Advice on Late Model Crap

[bgadow]

I had a good day at the flea market, and as I was loading up my finds my wife asked the vendor about the 13" Zenith sitting on a table. $8. Well, she has been wanting to replace our bedroom set (a Commodore computer monitor hooked to an old vcr) so I bought it, as is. Of course, it doesn't work. Before I toss it in the dumpster I'll ask the experts here.

It tries to come on at first but then nothing, you can just here the relay clicking on and off as you hit the power button. Has at least enough hv to charge up the crt. I pulled the chassis out hoping to find a bad solder joint or maybe a crack somewhere, or an obviously bad electrolytic. No such luck. I'll give it a reprieve for a day or two...you guys are its last chance, before it goes to TV hell!

Zenith Model 5Y13245, chassis CN-150, built 11/96. Made in Mexico, mostly Daewoo inside. Pitiful.

[Sandy G]

Sounds like its shuffled off this mortal coil. Say a few words over it, & give 'er a good send-off !!-Sandy G.

With the chassis exposed and hooked up to a isolation transformer....plug it in, switch it on.....AND PISS ON IT!

Anthony

[domfjbrown]

...or stand over it, lob a breezeblock through it, while reciting the words "this is the solution to all our problems". Oh sorry, mispent youth there...

...here's one I imploded earlier:


...and one of my mates killing a computer monitor which did the same thing as your Zenith is....:


Highly dangerous, but a great sound!

[Sandy G]

Another way I mis-spent my youth was to take my trusty .22, a couple boxes of shells, & head off to the city Dump looking for old TVs & rats to "put out of their misery". Imagine a kid doing that today.-Sandy G.

[Chad Hauris]

If it uses a switching power supply check for the voltage from the rectifier off the power line (around 140 volts), check the caps around the switching supply regulator if it uses it. The supply should be running in standby mode to operate the remote control circuitry all the time its plugged in.

The Commodore computer monitors have very a good picture...we have one here at the radio station hooked up to a Telecaption decoder unit to receive TV signals.

Just wanted to clarify my position. I love Zeniths. This set is a POS that was marketed and distributed by Zenith. It is NOT a Zenith. It's a Mexican assembled Korean (Daewoo) box of eventual short circuits.

PISS ON IT! It shames the once great and proud Zenith name.

Anthony

[Sandy G]

It's a good thing Commander McDonald isn't around to see what's become of his beloved company. -Sandy G.

[bgadow]

I'll take a quick look at some of those caps. I do show something like 160v on one leg. And, yeah, that Commodore is pretty sharp. I think they were made by JVC. The VCR gives us the ability to change channels with the remote but my lovely wife wants to change the volume, too...so....

That same 8 bucks could have bought another 13" Zenith she has, a real, honest to goodness American made set that looks to be from the early 80s. Click stop tuners, though, and it might not work, either. Still tempted to get it but I don't need to start collecting 80s tv sets! I could just stop in to the local Zenith dealer, last time I stopped in he still had a couple NOS 12 year old 13" sets gathering dust on the shelf, at 1992 prices ($350ea.).

Obviously he'll never get anywhere near $350 for those sets, but I have a possible solution......see if he'd be interested in donating them to a charity for a tax writeoff. He may at least break even on paper (his actual cost may be close to the resulting write off).

If he goes for this you may luck out and be able to purchase them from the charity for cheap! Ain't I a stinka?

Anthony

[wa2ise]

...and one of my mates killing a computer monitor which did the same thing as your Zenith is....:

Dammit, wear goggles if you're gonna do that. Jeez, eyeballs are real hard to repair...

[domfjbrown]

...that wasn't me, that was my totally insane mate, Robbie.

I'm partially sighted, so don't really worry about taking one of my eyes out as much as I should, since neither of them work very well. That said, when I imploded stuff in my yoof, it used to be from a distance of a few feet...

Ahhh, you're all a bunch of girls.....you haven't lived till you've dropped a set from over 20 floors up. NYC is filled with such buildings. Don't ask.

Anthony

[Sandy G]

Uhhh,Anthony, y'all DID make sure nobody was on the sidewalks below when "roof-testing" TVs, didn't ya ?!? I've heard about being careful in the "sportier" parts of some of our cities, but...-Sandy G.

[Sandy G]

We had a maint man at work who would dump a/c compressors off a 4 story bldg 'cos he was too effin lazy to tote 'em down. They'd hit the ground, bounce a time or 2 & spew a/c compressor juice all over the place. Once one landed in an electrical sub-station behind the plant & REALLY raised a ruckus. Blew several transformers & shorted a bunch of shite out. Big bad lightshow. Bosses wondered WTF-they never did find out what happened. Was kinda kewl watching 'em bounce & spew that compressor juice all over the place, though. Guy finally retired a couple years back.-Sandy G.