Magnavox 32" Set Question?

[holmesuser01]

Its been awhile since I've posted here, as I've had to devote alot of time to things in my virtual world. Things are calming down again, so here we go.

I was given a 32" Magnavox color set model # MS3250 C321 with a chassis number 32T800 7629 installed. Its not much of a set, features wise, but it intrigues me.

When you turn it on, it powers up and runs about 12 seconds. A purple picture will pop up and stay on for about 6 seconds then the set shuts down.

I know the history of this set. Friend bought it new, and it failed once during the warranty. It worked fine 18 hours a day for about 3 years. Then, he noticed that the set would turn off (shut down) when there was a bright image on the screen. It started doing it more often, and over the years, he had to turn the brightness down a bit more to keep it working. '

The last time I saw it playing, it had a dark, but beautiful color picture. That was about 7 months ago. He recently told me that it was just turning on and shutting down like what I describe above.

Here's what I've found so far.

I found the soldering that the warranty shop did. How sloppy! I re-soldered the previous work, and generally reheated connections under the flyback, Hz drive transformer, Hz output transistor, etc. Checked the CRT board for bad connections, and slapped it back in the set. Turned it on, and the dim purple pic came on.

I am using an old VCR for a signal, and I have a good clear picture, with no green. All 3 guns are lit in the CRT. When the set shuts down, the power light stays on, and the CRT filaments go dark along with everything else.

I tried turning on the chassis with the CRT unplugged, but there is no difference. The chassis powers up and shuts down as always.

On the CRT board, there is an IC attached to a heat sink. Is this the video drive for this chassis? Is this something that fails on newer sets?

I worked on TV's for many years, but have never worked on much of anything newer than around 1987. I understand how the shut-down circuitry works on newer sets.

If I can get this set working reasonably well, I'm going to give it to my 9 year old nephew so he can play his wii games in his room instead of on the living room set. His mother will appreciate it.

What do you guys think?

Bruce