My 2000 Zenith 20" Combo TV/VCR bit the dust, and it had such low use. (as it was my treadmill tv...ha) A friend gave it to me and it was rarely used, picture wasn't outstanding, but not bad. Anyway.. went to use it Saturday, popped a tape in and the tape wouldn't do anything, and then TV turned off. Took the set apart, got the tape out and it still would turn off after 10 seconds, so it wasn't a hard decision... off to the trash it went.
I was surprised how CHEAP everything was when I had the set apart. Did Funai make ALL of the combo units that came out around that time-frame? If so.. there can't be many of those around. I replaced the set with a 1987 RCA Colortrac, and paired it with a matching VCR (so I only have to use 1 remote!)
I think this set-up is a much better fit.

Almost 11 years' use ? Wow...That must be some sort of record for one of those...

Underneath the VCR is the transport mode locator switch. It was probably dirty. A little WD-40 usually would bring them back to life. It is under the cam gear. If that didn't fix it, the infra-red LED under the prism is bad. Use your cell phone camera to look at it with the prism removed. It is visilble in the cell camera. I know it is trashed now but hopefully this info will save the next one. I've fixed many of these. The killer is when the power supply fries!

I think Panasonic/Quasar made their own and some of the RCA's were rebadged Panasonic's. Most of the other brands seem to be rebadged Funai.

And, I've seen the switching power supplies fry in these later TV's. I've also seem them send several hundred volts through the chassis; which, pretty much fries everything.

Ya.. I don't usually throw anything out, but I have some older 19" sets that work fine, so figured the 87 Colortrac was better than the "Zenith". Everything about the Zenith was so cheap and shoddy, I actually didn't feel too bad telling it "Buh-BYE"... lol!
If I come across another one, I'll know what to look for one. And ya Sandy.. almost 11 years, but like I said.. it was my treadmill TV, so not alot of use....

My 2000 Zenith 20" Combo TV/VCR bit the dust, and it had such low use. (as it was my treadmill tv...ha) A friend gave it to me and it was rarely used, picture wasn't outstanding, but not bad. Anyway.. went to use it Saturday, popped a tape in and the tape wouldn't do anything, and then TV turned off. Took the set apart, got the tape out and it still would turn off after 10 seconds, so it wasn't a hard decision... off to the trash it went.
I was surprised how CHEAP everything was when I had the set apart. Did Funai make ALL of the combo units that came out around that time-frame? If so.. there can't be many of those around. I replaced the set with a 1987 RCA Colortrac, and paired it with a matching VCR (so I only have to use 1 remote!)
I think this set-up is a much better fit.
Isn't this one made by Orion or GoldStar, because I don't think Funai made a single product for Zenith yet?

...

Ya.. not sure who made the chassis, but it had a Funai branded picture tube, so I assumed the whole set was Funai. The Panasonic combos are decent, but my only complaint from a few I've seen is that the picture tubes don't hold up that well in Panasonic sets. I have a Panasonic combo unit I gave a friend years ago, and it works fine, but noticed the picture tube is a bit soft. I think it's a rebadged RCA.

...

Ya.. not sure who made the chassis, but it had a Funai branded picture tube, so I assumed the whole set was Funai. The Panasonic combos are decent, but my only complaint from a few I've seen is that the picture tubes don't hold up that well in Panasonic sets. I have a Panasonic combo unit I gave a friend years ago, and it works fine, but noticed the picture tube is a bit soft. I think it's a rebadged RCA.
A Funai picture tube automatically assumes the whole set was made by Funai. Most Zenith TV/VCR combos were either made by GoldStar or Orion.

Actually the most hated TV's here are the later RCA's that go crazy and blow their flybacks and HOT. They turn themselves on and off so fast they kill the sweep parts. Also, Phillips! They are terrible sets. Boards turn dark brown in the vertical area and their power supplies, junk!:thumbsdn:

I saw a Funai made Zenith TV/VCR once. I suspect that Funai was the only one making them by the early 2000's.

That Zenith is definately a Funai product. The same as Magnavox, Sylvania, Sears and of course, Funai. I have one where the CRT is made in Vietnam.

Actually the most hated TV's here are the later RCA's that go crazy and blow their flybacks and HOT. They turn themselves on and off so fast they kill the sweep parts. Also, Phillips! They are terrible sets. Boards turn dark brown in the vertical area and their power supplies, junk!:thumbsdn:

I agree. Looking at a newer RCA or Philips TV will make a Funai or Orion look like a top quality product.

I've gotten to the point where I won't even look at an RCA or Philips TV that was made after about 2001.

Those later RCA's use cheaply built flyback transformers that usually fry before the set reaches the two year old mark. RCA had the same problem in the early '80's; but, back then, they made things right by offering a better designed flyback transformer. Now, they couldn't care less.

The Philips sets use Chinese built PC boards that are full of off brand Chinese capacitors. And, the traces are very delicate on these sets. Even with a low wattage pencil soldering iron, they will lift up and break very easily.

I took in a '04 Philips 19" set where the top two inches of the picture is black and the bottom of the picture is cut off. It sort of looks like the vertical centering is way off. After checking/replacing a half dozen caps around the vertical output circuit without success, I finally gave up and put it back together. I'm sure the problem is a cap that I missed; but, no sense in wasting any more time on this junk.

My 2008 Sansui 27", which has been purported to be the last traditional CRT set sold, was made by Orion I believe. It's already exhibiting some flakiness - color shifting here & there. Not enough to bother with yet but I'm anticipating having to replace it before too much longer.

Seen this issue in the Magnaxox/funai tv/vcr combos three times all in the same household. Yours is the same chassis. Crap, crap, crap! The plastic loader gear gets cracked. Slipps a tooth and all hell breaks loose, then the set thinks there is a loader jam then shutsdown. ticktickticktick for like 10 seconds then shutdown again. Error messages come up on the screen and when powered up again it's ejecting. bypass the loader sensors and you might get lucky, of course the VCR portion is now rendered useless.

My RCA CTC185 19" table model, bought new in November 1999 (probably was made for the 2000 model year) is 11 years old and still works as well as the day I bought it. Only had two repairs on it in all that time, both for the same problem -- the antenna connector broke off the tuner PC board. A local TV technician, the same one who repaired the RF port problem the second time, told me there is a problem with the jungle IC that could affect OTA reception, but I haven't noticed any difference to date since I have never used this set on an antenna, only on cable (I live in a near-fringe area for Cleveland TV, about 40 miles from the transmitters). CRT is in great shape as well, but since I only have basic cable (broadcast channels only) I don't watch much TV except the news, a DVD or two in the evening, and once in a while I'll watch one of my old VHS tapes or one or more time-shifted programs. I predicted, a few years before the DTV transition, that I'd be using this set when all TV went digital in 2009, and my prediction was right on the mark -- I am still using it, with my Zenith Sentry 2 in standby, to this day.

I guess my CTC185 must have been made before RCA/Thomson sets went downhill as far as quality goes; the only real problem with the CTC18x series was the infamous onboard tuner on which the grounds would come loose, leading to noise getting into the control circuits and often ruining the jungle IC. Aside from that, the CTC185 and its successors are great TVs and, once the tuner issues are resolved, will run for many years with excellent pictures. I decided that I won't get a flat panel TV until my CTC185 quits, and even then I'll hold off on getting one until my Zenith Sentry 2 dies. The way my RCA set is going, however, and given how little I use it, that day may not come for quite a while, as the RCA just refuses to die.

RCA also got it right (finally) starting with the CTC203 series, in which the tuner is mounted remotely from the main PC board. I'm convinced that the OB tuner was the single biggest problem the CTC18x series had; now that this has been solved, the newer sets may go for years without seeing the inside of a service shop, although these days it seems that more older sets (meaning more than five years old in the case of FPs) are being recycled or otherwise disposed of, and replaced by new ones, rather than being repaired. Not good news for the repair shops (except those shops specializing in warranty service). :no: This actually started years ago, with cheap tube-powered TVs made by Japanese/Korean/Pacific Rim-based electronics firms. I had a "Kenco" branded B&W TV in the mid-'70s that lasted only three years before going belly-up. By contrast, I bought a Zenith 12" solid-state b&w portable in 1978 that lasted 22 years, and was still going strong when I replaced it with the RCA CTC185. The Zenith was trouble free all that time, except for the UHF tuner detent mechanism breaking some time in the eighties, jamming the UHF tuner on one channel. Cleveland only had two UHF stations, one independent and one PBS, at the time, and since I only watched network stations (channels 3, 5, 8 in my area then) the jammed tuner was not an issue. The TV itself worked well, and that was all that mattered. I hope whomever picked up the set off the trash pile behind my apartment got as much enjoyment and good service from it as I did. :yes:

I've seen a fair amount of flyback failures with CTC185 sets, mainly in the 25"/27" sets. Although I have seen the problem in a few 19" sets. Other than that, these sets gave the usual problems that any other TV gives.

I guess the last decent RCA chassis was, IIRC, ATC113. This chassis was very similar to the CTC203. Except for flyback failures and loose connections in the horizontal drive circuit, the CTC203's and ATC113's were decent sets. Again, the larger screen sets (31"-36") that used this chassis suffered the most flyback failures. I think where they made their mistake was using a flyback that was designed for a smaller screen size in their larger sets.

The TV's that really ate flybacks, and caused other problems, were the post ATC113 sets. These sets were Chinese built and are not worth the effort.

CTC203/ATC113 are good stuff, but there are many exceptions, I worked on them for a living and know them rather well.

There were 2 early and late CTC203 chassis systems. The early ones is MUCH better as you do not have to worry about unreliable gemstar module and all you do is unhook the one ribbon connector and you are done since board already have micro controller on the mainboard. The late CTC203 and all ATC113 used gemstar module with 2 ribbon cables as micro controller (unreliable in 3%).

L14401 solder failures were caused by hot glue of very unique properties this one DID creep wide and far, down the leads of components, especially L14401 (subsonics vibration and thermals cycling plus glue creep broke the solder bond. Getting that glue out of the through hole is key for total success. Can't just resolder! Ditto to older chassis that had horizontal driver transformer that had RCA unique hot glue applied!

Fly failures were always the 32" and 36" of any rca chassis from CTC175 onwards.

CTC169 is a genuine, purely genius design. You have to study the theory of operation and schematics and get understanding of power supply and vertical circuit which is what a hoot (efficient!) and power supply control/feedback. I had good luck with them except for occasional bad CRT that shot the one transistor on the chassis.

PS: Those TV/VCR combos one thing you did bad thing instead of throwing out, should had tried to take apart that mode switch, polish with little heatsink paste (excellent polisher) and swab as polisher, once the silver-plated contacts are bright and free of tarnish, then clean up using swabs dipped in alcohol. Finally to prevent tarnishing use silicone grease on mode switch contacts. This fix will stop the shutting down problem after turn on.

Cheers, Wizard

CTC169, yes, that is a engineering marvel! I have repaired many and consider it one of the best TVs ever made! Orion tv's aren't too bad. I've repaired a few!
Another hated TV here is the Sony BA6 chassis.
And any plasma.....