CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[BruceR]

Hi all. Suddenly, my G70 stopped displaying a pic. on either input, I'm running 1080i, both OK the day before.


Last night, the pic. flickered on and off for a while, both inputs. Then worked normally for about two hours, but quit again after that. When the fault occurred, one input read 'A - no input' with the menu restricted to brightness and contrast, i.e. the color, hue and sharpness menus didn't appear in the fault condition, but re-appeared when the unit decided to work normally. The other one read 'Input B' with no pic. but with a normal menu choice, i.e. with color, hue and sharpness showing. I could make that menu display just brightness and contrast like input A by unplugging the input cable. So even though it's not showing a pic. it must be detecting the sync. signal, as plugging in just the green lead brings that menu back to normal.

So far, I have exchanged every plug in board with a donor unit and noted what changed, which was nothing at all, except when I exchanged the YA board, which resulted in the unit showing the 88 code and failing to start. Which, I guess is not surprising considering the Dallas chip is on that one, and the two projectors will differ. After each test, I put the original board back so I didn't have a mismatch and I could keep track. Clutching at straws now, but the HV Block maybe? which is pretty much all that is left.

If not, I'm down to the back plane. Has anyone had one of those faulty, or know of anyone who has?



Just to rub salt into the wound, the donor G70 has died also showing a 32 error code.
Which is supposed to be an 'abnormality of the power line on the EC board'.
But exchanging that board does nothing with the fault code remaining.
It's a beat up old thing, so it's not really surprising.

I've now found that two out of three bellows are leaking in the donor unit, all bulged like balloons, pushing out of the holes in the retaining plate with visible glycol under two of the plates.
Luckily, they don't seem to have leaked down onto the boards, as I've stripped the whole thing right down to the base, removed the boards, and there's no visible corrosion.
I was under the impression that these tubes don't need bleeding, but I can tell you at this age they sure do.
So if anyone is still using these projectors, it might be a good idea to check, probably applies to other Sony's as well.
I bled off some glycol, removed the bellows which were intact and seemed to have been leaking around the rim, cleaned and refitted them, and all seems to be OK, as far as that goes anyway.

The pic. shows one after I bled off some glycol.

I'm not sure if I'm doing this right, I've added it as an attachment, but I can't see the pic. in the preview, not sure if it's really there.






I also have a near new G90 with less than 2,000 hours, maybe much less, that used to belong to a friend. He replaced the Dallas chip, only to have that 'other' chip fail not long after, rendering the whole thing useless. I can't get into the service menu to confirm the hours as it shuts down with various fault codes before I get a chance. If anyone is interested in parts from this, let me know. The downside is I'm in Australia, and getting pretty much anything out of here is very expensive.

From the same friend, I also have a new in the crate VPH1292, I don't think he ever fired it up, so no hours at all.
I'll part with the 1292 if I can get my G70 up and running again as I've got 6 new tubes for the g70.
There's also another 1292 with about 8,000 hrs. as I remember.

[virusc]

Good luck with that 1292. I hope it goes to a good home. Man that should be a dream to a few at least. Not a bright picture but dam those are nice when properly setup.

[HaydnG90]