I am looking at a sony kdl 32xbr9 TV for a friends elderly parents. It has a issue with the screen regardless of input. What is going on is the screen in the middle to about 3/4 of the way to the right hand side is dimmer. The first half of the screen is fine and the last 1/4 is fine as well. There is a strip from top to bottom that does have a picture but is just dim. I am trying to do the update but I need to find a usb that will actually work with this model. I am more familiar with TV tech of the 70s and before and not so much on the new stuff. Has anyone seen this issue and I was wondering if it was caps, a board, the LCD itself or even if it is worth fixing. Any sugestions?

Is that strip slower to refresh than the rest of the screen? Like when a scene changes, does that strip lag behind?

Maybe post a pic if you can.

Nope , it stays the same . its the same picture with no lag all the way across just dim in that strip. I may have found the issue. I took the back off and have been tinkering with it. It seems to be a bad connection onto the LCD somewhere. when it dims you can press slightly on the upper right hand side and it comes back up to bright. You can also put sight pressure on the metal fame in the upper right and it comes back up to normal. I unplugged and reseated all cables and it still does it. I also wiggled the wires and it does not make a difference. So I am thinking it is with the LCD itself and its connections on the LCD.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Some of those Sonys (and LG, Samsung) have a "tab bond" issue. That's a failure of the bond of the upper ribbon cable to either the circuit board that is inside the top of the frame, or (most likely) the bond to the LCD panel itself.

When I was fixing flat-panels for a living we'd call those models "punchers". Because if you gave them a light punch on the upper right corner, they'd usually straighten out for a while.

I usually just parted them out at that point. I didn't have the tools to reliably repair a bond. Most of us don't :)

You could try shimming the bad tab with something (I've used thermal transfer pads, others recommend rubber tubing) so that it is kept under enough pressure to make connection.

I don't consider this a proper repair, but it may get some more life out of a set that would otherwise be scrapped.

I remove the front panel, then place it on it's back with the screen facing up. Then remove the frame to expose the tabs. Power the set up and press on each tab with a finger tip looking for changes in the picture. There are probably videos on Youtube showing the process more clearly than I am explaining it.

You could try shimming the bad tab with something (I've used thermal transfer pads, others recommend rubber tubing) so that it is kept under enough pressure to make connection.

I don't consider this a proper repair, but it may get some more life out of a set that would otherwise be scrapped.

I remove the front panel, then place it on it's back with the screen facing up. Then remove the frame to expose the tabs. Power the set up and press on each tab with a finger tip looking for changes in the picture. There are probably videos on Youtube showing the process more clearly than I am explaining it.

I tried that and it works somewhat. What I did find out is if that the bolt hole on the back has a bolt in it and you pull it backwards it works fine. I told the fellow that he might could do that and anchor it to the table it is on. That way it works and has a safety strap of some type on it.