CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[felixthadog]

Hi all,

I have a Pioneer 50-inch plasma TV (model PDP-504HDG) that I bought back in 2005. I think it is a 1st or 2nd generation plasma. It is mounted on a wall and requires a separate media box to operate i.e. all inputs connect to the media box rather than to the TV.

Anyway, the TV appears to have died. When switched on, the screen shows a blue & pink image before switching off. It makes no difference which of the 4 inputs is used nor the type of device connected. I have not been able to find any information on the web to determine what is causing the problem. After the TV switches off automatically due to the unknown error, the red Standby LED on the display panel flashes on and off 3 times, followed by a pause. I am able to get the green ON light on the media receiver to remain lit by switching the media receiver off and on whilst the TV is still on. I think that means that the receiver is OK but the panel is stuffed?

Here are a couple of photos of the panel when it is switched on without the media receiver connected, I would not expect to see this if the media receiver was causing the problem.





Cheers,
Matthew

[winny]

If you know what you are doing, check the Vs and Vb voltage inside. Looks like they are quite off. If it does switch off and blink three times, chances are pretty high there is another problem (too). Did the problem get worse over time or happen sudden?

If you don't know what you are doing, probing those voltages will kill you.

[Curt Palme]

I concur. Are you a tech? If not, take it to a shop. My guess would be a bad Ysus or Zsus board. you can probably pick them up for about $100 each on ebay, but it's tough to say which one it is. also, there are Ysus driver boards, and it could be that as well. Considering the set isn't 1080p I'd expect, and that the unit is 8 years old, do consider scrapping it and get a new set. It's a disposable world nowadays, and 8 years is considered a good long life out of a plasma.

[Curt Palme]

I concur. Are you a tech? If not, take it to a shop. My guess would be a bad Ysus or Zsus board. you can probably pick them up for about $100 each on ebay, but it's tough to say which one it is. also, there are Ysus driver boards, and it could be that as well. Considering the set isn't 1080p I'd expect, and that the unit is 8 years old, do consider scrapping it and get a new set. It's a disposable world nowadays, and 8 years is considered a good long life out of a plasma.

[felixthadog]

Thanks for your replies, I am not a tech so I won't be trying to fix the problem myself. I probably should mention that I am in Australia. I contacted Pioneer Electronics Australia and received this reply:

"Thank you for the email. The error you are describing is within the Media Receiver and can possibly be corrected without too much difficulty by an authorised repairer."

I sent a response to Pioneer stating that the "authorised" repairer quoted me $500 to repair the problem, which seemed outlandish to me, and that I was disappointed with the quote because it was a fixed figure even though the problem had not been diagnosed at that point. I received this reply:

"Pioneer Service will charge $55 to diagnose the problem and provide an accurate costing to accomplish the repair. The fault indication at your media reciever indicates a trap switch issue."

What is a trap switch issue?

Cheers,
Matthew