CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

eMpTy3000 · Joined: 14 Sep 2009 Posts: 8

I am a newbie with CRT projectors. This projector is a Runco DTV-991 and was my Grandpa's old projector. He said it still worked great, but had a small problem where he had to reset it every once in a while (not sure exactly what that means... maybe just power down and back up... He said something about the settings weren't right)

Anyway. I've got the projector in my basement now and thought I would turn it on to see how it worked. I don't have any video source plugged in yet. The first few times I turned it on it would very briefly flash a very dim screen. I'm pretty sure it just said "no input," which makes sense. I left it on for a half an hour and it just kept flashing every few seconds so I turned it off. I tried it a few more times and had the same problem.

Now when I turn it on it briefly flashes a bright screen and then turns off and I get an "Fd" error code. I did a little searching on the forum and saw it might be the HV board. I opened up the projector and made sure all the connections were secure on the HV board. Sometimes when I turn it on I get the flashing dim screen, but usually I get the "Fd" error.

Maybe in the transport somewhere it was set down a little too hard... From the quick flashing that I saw it looks like the convergence is messed up. I don't know. Any ideas? What should I look for?

Thanks in advance! Sorry if I missed any important details... Ask away! If needed I can take pictures... I'm more of a PC guy and not an electronics expert.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:28 pm Post subject:

Fd is indeed an HV error. That could be a few things, including the HV board, H board (right next to the HV board) or one of the neck boards on the back of the CRTs. It most likely is NOT the CRT sockets, as you haven't said that one tube is overly bright, which would cause HV shutdown, so I'd figure it's the HV board or H board. I can test/repair them if you want.

Cheers!
Curt

eMpTy3000 · Joined: 14 Sep 2009 Posts: 8

Would transportation cause this sort of thing to happen? The projector worked when they took it down and now that it is in my basement it doesn't work. When you say "overly bright" I'm assuming you mean blindingly bright... or do you mean one tube brighter than the other? I can take a look at that if needed.

Please PM me rates and info for test/repair work.

Thanks Curt!

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:38 pm Post subject:

It's a tough call why it died. It's also tough to interpret what 'resetting' meant. 'Some settings weren't right' could mean a whole lot.

Yes, if the neck boards were bad, one tube (usually) would be REALLY bright. I don't think it's that.

The price to check/repair the boards is a flat rate of $250 incl return shipping, $50 + return shipping if they check OK.

Cheers!
Curt

eMpTy3000 · Joined: 14 Sep 2009 Posts: 8

I'll see if I can find out what the exact problem was and let you know.

eMpTy3000 · Joined: 14 Sep 2009 Posts: 8

Alright... I talked to the guy who worked on the projector for my Grandpa. He said that the only thing that got messed up was the aspect ratio. He had an odd sized screen. That should be a video processor setting anyway, right?

He also said that my Grandpa had it setup to be very bright, which may push the power supply too hard. Would it give a different error code for that? Or could that be the problem? Do you know off hand how to do a master reset?

Thanks!

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 5:50 pm Post subject:

Whatever you do, don't do a master reset. I'm guessing your grampa didn't have the master codes, so he couldn't get into the service setup menu anyways. The factory default for brightness and contrast is 60 60 and 75 respectively, so even if he ran 100/100, other than greatly shortening tube life, he wouldn't have screwed the set up.

If you do a master reset, you'll completely screw the reference settings of the projector up, and you'll need to send the whole set to a service tech.

You have one problem in the set right now with the Fd error code, don't try to take short cuts to bypass that. Please. Smile

eMpTy3000 · Joined: 14 Sep 2009 Posts: 8

Ok.... The guy I talked to said that he had the projector shut off after turning on many years ago and the tech who set it up said that it was probably because my Grandpa had the tech set the brightness so high. He had him do some button combination and had to spend a couple of hours calibrating it. I have no idea how many hours are on the projector.... hopefully the tubes are still in good shape. Like I said... I'm a newbie with CRT projectors.

I'll have to talk to my wife about what to do next. We don't have a theater room even framed out yet in our basement and we don't really have any plans yet on when we are going to do it. I'll definitely be in touch with you about repairing the boards.

Also, I did a quick search on ebay for the model number of my HV board... I thought I read somewhere that swapping out the boards was a bad idea and it was better to repair them. Did I read that right?

Thanks!

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:13 pm Post subject:

Correct. The HV boards are specifically calibrated to that chassis, and swapping out a random eBay board _might_ work, but can also cause shutdowns, or worst case, tube implosions.

Why not pull off the lenses and post a pix of hte tube faces? If they are lightly worn, then repair the board, if they are shot, well, then it's not worth it.

eMpTy3000 · Joined: 14 Sep 2009 Posts: 8

Will try to do that when I get home from work.... I remember seeing wingnuts up there... I just unscrew the wingnuts and take the lenses off? Also... I can just take the pictures when the projector is off? Or do I have to take the pictures while it is running (very difficult in my case)?

Thanks!

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:11 pm Post subject:

No, each lens is held onto the frame with 4 Philips screws. You'll need a longish Philips screwdriver to get to the ones over the power supply unit. Take pix of the tube faces with the power off.

Cheers!

eMpTy3000 · Joined: 14 Sep 2009 Posts: 8

Here are pics of my the tube faces... Looks like they are in great shape to me! A little bit of wear on the red and green, but not much. Agreed?

All three:

Red:

Green:

Blue:

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:19 am Post subject:

I'd get it repaired. A nice wide 16:9 wear pattern, you could even run a bit wider and still get a great image. Tubes good for another 5000-6000 hours I'd say at least.

Mark_A_W · Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:39 am Post subject:

Wider?

That wear will stick out like dog's balls.

The setup will have to be matched to the wear on the tubes EXACTLY. Pity the wear is a touch off centre vertically.

Personally, I wouldn't use the Green and maybe not the Blue, but they are getting hard to come by and are expensive, so some creativity is needed... I guess.

deronmoped · Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1154 Location: San Diego

It may stick out to us videophiles, but the average person would not notice or even care. Even with a newbie you would probably have to point it out.

That is why I never point these things out to people that I know that have projectors, they never notice, but it bugs the hell out of me, I would hate to have it bother them too.

Deron.

eMpTy3000 · Joined: 14 Sep 2009 Posts: 8

Thanks for the advice, but I'm not much of a videophile. I'm definitely not going to be buying any new tubes! I'll get my board(s) repaired when the time comes to build my theater.

Thanks!

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:43 pm Post subject:

That's why I said: you COULD. I know to videophiles it would be bothersome, but even to me, overshooting the tube width slightly is fine by me. I'll see it, but it won't bother me.