren't much bigger than a human hair. My main worry is about all the mechanical stress that was placed on the cable, driver ICs, and the bonded connection to the panel. The ICs are glued to the cable with a blob of epoxy, so there's nothing to solder to directly. The cable is made of a high temperature plastic that doesn't melt, so it wasn't too hard to solder to (apart from the size). I'm glad I still have young eyes!

You can see why these things cost so much. The actual TV and plasma drive electronics are fairly simple. Most of the electronics are in the power supplies. There are about 8 complex switching power supplies. I hope this thing doesn't develop bad caps because there are dozens of them.

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/shaorin-chan/plasma.jpg


DAMN!! i don't know how you did that! incredible!!:thmbsp::thmbsp::thmbsp::thmbsp:

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/shaorin-chan/plasma.jpg


DAMN!! i don't know how you did that! incredible!!:thmbsp::thmbsp::thmbsp::thmbsp:

Steady hands and patience. :yes: Way to go Andy! :thmbsp:

Technicians and mechanics...there are good ones but they are far and few between! There's a guy here who is licensed by Marantz and his idea of a repair was to bypass an entire section of a tube amp.

PS.Good work there!

I wouldn't doubt if the owner or owners is behind it. I work at a shop that does repairs and although it hasn't happened in a few years there were times when a customer would refuse our repair. I was instructed by the owner to make the set unrepairable. When I of course refused to do that, he did it himself.

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Nice repair job, Andy! You must have the patience of Job!

What was the reasoning behind that? It seems like it could only hurt the shop if it was ever discovered.

Actually, I do recall an incident that bit the repair shop in the butt that I mentioned above.

Someone brought in a nice 19" Magnavox set (and other electronics) for repair that had been hit by lightning. The TV turned out to be a routine repair, only needing a fuse and rectifier diodes. Well, the repair tech wanted the set for whatever reason and lied to the customer, telling them that lightning burnt it up and it could not be repaired. The customer called the shop back and told them that their insurance agent needed to see the damage to the set, as well as the other electronics that were damaged. This dishonest crook then takes 110 volts and runs it all over the chassis, totally burning it up and making it unrepairable. A few days later, the owners called the repair shop and said "you can do what you want with that set. The insurance people don't need to see it".

When the repair guy told me that, I told him how crooked he was and what happened was good enough for him.

I too don't understand why shops do this sort of thing. Why not just put it back together like they found it or remove their new parts if they've fixed it and the estimate is refused? The only reason I can come up with for such childish behavior is they are afraid that the customer will take the set to another shop and get the work done cheaper. That would likely cut them out of any future repairs by that customer. So, they ruin the equipment to make sure no one else can fix it.

Nowadays, with new electronics only costing maybe twice what a repair shop might charge to fix the old one, most people, given the uncertenty of the skill and honesty of repair shop, will just toss the broken one and buy the new device. It's a no-brainer if it's a DVD player.

Nice job Andy! See, I knew you could fix it.

-Ian

I wouldn't doubt if the owner or owners is behind it. I work at a shop that does repairs and although it hasn't happened in a few years there were times when a customer would refuse our repair. I was instructed by the owner to make the set unrepairable. When I of course refused to do that, he did it himself.

I'll never understand the mentality of people like that. What the hell does it matter to them if someone ends up repairing it? You'd think they would be happy someone was able to get use out of their junk. Pure greed.... personally, I get pretty happy when I see someone make use out of my old junk. I'd much rather see that than to throw away good or easily repairable stuff.

Anyway, Andy, kudos on the EXCELLENT repair. I'll never understand how you were able to do that, but seriously, good job man.

EDIT: Oh, Andy, I just remembered you were hoping the PSU won't develop bad caps. Give me a pic of the Power Supply board(s) that clearly shows some of the caps or the brands and series of the caps and I can tell you if they will fail or not. I've got a lot of experience with caps from working with computers. If the caps are Nichicon, Rubycon, Matsushita/Panasonic, Nippon Chemicon, or Fujitsu, they probably won't fail.

Despite Andy's successful repair, why would he take a Dell plasma TV? There's nothing special about a Dell plasma TV and there's no character.

Despite Andy's successful repair, why would he take a Dell plasma TV? There's nothing special about a Dell plasma TV and there's no character.

Well, he could always sell it and use the money to buy vintage goodies!

Nice repair job, Andy.

I wouldn't mind finding a deal like that, and learning some repair techniques in the process.

Regarding the deliberate sabotaging of things... Though I and every other kid I knew used to bust things like TVs we saw in the alleys of Chicago when we we were young, there should be a space reserved in H*** for moronic, evil adults who would do such things just for some form of spite.

What was the reasoning behind that? It seems like it could only hurt the shop if it was ever discovered.I guess he figured he'd never get caught and he never did.

1) nastards like those dishonest repair shop people should be dragged out into the street and "sabotaged" so that no one could repair them.

2) Andy, that is just ffin INCREDIBLE. thats like trying to solder short and curlies. so tiny, such a pro job.

That's just disgusting.

I know of a shop where they used to break a few pins off the crt when they decided to junk a set.

I know of a shop where they used to break a few pins off the crt when they decided to junk a set

The thing is, that there is a huge difference between the repair shop trashing/discarding a set that a customer didn't want, and a repair shop trashing a set that belongs to the customer, just so they can't get it fixed anywhere else.

For example, the shop gets a set in for repair that has been hit by lightning, and isn't really worth repairing. They tell the customer this, and the customer pays the estimate fee, and doesn't want their set back - leaving it to the shop, to do with what they please. At that moment, the set is now owned by the repair shop. They can opt to put the time and parts into fixing it, and resell the set, they can part it out/keep it for parts, they can throw it away, they can smash it and throw it away, blow it up with an M80, mail it to Russia, dress it up in a suit and tie and invite it over for dinner, whatever. It's theirs now. They may break the tube before throwing it away - this prevents the set ever coming back in for repair again. If it was bad enough to throw away, and not fix for the customer/fix and resell, then it's probably junk anyway.

But, the real problem, is when they purposely destroy a set, still owned by the customer, because the customer doesn't want to pay them for a costly repair. The set isn't theirs, and never was - and that makes it vandalism. Just the same as keying a car in a parking lot, spray painting graffiti on a house, or throwing a brick through someones window. That's what happened here, and it's a shame that the shop can't be found/proven/caught.

Although, I did hear one funny story about a repair shop that cleaned it's back sorage rooms. Over the years, unwanted, broken TV's and VCR's piled up in the storage areas at a repair shop. They were sets where the customer declined repair and didn't want them back, saved for possible sources of parts, or possibly to repair and resell. One day, the shop owner decided he wanted the space back, and rented a dumpster, and threw away all the junk sets. The bin was almost full that night.

He came in the next day, only to find the bin half empty. For the next couple of days, he got in a slew of repair work. All those sets that were in the dumpster were coming back in for repair! And, since they were all still labeled with his repair tags, he could look up the paperwork, and see what he had diagnosed it as the first time, dramatically reducing repair time. He made enough money off fixing the junk for people to more than cover the cost of the dumpster.

-Ian

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Hey,over the past 20+ years of junk/trash collecting some, of my best tv finds
were found in the trash of tv repair shops.Quite a few with simple repairs.

I still get many TV's from a local TV shop that gives them to me so he don't have to throw them out. Many are easy fixes because the customer didn't want to spend the $60 to fix it. And, the TV shop may have a dozen TV's on the shelf for sale at that moment; so, he's not too interested in fixing another one just so it can sit on the shelf for six months. Unfortunately, he does not get any older stuff. It's all silver and black crap from the past 7 or 8years. But, I can sometimes make a dollar off of it.

A repairman once gave me a 1983 Sony profeel Tv/monitor he was going to throw out and told me "forget repairing this one, the CRT has shorted internally".

As it turned out, a tiny blue 2Kv capacitor on the CRT base shorted, i replaced it and the set came back to life with an excellent picture... i gave it to my uncle and 11 years later this set still works as his main set.

A couple years ago I was given a very nice RCA 36" console from about '91. The owner said it had an intermittent picture; they had someone look at it but decided not to get it fixed. I didn't want the set myself, but was going to give it to a friend of mine who is in the business. Before I hauled it down to his place I pulled the back cover, just out of curiousity, and my heart sank. Somebody had broken the exhaust tip off the crt. It was obviously intentional. Instant junker.

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