CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

matt697845 · Joined: 25 May 2013 Posts: 39

Hi all,

I have the opportunity to buy 1 or 2 Sony G90. I went to check them out today, but neither myself or the guy selling knows much about them. Both of them do power on, and you can get into the menu and they do not appear to be showing any errors. I consider myself to have decent technical understanding, so I don't think learning the ins and outs of setup and maintenance will be difficult, just a huge learning curve. A couple of questions: How do you get to the part of the menu that shows the number of hours? And also, the picture on one of them appeared to be flickering or "jumping" back and fourth horizontally a couple times a second. This is the one that appeared to have a brighter, crisper image. Have any of you guys heard of this? Is this a fixable minor issue, or cause for major concern?. And finally, I'm aware of the "Dallas chip issue", how difficult, and more importantly, how costly is this replacement? Anyway, thanks in advance for your advice, can't wait to get into CRT More to come...

HaydnG90 · Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 1356

The jumping image could be indicative of the infamous IC421 chip failure. Do a search here and you'll find a long thread discussing this problem. Is the pj responsive to the brightness and contrast controls? If yes then maybe the clamp setting is wrong, which should not be in AUTO.

To get to the service menu to find the timer press enter, enter, up, down, enter and click yes when prompted. These key strokes are timed so go through the sequence fairly briskly.

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

Are those the ones from Frank?

the big E · Joined: 20 Apr 2013 Posts: 1928 Location: speedwell Tn.

if the dallas chip needs replacing it is a plug and play deal but if the set isn't losing its settings then the chip isn't the cause

the dallas chip is reasonable priced just ask curt for the right one(the wrong chip can cause more problems)

also curt has a lot of info on most projectors have a look around on the site

also you may need a signal before the picture stabilizes (my eco 4101 is like that)

matt697845 · Joined: 25 May 2013 Posts: 39

Well I did it . I'm now the proud owner of 2 Sony G90, with HD-10f lenses, #250 & #555, and one ceiling bracket Very Happy

I was told by the guy who sold them to me that they came out of California, other than that, I know noting of their history. According to searches for "421" in these forums, it does appear that #555 has faulty IC421 issue. Mad

Symptoms are shaking on screen menu (haven't got the chance to connect a source yet, due to my current living situation I'm just storing them) the shaking behavior is affected (speeds up) when certain buttons are pressed. Anything I can to to verify if it's indeed the IC421 issue or something else? Approximately how much would Curt or one of you other guys here charge for the YA board? Yes, I know it's gonna be alot. Neutral

How about the Dallas chip (including copying?) both are fine, but from what I read I'm on borrowed time at this point. Both of them are responsive to brightness/contrast buttons. At the very least, I should be able to combine them into one nicely working unit, but ultimately, when finances and situations allow, Id' like to get them both going in a stack or blend setup.

P.S. How the hell does the remote come out of the compartment? Yeah, I have a lot to learn. Embarassed

the big E · Joined: 20 Apr 2013 Posts: 1928 Location: speedwell Tn.

Phoenixed · Joined: 13 Oct 2011 Posts: 514 Location: The mitten

I would guess a YA board will cost roughly $1k and will prolly come with a new Dallas chip. The remote in the chassis is to remain in the chassis you should have a wireless one with one of the two you got. I would be very cautious not to turn the machine on until someone on here verifies you dont have a bad YA board.

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

Have you ever owned a CRT before? Where are you located?

**kal** · Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 1:18 pm Post subject:

Tubes are everything. How are the tubes?

For a unit to be worthwhile (IMHO) it shouldn't have any visible wear, or barely any wear. If it has any, it should be large and uniform.

Give this a read (all 4 pages - especially the last page with the tube rating charts):

http://www.curtpalme.com/TubeCondition.shtm

Good luck!

Kal

the big E · Joined: 20 Apr 2013 Posts: 1928 Location: speedwell Tn.

dochlywd · Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 1:51 am Post subject:

Congrats on the purchase!

Contact Craig Rounds, CIR ENGINEERING, as he is the only one besides Curt that has the ability to repair the YA board!! He has done it successfully many times......EVEN WITH THE IC421 CHIP!

He is probably THE MOST knowledgeable tech on the G90.

Doc

matt697845 · Joined: 25 May 2013 Posts: 39

No, I've never had a CRT PJ before, but I've wanted one ever since I saw what they could do in a planetarium somewhere when I was young. Their motion resolution, zero lag, and the ability to do multiple resolutions and refresh rates is what makes them most desirable to me.

I've actually been passively checking eBay and Craigslist for several years, hoping something would pop up. When one popped up locally, somewhat reasonably priced ($1.5k) I just had to check it out. And when it turned out there were actually TWO of them sitting there I couldn't resist. Turns out someone had already put in an offer for one, but hadn't paid yet, so once I saw they both powered on, I couldn't resist, and offered the guy asking price for both. Twisted Evil

Now that I know about this place, and that they're still serviceable, I'm pretty confident in my purchase. They'll probably used about 50/50 for special occasion PC gaming and TV/movie watching. They won't be used all the time, I'd like them to last as long as possible.

As for tube condition, I tried peering through the lenses to the tube face, and couldn't see any wear at all except for the green on the higher hour one, #250. According to the chart on this site, it's anywhere from a 6 to 8, although I really can't tell till I find a screwdriver long enough to get the lenses off. I'll try snapping some pics, so you guys can judge.

Just to confirm, the control panel in the top compartment is not removable, even though it has the "IR" infrared symbol? There was a guy selling a remote right here on the forums dated April 30.

Finally, could the flickering issue be verified to be a YA board issue by simply swapping them between the two units, is there any risk in doing this?

the big E · Joined: 20 Apr 2013 Posts: 1928 Location: speedwell Tn.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 2:09 pm Post subject:

Before you do anything, buy 2 new Dallas chips. They are on the YA board in a socket. Mandatory to do this before you spot burn the tubes. Rare, but possible.

It does really sound like the shaking set has a bad Ya board. Very typical of some of these sets. Send the board to Craig or myself to verify that, but if so, it's toast. Definitely swap the boards to confirm the rest of the chassis is OK.

I REALLY need to do a writeup on the G90 for the site. I'll cover stuff like changing the Dallas chip, as there's a tiny pushbutton switch on the Ya board that needs to be pressed to initialize the new Dallas chip, otherwise the set won't fire up.

Good score! YOU SUCK!

Almost guaranteed that both sets will have some tube wear, but probably not enough to warrant replacement. Use the best of the two sets, and keep/scrap the other one for spare parts.

the big E · Joined: 20 Apr 2013 Posts: 1928 Location: speedwell Tn.

CIR Engineering · Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 1:51 am Post subject:

If you send me your Dallas chips I can copy them and retain the serial number, hour meter, factory setup, and service setup. If you just put a new Dallas chip in and initialize it you will lose all the mentioned info.

I have YA boards in stock now so they are available.

Really tired now after just getting back from a calibration tour. so for now...

Kind regards,
craigr

CIR Engineering · Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 1:53 am Post subject:

I also have wireless remotes at the moment...

craigr

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

Matt,
It sounds like you got a good score.

Since this is your first, you are in for a huge learning curve. You may want to hire a pro like Craig to set them up for you. That is one of the reasons I was curious were you are located. If you are in South Fl and don't want to go with Craig, then there is a calibrator located down here.

matt697845 · Joined: 25 May 2013 Posts: 39

I (will be) located somewhere off exit 111 of I-85, which is about 30 miles NE of downtown Atlanta, GA. I had contemplated having them set up by someone who knows what they're doing, but like I said in a previous post, due to my current living situation, they're just in storage (indoors of course). Once I'm moved into my own place, I'll defiantly give it consideration, depending on cost...

How much are the wireless remotes going for? No additional equipment are required, right? the little window on the front is the IR receiver? I find it silly that Sony didn't automatically include a wireless remote for something that sold for $38k in the late '90's. If I remember correctly, some $<100 portable CD players had wireless remotes back then.

@CIR Engineering, what do foresee as for future availability of the YA boards, and what's your price? I'd really like to hold off on that purchase for the time being, unless there about to disappear, or increase in price or something.

I'll get the Dallas chips sent out for copy and replace as soon as I get the time to manhandle them out where I can work on them, swap and verify the YA board issue. One of these weekends.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 1:08 pm Post subject:

They all did come with wireless remotes! Someone went and lost them, like the other 2 billion remotes that 'mysteriously' went missing. A replacement remote runs $50-100 usually.