Sony Karaoke VCR Dim VFD

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by centralradio

I remember at the shop years ago when RCA/GE send out a supplement to put into the service manuals and had a kit to fix their VCRs with dim displays.

That could cover a LOT of models! There were the Hitachi-made VCRs with either discrete components in the DC-DC converter circuit, or had the DC-DC conv. module, either would fail from bad caps. Then there were the Samsung-made RCA-GE units with capacitors failing in the power supply. Thompson issued a rebuild kit for those. The driver transistor would often fail in those too. I would take that out and check the gain of the transistor since it wouldn't actually go open or short and read fairly normal with simple testing with a meter, and replace it as needed.