CRT TV Repair Course Humphrey Kimathi

CRT Television Repair Course
By
Humphrey Kimathi
http://humphreykimathi.blogspot.com
ImagineX ElectronicS
By Humphrey Kimathi
The reader of this book is expressly warned to consider and adopt all safety
precaution that might be indicated by the activities herein and to avoid all
potential hazards.
The author particularly disclaims any liability, loss or risk taken by individuals
who directly or indirectly act on the information Contained herein. The author
believes that the information presented here is sound, but readers cannot hold
him responsible for either the actions they take or the result of those actions.
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
owner.
Preface
CRT Television repair course is an E book covering all the major building
blocks in CRT television with emphasis given to real life scenario from the
technician work bench and therefore provide a good source of reference for
practicing technicians.
The book is divided into two parts:
Part one: is composed of 18 chapters of the major circuit blocks in CRT TV

and explains basic functions and common problems associated with these
blocks.
Part Two: is composed of 10 chapters of pure real life repair histories from the
technician work bench.
The book is illustrated with numerous color photos to make the reader learn
faster and get the concept pretty fast.
To navigate the book just click on the Chapter reference on the list of contents
and it will jump straight to the very topic and to go back to the first page just
click on your keyboard (Ctrl + Home) key.
List of Content
Chapter 1: Introduction to Television Repair Career
Chapter 2: Component found in the Power supply (S.M.P.S)
Chapter 3: Understanding S.M.P.S sub units
Chapter 4: Solving power supply problems (smps) using control ic.
Chapter 5: Solving power supply problem for Television using transistor instead of
control ic.
Chapter 6: Understanding the Secondary power supplies
Chapter 7: Main power fuse keep on blowing
Chapter 8: Do it yourself series lamp current limiter
Chapter 9: Using the series bulb for find shorted component on the primary supply
Chapter 10: Understanding the Horizontal circuits
Chapter 11: understanding fly back transformer
Chapter 12: H.O.T getting shorted after replacement
Chapter 13: Understanding and troubleshooting Color problems
Chapter 14: Understanding and troubleshooting Vertical circuit
Chapter 15: Understanding and troubleshooting the Audio circuit
Chapter 16: Understanding and troubleshooting the Tuner circuit
Chapter 17: Understanding and troubleshooting the micro processor
Chapter 18: Understanding and troubleshooting the remote control
Chapter 19: LG Television NO PICTURE- AUDIO OK blue background
Chapter 20: PANASONIC TV MODEL TC-14E1T with intermittent single horizontal
line (blue)
Chapter 21: Gold star TV vertical partially closed
Chapter 22: Samsung Television dead
Chapter 23: JVC 14'' DEAD AFTER A VOLTAGE SURGE FROM A GENERATOR
Chapter 24: GLD TV FIELD COLLAPSE WITH A SINGLE HORIZOTAL LINE
Chapter 25: JVC Television Dead 21”
Chapter 26: Chanwong TV-china with No Power symptoms
Chapter 27: Sony TV 1902 GE..NO PICTURE NO SOUND only screen display i.e.
channel Number.
Chapter 28: Conclusion
Chapter 1: Introduction to Television Repair Career
This course is intended for people who are already in the field of
Television repair and have basic knowledge in electronics and therefore
understand safety precaution when working on electronics devices.
If you are already in the field of repairs you would agree with me that most
of the electronics books and colleges teach about the theory of operation
and how a component works.
The moment you step out of that class and join the field is when you
realize that things are getting tough, the customer is not interested with
your papers but….is my equipment working?
So the only way to make your customers believe you are up to the
challenge is by quick diagnosing of the problem and repair…Period!
This book is written to address the above issues comprehensively as most
of the materials in this course will be practical real life experiences from
the technician workbench.
Tools of trade
Every trade has his own tools of trade, for Television repairs the minimum
you should have includes:--
Comfortable work bench- The bench needs not be expensive but the
height should be that make you be seated comfortably without straining
your back. Alternatively you can adjust the chair height.
These you can get them cheaply from your nearest electronics shop which
I believe they are readily available.
There are others which I consider very important but a bit expensive for
someone who is getting started and therefore can be added later as you
walk down the road.
These include ESR meter, fly back tester, Oscilloscope etc.
Introduction of common components found in television sets and a brief
description which we will study later in more details.
Basically the Chopper transformer is used to provide line isolation and

generates multiple output Voltages for the secondary circuit.
Another name for chopper transformer is switching transformer,
transformers primary is not designed to handle Direct current (DC)
That’s why whenever you see a transformer on a DC source there must be
a transistor (switch) that opens and closes very fast in order to cause
current to flow. These are high power transistor; often begin with
2SC/2SD/BU
A good example is the chopper transistor (S.O.T) which switches the
primary of chopper transformer on the other hand horizontal output
transistor (H.O.T) which drives the fly back
Fly back transformer
Just as we have the chopper transformer as the main components for

generating various voltages for the secondary circuits including the main
B+ for the horizontal circuit, we have also the fbt which generates various
voltages including the HV, the Focus and the Screen voltages respectively
for the CRT tube.
Fly back has two Potentiometer, the upper one adjust the Focus voltage
while the lower one adjust the Screen voltage.
Thermistors
Thermistors are components which resistance varies according to
temperatures.
They are two types of thermistors
1)PTC (positive temperature coefficient)
2)NTC (Negative temperature coefficient)
When you switch on the television you notice that at first

there is inrush of current to the TV as if there is a shot inside, this is
caused by the main Capacitor which has low resistance when not charged
and behave like a wire across the power line, but once charged its
resistance is very high To limit this inrush of current into the machine we
use NTC in series with the power line and because they have high
resistance when cold they will limit the current flow for a moment before
the main capacitor charges and take over the process and by this the NTC
will have gotten hot and hence low resistance and therefore have little
effect to the current flow into the system.
NTC have their resistance decrease with increase in temperatures,
therefore initially when cold their resistance is high and low resistance
when hot.
Always connected in series with the power supply, therefore if they shot
there will be not effect but if they open then current will not flow and the
machine will appear dead.
Horizontal output transistor(H.O.T)
The H.O.T is used to switch the fly back on and off very fast and by so
doing generate various Voltages mentioned above plus more others
depending on the design.
This transistor looks like the Chopper transistor but H.O.T has its middle
leg collector linked to the FBT while the chopper transistor middle leg
collector is linked to the switching transformer.
Vertical Ics
Chapter 2: Component found in the Power supply (S.M.P.S)
Most of the electronics equipment nowadays use switch mode power

supply(smps) to generate various voltages to feed other circuit.
Power supply section of all electronics equipment is one area where there
is a lot of stress for the equipment as far as components are concerned due
to high currents and voltage involved and therefore most of the electronics
problems will be power supply related and also the horizontal circuit
which we will study latter in this course
For now let us concentrate on the switch mode power supply components
and what they do and the effect they have on the supply when they fail.
Fuse
When you switch on the Television via power switch, the power passes
through a fuse which is used for safety purposes, so whenever you see a
fuse has failed don't blame it because that why it there to do-that is to blow
if there is a problem with the power supply like a shot, the fuse will cut off
the power to the equipment to avoid further damage to the equipment. And
also preventing the equipment from catching fire!
So next time you see a fuse has blown you need to appreciate it for job
well done, on the same note I believe you have understood why you
should never replace a fuse with a Jumper wire- always think safety first to
you and also to your customers.
Fuse often fail by being open and you can easily confirm that with a meter
set to low ohm resistance.
Varistor
Another components found in the smps in some of the good design is the
Varistor, see picture below
This is also a safety component and is always connected on across the AC

power line, but they do not conduct unless the AC voltages increases
above normal like during power surge caused by Lightening or using
outlet which is not well regulated like using generators.
So if there a power surge the varistor will conduct and because it is
connected across the AC power line it will create a short circuit across the
power line and hence force the fuse to blow and hence disconnect the
equipment from further damages.
Effect on the supply when the Varistor fail

Because this component is connected in parallel with the power supply if
they shot the fuse will blow and if they open there will be no effect on the
supply only that you will be missing its safety function
EMI FILTER
EMI (Electromagnetic interference also called radio frequency
interference) FILTER
Filters- this is a device which we find being used in many areas of day to
day life like oil filters' air filters etc
In electronics when we talk of filters we are referring to devices used to
pass desired signal and block undesired signal.
To achieve this we use some known behavior of capacitors and inductors
toward frequencies:
Inductors
Inductors allow low frequencies to pass but make it very hard to high
frequencies to pass
Capacitors
Capacitors allow high frequencies to pass but very hard for low
frequencies
We know that power supply has low frequency of around 50 Hz to 100 Hz
and Radio frequencies are pretty high
Looking at our circuit of the EMI above you will see that the inductor is in
series with the supply line and therefore will pass the low power supply
frequency of 50 Hz but make it hard for the high radio frequency to pass.
On the other hand the capacitor which is connected in parallel with the
power supply effectively shorting the high radio frequency to the ground
hence allowing only the low supply frequency to pass
Effect on the supply when the component of emi filters fail

1. Capacitor shorted= fuse will blow
Capacitor Open= no effect but you will loss filter function of that capacitor
2. Inductor Shorted- no much effect on supply but you will loss filter
function of the inductor
Inductor Open- supply will be cut off because the inductor is in series with
the supply line
Degaussing Coil
Degaussing coil is simply a wire coil connected around the crt tube, it is
used to clean up any effect to the TV or monitor due to magnetic effect of
the earth or magnets which is usually manifested as some color mark on
the picture.
That is why you should not keep a speaker (has magnet inside) or big
radios near TV screen because it will cause color spot on the picture. This
can be solved by moving the speaker away from the TV
For the earth magnetic field it is advisable to re-start you TV every time
you move or turn your TV
Posistor
One cannot talk about the degaussing coil without mentioning the
Posistor(PTC) this is because since Degaussing coil has very low
resistance and is directly connected across the AC power line(240 Vac or
110 Vac), then it would cause a shot circuit across the power line but this
is not so thanks to the Posistor(PTC) which is connected in series with the
degaussing coil and when power is first applied the posistor which has low
resistance when cold but very high resistance when hot and therefore the
coil will pass current just for a brief moments before the posistor get hot
and cut off the current through the degaussing coil.
Effect on the supply when the Posistor Fail.
Open: No effect only loose the demagnetizing effect of the degaussing
coil (Picture with spot)
Short: If the posistor shot it means the coil will create a direct shot to the
power supply and the Fuse will blow.
Diodes
Diode are one way valve i.e. allow flow of current only in one direction,
this property of diode makes ideal for use in power supply for rectification
purposes.
Electronics equipment are not designed to use Alternating Current(AC),
therefore diodes are used to rectify( basically means to convert from
Alternating Current to Pulsating Direct Current)
In smps you will find them as a bridge or four discrete diodes
Effect on the supply when the Diodes (Bridge) Fail.
Open: This is cause the DC voltage to go down, this will also make the
picture to start shaking
Short: The fuse will blow
Main Capacitor
Looking at figure 2 above you will notice that the diode has only managed
to change from alternating Current (AC) to Pulsating Direct Current
(PDC), this is still not clean for use in electronics circuits Therefore a
Capacitor is used to smooth out the pulses to get Direct Current (DC)
ready for use by the Electronic circuit.
Effect on the supply when Main Capacitor Fail.

Open: Picture will be shaking a lot
Short: Fuse will blow
Chopper Transistor
Basically chopper transistor act as a switch that open and closes very fast
in order to cause current to flow through the chopper transformer which
then generates various voltages for the secondary circuits
Effect on the supply when chopper transistor Fail.

Open: Nothing happens, the power supply just stop working
Short: Very common failure mode is to have this transistor shorted
collector-emitter junction in this case the fuse or the surge limiter must go.
Short on base-emitter is also possible but not common
Chopper Transformer
Basically the Chopper transformer is used to provide line isolation and
generates multiple output Voltages for the secondary circuit.
Open: Primary coil may get open and if this happens nothing happen only
the power supply will stop working. You can test this by using meter set
on low ohm range and should have a reading.
Short: A shorted primary coil can only be tested with a ring tester/fly back
tester but not the meter because a shorted coil will read low ohm on the
meter and this will confuse you because coils should have low resistance
reading when okay.
Chapter 3: Understanding S.M.P.S sub units
Hot ground/Cold ground

Component side
Bottom side
When you open a TV or Monitor (CRT) you will find on the circuit board
written HOT area and Cold area usually the hot area is marked very well
and include the whole area from the switching transformer back to the
input of the power source.
This is where we have the 220 or 110 Vac main getting into the
Television, rectified by the bridge rectifier after being full rectified
become 300 vdc or 150 vdc for those on 110 vac.
This voltage is very dangerous and care must be taken when working
around this area, the best point to use has your ground when measuring
voltages on this primary area (live side) is the negative side of the main
capacitor. This is what we call HOT GROUND.
I have modified my meter Negative probe with a clip and therefore I clip it
to the negative side of the main Capacitor and take voltage measurement
using one hand, and therefore no chance of giving Current path through
my body. Only one hand is working.
Cold Ground
The cold Area includes all the area on the secondary of the chopper
transformer, the best place to use as ground pole for the secondary circuits
is the Tuner ground or the CRT ground wire.
This is what we call COLD GROUND or the chassis ground
Main Dc
This refers to the rectified and filtered Dc by the main capacitor which
goes through the primary of of the chopper transformer to the collector of
the chopper transistor/control ic power leg down to the hot ground.
Start up
All switch mode power supply have a start-up resistor, this resistor or
resistors in series always have one leg on the 300 Vdc or AC line.
If you follow these resistor/resistors in series they will go to the base of the
switching transistor or control I.C as shown above.
When the smps uses I.C the start-up voltage goes to the Vcc pin of that
I.C, without this voltage smps cannot start, the supply will appear dead.
If there is a problem on the start-up circuit the power supply just stop
working, please note that these resistors also act as bleeder resistor for the
main capacitor, therefore when you find the main cap is still holding
charge long after the set has been disconnected from the supply this is an
indication that one of the start-up resistor is open or even circuit board is
cracked hence no path to discharge the main capacitor
Secondary circuits
s.m.p.s secondary circuit includes output side of the chopper transformer,
secondary diodes and the secondary filter capacitors.
Note that these output diodes are not the ordinary diode but fast switching
diodes, therefore if you find any of these diode faulty don’t replace with
the ordinary (1N400 series) it will not work.
s.m.p.s has 2 to 5 outputs with feeds different secondary circuits, the main
being the B+ which supply the fly back transformer.
Feedback & Regulation circuit
The Opto-isolator(PC-123) is used to provide isolation between the
primary supply and secondary supply and together with TL431 and used in
the switch mode power supply for regulations purposes.
If the internal transistor of the opto-isolator short the power supply will
stop working, some to the internal diode.
Also if TL431 is shorted it will also cause the power supply to stop
working and appear dead and therefore whenever you see the power
supply is dead and you have changed the entire suspect component on the
primary side then consider replacing these two components directly.
Again if any fault occurs on this circuit which can cause the internal diode
not to receive any voltage this will cause the power supply to increase a lot
and this will in turn cause some components on the primary power supply
to get damaged due to high voltages generated or the set will go into shut
down depending on the model
Chapter 4: Solving power supply problems (smps) using control ic.
Most problems with equipment using smps like television and monitors
are power related.
This is because powers supplies run under considerable stress due to high
voltages and currents involved around these circuits.
In order to understand how to solve smps problem I am going to show you
how to analyze common failure mode in CRT television, you can use this
principle in repairing CRT monitor too.
1. Television is dead
Here dead I mean the set does not show any sign of life, power ON LED is
not lighted and nothing happens even after power is switched on.
First confirm the television cable is not broken inside, you can check this
by measuring the voltage across the AC power input connector on the
circuit board.
If the voltage is reaching the circuit board, then look for the fuse and see if
it is blown, if the fuse is okay check also the surge limiter is open or not.
If these two components are ok then most likely there is no short on the
primary side of the power supply note: Short in the primary side of the
power supply usually cause the surge limiter or the fuse to blow.
From now on we shall be using the main capacitor negative as the Ground
for all the measurement of Voltages on the primary side of the power
supply.
I have modified my meter ground probe with a crocodile clip so that I can
attach it to ground point of the equipment I am repairing and therefore I
use only one hand to probe the circuit.
This is a safety precaution because as you know for there to have a
potential difference there must be a connection between the live and the
ground.
So if you are using your two hands and incidentally touch the live and the
ground then current will flow through your body and this can be fatal. But
if you are using one hand it is not possible.
One thing I have leant in electronics is that if you master doing your
troubleshooting using voltage tests you will have an added advantage
because in electronics it is not always the component that fail but it could
be just a crack on the circuit board that is preventing the voltage to flow or
even dry joints and therefore if you concentrate on looking for the bad
component you are going to waste a lot of time and end up not even
repairing the set.
Therefore I encourage you to narrow down your faulty circuit (area) by
use of voltage testing only. Fast and valuable method I have come to learn.
Now set your meter to DC range of 1000 VDC and use the main Capacitor
as your ground:
First check the voltage across this main capacitor and if you get around
300 vdc on 220 vac outlet or 150 vdc on 110 vac outlet then it is assumed
the supply is okay up to the main capacitor.
If there is no Voltage at the main capacitor then check backward looking
for open component or circuit board cracked or a dry joint on the main
power path.
Be sure this main DC (300 vdc or 150 vdc) is the reaching the power
regulator ic Collector/Drain pin
Now still using the same ground move your positive probe and measure
the vcc in pin of the power regulator ic.
Depending on the regulator used you can check the correct vcc from the
data sheet for the ic used from the internet.
These two voltages are very important and if any is missing the supply will
appear dead, if the vcc in is missing this means there is an open circuit or
start up resistor is open.
Follow backward and find what is preventing the start up voltage reach the
vcc pin.
Another hint if you see this vcc is less than Normal and pulsating there is a
possibility that there is Short on that pin, to confirm just lift up that pin and
if the voltage increases then it means there is a short on the pin and the ic
must be replaced.
There is also a filter capacitor on that pin usually 100uF/35V please check
the esr of this capacitor or directly replace it if you don’t have an esr
meter.
There is also a resistor linked to the source pin of this ic called the current
sense resistor which sometimes open or change value and this can also
cause the power supply not to start. Usually it very low ohm less than 2
ohm and around 2 watt so it a big one.
If up to here you have checked and they are okay then we should suspect a
short on the secondary side of the smps.
First measure for short of any of the secondary diode using analogue meter
set to X1, when you measure across any diode on the secondary you
should not have two reading and if you get two reading just lift up one leg
and measure again. if you still get two reading then you can conclude that
diode is short.
Also when using this method and find that the diode has two reading in
circuit and when lifted up you get one reading, it could also mean there is
a short on that source (line)
You can follow that source looking for the shorted component; usually the
most common components to short are transistors, ic, capacitors, and
diodes.
Remember when doing voltage testing on the secondary sources (circuit)
you should be using the COLD GROUND of the set.
The best ground to use is the turner ground (outer part) of the CRT ground
return.
Also note that when measuring the voltage at output of the chopper
transformer at the secondary diodes use the diode cathode to measure the
dc voltage and when measuring at the anode of the same diode use the ac
range in your meter.
If you find still there is no voltage at the secondary output or the voltage is
low then it the time to substitute for the Main B+ load with a dummy load.
You can make a dummy load by using a 60watts bulb/250v ac, a bulb
holder, crocodile clip and two pieces of wire (red and Black) and connect
them as shown on the picture below.
Note you can also this bulb to discharge the main Capacitor, just clip the
bulb across the positive and negative leg of the main capacitor and you
will see the bulb flash briefly if the capacitor was holding Charge.
Now identify the main supply to the fly back called the B+ and disconnect
the supply just before the fly back B+ vcc pin.
Don’t cut the circuit board to do this just lift up one side of a resistor( high
wattage) in series with this B+ voltage or sometime they use a jumper
wire just before the B+ vcc pin of the fly back and attach your dummy
load between this point and the cold ground.
If the bulb light steadily and you measure between 90 Volts dc to 140 dc
depending on the size of the television then you can assume that the smps
is okay and the problem is on the secondary side.
Hint: A short on the secondary side can cause the power not to start
irrespective how far the short is.
If you find that when you use the dummy load the power is starting but
when you remove the dummy load the power is blocked then suspect short
on the components after the take off point which include the following for
this television using IC for RGB amplifiers.
when you find the power supply is not starting and you use the dummy
load and find that the power is okay but if you connect the B+ supply
again you find the power supply is blocked then suspect component in
parallel with the B+ ( parallel means one leg is on the B+ supply and the
other leg is on the ground)
Any component which is shorting the B+ to the ground will make the
power supply to appear dead From the circuit above the following
components can cause the B+ to go to the ground directly and hence can
block the Power supply from starting.
1. Snubber capacitor C403
2. Horizontal output transistor (HOT)
3. C444
4. Fly back Transformer
5. IC901 (TDA6107Q) on the CRT neck board
6. C901 and C902 RGB source filter Capacitor
If any of the components marked on the above picture is shorted to the
ground it will cause the power supply to appear dead.
Chapter 5: Solving power supply problem for Television using
transistor instead of control ic.
These types of the television are also very common in the market and
therefore I would like to highlight how to go about them when
troubleshooting their power supply.
These televisions are mostly imported from china and if you have been
working on them you will notice that they all have the same circuit
diagram but different faces and Names and therefore in this lesson I am
going to use an Akira Television as our case study.
On the above picture you can see the main component that you would find
on the primary power supply when you open up the Television. Please take
some time to locate these components on the actual board if you have one
near you.
The First thing you should do when a customer bring in this type of
television as usual is to confirm what the complain was…I mean if he or
she said no power or no audio please confirm the same before even
opening the set.
Then open the set and scan around the primary power component both the
top and underside and see if there is catastrophic failure on any component
(e.g. a broken component which you can see with your own eyes without
using the meter)
Then if there was no power at all check with your meter the state of the
fuse or the surge limiter and see if they are broken.
If any of them is broken don’t replace it first before you check the state of
the Chopper transistor (in our case D1710C)
Checking this transistor in the circuit is quite easy, set your meter to low
ohm or diode test and measure between the middle leg C and E. (red probe
on C and black on E…then reverse the probe and measure again between
the same legs…if this transistor is ok it should not read same readily both
ways. At least you should get a high and low reading if it is okay.
This transistor usually short collector-emitter junction but also short
between base and emitter occurs If you doubt your reading in the circuit
then you can lift up the middle leg and measure again and this time expect
to get high-high reading both ways.
Now if you are not happy with your results from this transistor, replace it
and again don’t power the television directly from the power source but
always power it up using the series bulb limiter that I have introduced to
you in chapters 8 to avoid possible damage to your replaced component if
shorts still exists.
After replacement and powering on this will guide you to the next move,
at least now with the transistor replaced and the surge limiter or the fuse
you should expect voltage to flow up to the middle leg of this transistor if
there is not open components on the path Before that you should measure
the voltage between the main capacitor and see if it is present and right
voltage..in countries using 240 vac expect 320 vdc across this capacitor or
155 vdc for countries using 110 vac outlet. if Voltage at the main
capacitor is less than normal probably that main capacitor is faulty or a
diode has open up.
If absolutely zero it means there is an open components on the path and
you should check back with your meter in continuity mode.
If you are happy up to here then confirm there is voltage on the middle leg
of the Chopper transistor D1710c (320 or 155 volts)
If this voltage is present now check the voltage at the base of this
transistor. There must be some voltage here in order for the transistor to
switch.
On the above diagram you can see the actual circuit of an Akira TV and
the actual voltage I took on a working set for the purpose of this lesson.
On the circuit they are using C4429 but because it is not common in my
market I have been using D1710 which is readily available without any
problems.
If there is no Voltage at the base then two things are possible.
1. One of the resistor (start up) have opened) in our case R521, R520 or
the big resistor at the base of this chopper transistor.
2. The chopper transistor (C1710) has shorted base-emitter or transistor
V512 (C3807) is shorted Collector - emitter junction.
I advise you to replace this transistor (V512 c3807) directly every time
you find the transistor V513 is Shorted because it goes together most at the
time and to avoid call back please change it even if it tests good to your
meter.
These two voltages are very important and you should make sure they are
present in order to make the next decision.
Tip: Please note that the high value resistor (start up resistor has a high
failure rate and when they fail (usually open) the power supply will appear
dead.
Also if they open the main capacitor will retain power because they are
also used as bleeder resistor for the main capacitor (bleeder means
discharge path) and therefore whenever you find the main capacitor is still
holding charge after a long time most probably one of these resistors is
open. So even if you find the supply is dead make it a habit to measure the
voltage across this capacitor because it could be still be holding charge.
If there is voltage on the base of this transistor and at the collector pin then
most probably the problem is on the secondary side.
Chapter 6: Understanding the Secondary power supplies
If the switch mode power supply (s.m.p.s) is okay and working the way it
should then it will produce several outputs on the secondary side to supply
different blocks in the television set.
Usually the number of output from the secondary side of the chopper
transformer varies from model to model but basically the minimum is two
outputs.
To start with let analyze the secondary supply of the Akira TV made in
china. Please note that by analyzing this television secondary supplies we
will have covered all the china made televisions because from my
experience these set are using the same circuit diagram, the only different
is the external cover and the model name but the moment you open one
you will find that the circuit board is the same with very little variation and
the moment you master one model there you go..These television include
include GLD,AUCMA, FLAMINGO, etc.
Below you can see the diagram of the Akira television made in china and
if you look at the circuit below you notice that it has several secondary
output and we will analyze them one by one.
Before you analyze them first let me point out that all measurement on the
secondary side of the power supply we shall be using the cold ground has
we learn t in earlier chapter.
Also to check the output voltage from the chopper transformer you have to
measure Voltage at the Cathode Of the secondary diode.
These secondary diodes are not the ordinary diode, they are fast recovery
diodes and therefore whenever you find any shorted be sure to replace
with the same type...Usually start with FR or UF. Better still you can
salvage these diodes from waste board if you test them and find them
okay.
With that let us analyze the output for this television:
B1-109 Volts
This is what is commonly known as B+ supply and it is the source that
supplies the fly back with the much required voltage in order for fly back
to function. It is also the secondary supply which is monitored by the
feedback circuit and therefore this output is coupled back to the primary
circuit by use of Opto- coupler.
Therefore whenever you find the TV has no high voltage ( or nothing is on
the screen) it is important to check this voltage. Also if you find this
voltage is low it could be due to bad filter capacitor for that line.
Usually this filter capacitor working voltage is rated at 160 volts so it a big
one. Whenever you suspect it you can always confirm by substitution.
B2-19 Volts
This source supply the audio circuit and it’s not regulated and therefore it
keep on changing depending on the demand of the amplifier.
If this source is missing the TV will loss the audio part and therefore there
will be no audio from the Television Set.
If the voltage on this source is low check the filter capacitor for this line or
the actual audio ic has shorted.
B3-180 Volts
This source supply the RGB circuit to supply the three RGB amplifiers
(red, green and blue) Please note that although the take off for 180 volts is
from the base of the fly back transformer this voltage is actually from the
smps unlike other model like Jvc, Sony, Samsung with the source is
usually from the fly back secondary.
This means that if there develop a short on the small RGB circuit on the
CRT neck board it will cause the supply not to start.
B4-24 Volts
This voltage supplies the vertical circuit and also the horizontal drive
circuit. It has a high Failure rate in these models from china and mostly
you find the filter capacitor for this source swollen on top and usually
replacing those two capacitors always cure the problem. Mostly affected is
the vertical source.
B5-13 volts
Used to supply the regulator eg 9 volts and 5 volts regulators
B6-9 volts
This source supply the Horizontal oscillator voltage(H-vcc) RGB voltage,
I.F vcc and Turner Vcc, please note that if this voltage is missing there
will be no Hv voltage and therefore nothing on the screen. Always confirm
the present of this voltage.
5 Volts
This voltage is used for the microprocessor, reset, remote sensor, memory
and power on LED and therefore also be sure to confirm this source.
For other models like the JVC, SONY, SAMSUNG etc please note the
procedure is the same but for the RGB voltage and vertical voltage is taken
from the secondary of the fly back transformer.
Chapter 7: Main power fuse keep on blowing
When you receive a television in your repair shop, it is usually very important
to check the health of the power supply.
You can quickly check for obvious safety components to see if they have been
triggered on due to fault elsewhere or not.
The main safety components in the television power supply is the fuse and the
surge limiter I mean triggered by fault elsewhere because rarely does a fuse or
surge limiter blows alone, there must a cause why it has blown.
Whenever you find any of these component is open and you replace it most of
the time you will find that the same component open again.
This is because there is a fault(short) somewhere else and what the fuse is doing
is a safety measure to cut off the supply otherwise fire can even break out from
the equipment.
So the rule of the thumb is that whenever you find a fuse or surge limiter is
gone never replace it until you have checked the condition of the switching
transistor or control ic in that power supply.
To check the switching transistor set analogue meter to X1 and measure
between leg marked C and E
1) With the red probe on the middle leg C and black probe on leg marked E.
2) With the black probe on the middle leg C and the red probe on the leg
marked E.
If you get the same reading on your meter then the transistor is probably
shorted, you can confirm that by pulling the middle leg out of the circuit and
measure again. You should not get two reading.
If you get two reading again when the middle leg is removed from the circuit
then the transistor is shorted and should be replaced.
Usually transistor fail by shorting collector-emitter junction but also short

between base-emitter in possible but not very common.
For the control ic like str-6653 you can check if it is shorted by lifting up the
main Voltage In pin and see if the short has gone.
How? Usually when the switching transistor is shorted or the control ic…when
you measure the resistance across the main capacitor you find that it will appear
also shorted but when you lift up the middle leg of the switching transistor or
the main vcc in pin of the control ic you will notice that the short will go
indicating to you that the shorted component was the transistor/control ic.
There are other hard to find short on the power supply which also can make the
fuse or surge limiter to blow and to get hold of them I am going to introduce to
you another trick for checking these shorted components.
Before that there are other components also which when they short can cause
the fuse or surge limiter to go and these are usually components which are
directly placed in the circuit parallel to the main power supply...Yes component
in parallel but not in series.
These includes the component marked with arrow below, you can relate them to
the actual circuit board.
In chapter 8 I am going to show you how to make a series bulb to find shorted
components quickly
When doing you troubleshooting in electronics equipments you will find several
types of transistors and therefore below I have only isolated the very common
types found and how to identify which leg is which fast in order to test them
quickly without having to check which leg is which.
Basically a transistor has three legs. 1. Base 2.Collector 3.Emitter.
The above examples of transistor have the leg distribution shown above, so you
can easily tell
the collector, emitter and base leg when testing.
Little tip on how to test a transistor
Testing NPN transistor…consider it like two diode connected back to back as

shown above
1. testing between base and collector expect high and low on your meter on
diode test
2. testing between the base and emitter expect again high and low on your meter
on diode test
3. Testing collector and emitter expect high both ways.
Testing NPN transistor…again use the same principle
Use this rule when measuring the switching transistor (SOT) but when testing
HOT please note that Most have in built internal diode between collector and
emitter and therefore if you measure between these legs you will get high and
low.
Also HOT have a low ohm resistor between the base and emitter and therefore
if you measure between the base and emitter leg on diode test you will get two
reading but doesn’t mean the transistor is shorted but because of the base
resistor.
In conclusion any transistor which has two reading between the collector and
emitter should be considered bad.
Mostly high power transistor fail by shorting collector - emitter but also short
between base and emitter is possible but not very common.
If you notice a previous repair to a TV or monitor the switching transistor

(S.O.T) or the Horizontal output transistor (H.O.T) were replaced it is very
important to make sure they are replaced correctly otherwise some technicians
without good knowledge may replace a H.O.T with a S.O.T because they look
almost the same physically.
Chapter 8: Do it yourself series lamp current limiter
In this lesson we are going to learn how to make a series bulb current limiter
Materials required
Bulb holder 2
Socket (with switch) 1
Main Plug 1
Power Cable 1
Piece plywood 1
Screws 6
Surface box 1
Bulbs 75W/100W/150W
Below is the circuit diagram of the series bulb
The internal picture of the circuit after being assembled
The series bulb now completely assembled and ready to use
When you complete assembling the series bulb, we are now ready to set it so
that it is now put in use Connect the series bulb plug to the AC power outlet and
connect the device under test power cable to the Series bulb socket as shown on
the diagram below
When to use this gadget (series bulb current limiter)
Whenever you receive equipment in your workshop and find either the fuse or
the surge limiter is broken you should not replace any of the two component and
apply power because most of the time the same component will blow again.
This will even lead to more damage to the equipment or worst still you find that
you replaced an expensive component and immediately you apply power the
component is gone.
This will not happen again if you use this gadget whenever you encounter the
above symptoms in your troubleshooting work.
When you replace the fuse or the surge limiter and you power the equipment via
the series bulb in most cases you will observe the following.
1. Bulb is very bright and does not change even after one minute.
Means: there is short in the supply
2. Bulb light very bright and then goes down to dim
Means: There is no short-you can even power the equipment directly from the
power outlet.
3. Bulb lights is Pulsating
Means the bulb wattage needs to be increased or there is some problem on the
secondary side of the supply. The power is trying to come up but being pulled
down. It could be even dry joints on the secondary side of the power supply.
Note: If you find the bulb light is pulsating try to increase the wattage of the
bulb by using two 100 watts bulbs instead of 75w and 100w...for big screen use
the 150 watts bulb and 75 watt bulb.
Also note that you can use only one bulb like 150 watts. It is not a must you
insert the two bulbs for the gadget to work.
For best results always use the dummy load (60watts) on the B+ as
indicated in Chapter 4 of this book.
Chapter 9: Using the series bulb for find shorted component on the
primary supply
In chapter seven we discussed some of the causes that can cause the fuse or the
surge limiter to blow
In this lesson we are going to learn how you can use the series bulb to find hard
to find short in the primary power supply... I mean primary because short on the
secondary side rarely causes the fuse to blow but only causes the power supply
to appear dead.
Sometimes component can develop semi short and very hard to test them with a
meter like one time I came across a transistor which was shorted base-emitter
junction which was around 82 ohms and as you know most meter recognize a
short if it reads less than 30 ohms.
Therefore a component which is shorted and the reading is higher than 30 ohms
the meter will assume that it is okay but when you subject that component to the
power source then it will manifest as short
This is where this gadget comes in to help locate the component which is
presenting short under load
Using the above diagram/circuit you can disconnect the component highlighted
with an arrow one at a time and the moment you disconnect the culprit you will
notice that the brightness will go down.
First disconnect the middle leg of the switching transistor and see if the bulb
brightness changes.
1. If the bulb is still very bright then it could be a component before that
transistor (switching) like the bridge diode, ceramic capacitors across the bridge
diode, main capacitor, posistor etc
2. If the bulb brightness goes down then it could be that actual transistor or
some components connected to its base leg like capacitor C517 or transistor
V512 shorted collector-emitter.
For the supply that is using the control ic like the str-6653 just pull out the main
vcc-in pin for 300Volts or 155 volts on countries with 110 Vac
Please note that this pin number may change according to ic used, to tell this leg
number you can measure with a continuity from the main capacitor( +)to any of
the ic pin and the one with continuity from the main capacitor(+) that the main
supply pin.
Chapter 10: Understanding the Horizontal circuits
Horizontal circuit is another area which operates under a lot of stress in crt
television and monitors and therefore you will find more problems on this block
more than any other on the secondary circuit
The main source of the secondary circuit in terms of high current which
supplies the main load in crt television and monitor is the B+ supply.
This is the power which supplies the fly back transformer to get other voltages
which are generated by the fly back transformer just like the voltage which we
saw in our previous lesson being generated by the switch mode power supply.
Horizontal circuit can be divided into two sections.
1. Horizontal drive circuit
2. Horizontal output circuit
From the diagram above the circuit on your left of the blue vertical line is the
horizontal drive circuit
Basically this circuit is composed of five important components which includes.
1. RC- network-used to protect the drive transistor from induces voltages from
the drive transformer
2. Current resistor-Set the current and voltage to the driver stage
3. Filter Capacitor-Filter and boost the current to the driver stage by charging
and discharging through the drive transformer primary.
4. Drive transistor-act as on/off switch, can be either a bipolar or MOSFET

transistor.
5. Drive transformer-this is basically used for impedance matching between the

horizontal drive circuit and horizontal output circuit
In the diagram below you can there is high voltage on the primary of the drive
transformer and low voltage on the secondary side.
Using ohms laws (V=I x R ) we can conclude that on the input we have high
Voltage and low current on the primary side and low voltage and high current
on the secondary side which is very important to drive the Horizontal output
transistor(H.O.T)
Besides the component I have explained there is also the horizontal oscillator
which generates the horizontal pulses and this is usually in the main ic.
This oscillator requires supply voltage in order to operate and therefore if you
find no pulses at the horizontal out pin please be sure to check that the H-vcc is
present and correct value.
Usually H-vcc comes from a regulator like 7809 and therefore 9 volts but other
voltages are also possible and the best way to confirm this is to use the circuit
diagram for the same TV model.
The horizontal vcc source should be ripple free and therefore if the H-vcc filter
capacitor develop high esr will cause the horizontal oscillator not to work and
hence no drive to the horizontal circuit and the TV will have no high voltage.
What can go wrong on the horizontal oscillator block
Usually this section has low failure rate and in most cases the problem is the H-
vcc which sometimes is missing, low or improper value and this can be caused
by failure of filter capacitor on that line or the regulator for the line which has
developed some problem usually this regulator is the 9 volts IC.
Also note there is a non polarity capacitor on the same pin to pass his spikes to
the ground and if it is shorted it will cause the H-vcc to fall and hence no output
from the oscillator.
If the H-vcc is correct and still you get no pulses from the H-out pin then
probably this I.C is has a problem.
It is very important to note here that the pins used in this material are just for
education purposes otherwise you should check which pin is which on the
actual TV ic datasheet from the internet.
What can go wrong with horizontal drive circuit block
First confirm you have horizontal pulses on pin 23, if it is present check if you
get also pulses before and after R1, If you get horizontal pulses before R1 and
no pulses after R1then most probably R1 is open or value altered. Please
confirm the correct value for this resistor with your meter and use the resistor
color code to determine the resistor value. if the pulses are low and R1 is getting
hot then it means horizontal drive transistor is shorted base- emitter junction.
If you check and find everything is okay up to here, check if there is voltage on
the collector leg of the driver transistor (usually the middle leg) but you can
confirm which leg is which.
If this voltage is missing check if the current resistor is open or check backward
looking for the open component which is preventing that supply.
Please note that if the filter capacitor on that line develops high esr usually it
will cause the supply to drop but not to zero.
Also if the actual driver transistor become shorted will cause the supply to go
down but pulsating.
Low voltage and pulsating are indication of shorted components. Just use a
circuit diagram to check for components that are taking this supply directly to
the ground.
Also dry joint are very common around this area and therefore make it a
practice to always do some Re-soldering of the horizontal driver transformer
and the surrounding components before you even start troubleshooting.
Above you can see the actual component of the horizontal drive circuit, the
horizontal drive transformer comes in different sizes and shape, one pin is
connected to the base of the H.O.T and another leg is connected to the Collector
of the driver transistor near it.
On this same transformer expect to find two legs with voltage and other two
without voltage (negligible)
What can go wrong with horizontal output circuit block?
After the horizontal driver stage now let move on to the horizontal output
circuit.
In the above diagram you can see the major components of horizontal output
circuits.
First you have the H.O.T which act as an on/off switch when it receives pulses
on its base if there is no pulses at the base of the H.O.T it will be an open switch
and therefore there will be no generation of HV from the fly back transformer.
But if there is pulses at the base of H.O.T and the +B1 voltage is present the
transistor switch on and off very fast and by doing so current will flow through
the primary of the fbt to the ground and this will cause voltages to appear on the
secondary of the fbt and also Hv, screen, focus voltages will be generated.
Please note the drive transformer on the circuit reference start with T... Like
T401 but for Horizontal linearity coil start with L… like L401
What happen if these component fails?
Flyback transformer
Short in primary winding- if the fbt primary coil get shorted it will cause the B+
voltage to go down and when this happens then the components of regulation
will cause the primary control chip to run faster in order to maintain the
regulated B+ source and this will cause this chip or Transistor to get shorted and
this will again cause the fuse or the surge limiter to open.
Please note that if any faults happen on the secondary side of the power supply
which cause the B+ to drop will also cause the same problem.
May I note here also that a shorted component on the secondary of the fbt will
also make the B+ to fall.
Open primary winding.-if the primary coil of the fbt open there will be no High
voltage generation but it is quite rare. Sometimes fbt may test okay but when
subjected to load present the short. Therefore whenever in doubt please do
substitution with a known good fbt.
Tip:
if you find a resistor on the ABL circuit is burnt it means the fly back internal
HV block is shorted and therefore the fly back must be replaced.
If the ABL pin is not marked on the television circuit board you can tell the pin
by testing for continuity The ABL pin should not have any continuity with any
other pins of the fly back. Also if you find the fly back is cracked it means is
faulty and must be replaced
2. Snubber capacitor
This capacitor is connected between the HOT collector leg and the emitter, it
also called safety Capacitor or timing capacitor.
The snubber capacitor can fail by shorting, open or capacitance value change by
increasing or decreasing .If the snubber capacitor short it will load down the B+
and hence the power supply will not start or will appear dead
If the snubber capacitor open the high voltage(HV) will increase a lot and this
will lead to the HOT transistor getting shorted also or may cause the x-ray
protection circuit to kick in and stop the power supply from starting.
On the other hand the snubber capacitor may loose its capacitance and this
usually causes the screen to be narrow but the HV increases. If the HV increases
one can even hear a cracking sound from the fly back transformer because of
this high voltage.
On the other hand if the snubber increases in capacitance value the screen will
be wide but the HV will go down (e.g. from 25 kV to 15 kV depending on the
television type and model.
Horizontal output transistor (H.O.T)
Rarely does the HOT goes alone and therefore whenever you find the HOT is
shorted please follow the procedure given in the next chapter to avoid it getting
shorted again.
When the H.O.T short the power supply will block and therefore TV will appear
dead but if you lift up H.O.T middle leg (collector) the power supply will start.
If the S-capacitor, H-linearity coil or the Horizontal yoke open there will be a
single vertical line on the screen.
Sometimes the television may go into shutdown for safety purposes, it is a

serious problem and therefore don’t put the television on with this kind of
problem because it can cause more damages.
Also if any of those components short it will load down the horizontal supply
and this can cause the television not to start.
If the horizontal yoke is shorted it will overload the horizontal supply(B+) very
much and the television will not start but if you remove the yoke connector you
find that the B+ voltage will increase.
Also note that dry joints around these components including the horizontal yoke
connector can cause the same symptoms like an open component and therefore
make it a practice to re solder these areas.
Chapter 11: understanding fly back transformer
Fly back transformer is probably the biggest component on the television

motherboard and in this lesson we are going to familiarize yourself with this
component.
The fly back transformer is feed with the main supply from the power supply
called the B+ which is a direct current(dc) and in return generates other voltages
like the eht which is over 24 kV volts Dc for the EHT cap , the focus Voltage
between 5 kV to 8 kV and the screen voltage which is around 200 to 800 vdc
On the body of the fly back transformer it has two adjustable Potentiometers,
the upper one adjusts the focus voltage and the lower one adjusts the screen
Voltage. The screen voltage behaves as brightness control and therefore
whenever you find the screen is dark especially after replacing the fly back and
the screen is still dark even after using the remote brightness control button then
consider adjusting this knob little and see if the brightness increases.
The focus knob is used to focus the picture and therefore if you find again after
replacing the fly back the picture is dis focused then you also try to adjust the
focus knob a little.
If you adjust the focus and still not change to the picture then perhaps the CRT
is faulty or the fly back itself is bad, but before you change these, first change
the CRT neck socket and see if the focus improves.
Also in some model the RGB amplifiers supply comes from the fly back
transformer(usually around 180 Vdc) This Voltage if it is missing or low
usually causes the screen to be very bright and with lines across the screen but
when this voltage is high causes the screen to appear dark(blank).
Besides these Voltages the fly back also produces out other lower voltages
between 12 volts and 45 volts for use in other circuits like the vertical ic supply
in some models. So if any television model is using the Vertical ic supply from
the fly back transformer and this source has a problem the screen will have a
single horizontal line across the screen. You can always trace back from the
vertical ic to find what is blocking this voltage, usually if the vertical ic short it
will cause the fusible resistor on the fly back pin source to that ic to open.
Finally we also have between 3 to 6 Vac from the fly back transformer to
supply the heater circuit at the CRT neck board. Please note that this voltage is
AC and therefore to measure it accurately you must set your meter to low AC
setting.
Also note that when measuring voltage from any transformer output you must
test after the diode with your meter set to Dc volts, this is after the Voltage has
been rectified but not before the diode.
The component side of the fly back transformer test points
The bottom side of the fly back transformer test points, your meter negative
probe should be on any of the Cold ground.
The fly back and the area around the fly back are prone to dry joints and loose
connection because of some vibration around these component and therefore it
good to re solder all the fly back pins plus the horizontal drive transformer and
the Horizontal output transistor plus the snubber capacitor even if look fine.
A component shorted on the secondary side of the fly back transformer can
cause the main power supply not to start and therefore always check for shorted
component on the secondary of the fly back before you suspect the fly back is
faulty.
If the main power supply does not start and you measure the resistance between
the collector-emitter junction of the HOT and it appear shorted in circuit. And
when you remove it from the circuit it test okay, then it means there is a
component on that path which is shorted. To isolate the shorted components just
disconnect the FR741 measure resistance across capacitor C744 positive and
negative pin if it indicate short remove ic 901(tda6107Q) from the circuit and if
the short goes it means that ic is shorted and must be replaced
Chapter 12: H.O.T getting shorted after replacement
This is a common phenomenon with HOT whereby a customer brings in a

Television and after checking it find out the Horizontal output transistor
(H.O.T) is shorted.
Naturally you replace the shorted transistor with a new one and you power on
the Television and it come up beautifully and before you begin to celebrate the
television goes down again(stop working)
You open the set and after checking the health of the same component (H.O.T)
you find alas it is shorted again.
This problem of H.O.T getting shorted immediately or after some times of

replacement has given many technician sleepless nights trying to figure out
what is happening here!!
In the lesson I am going to give you some tips on what to do to prevent the
H.O.T getting shorted after replacement.
To minimize the chances of the HOT getting shorted please make it an practice
to change the following components directly every time you do H.O.T
replacement.
High on the list is the snubber capacitor, this is also called the safety capacitor
and sometime it may of open, short or change its capacitance value and this
always have effect on the H.O.T.
Next are the dry joints around the horizontal drive and output components,
please make it a practice to do re soldering around these components including
the fly back pins every time you find the HOT shorted.
The drive transistor should be replaced directly without even measuring it,
sometimes it develop some leakage and hence cause the H.O.T to short after a
period of time.
Also be sure to check the esr of the filter capacitors involved in filtering the
horizontal circuits and if you suspect any just directly replace that capacitor.
In some television like the JVC they incorporate some component path to the
base to the HOT (Capacitor and choke) please be sure to replace them
directly….see diagram below.
If still the H.O.T is getting shorted then finally you may have to change the fly
back transformer or the horizontal oscillator is messed up and need replacement.
Chapter 13: Understanding and troubleshooting Color problems
When you receive a television in your shop with color problems but audio is
OK the best place to start your troubleshooting this kind of problem is the small
CRT neck circuit attached to the back of the CRT tube.
Usually color problems are easy to solve if you do some preparation to analyze
failure on this circuit and the best way to analyze this faults is to do voltage
testing on the critical test point of this circuit and by so doing you will narrow
down to the actual fault section pretty fast.
But first you need to have a rough estimate of the actual voltages expected on
those test points in order to analyze the information correctly.
Below I have reproduced a chart of estimated voltages at those points but may
vary from set to set but not too far from the figures below.
Now that there is something on the screen it means the HV is present and
therefore the fly back is okay and the heater circuit is okay and therefore not
considered for troubleshooting.
First check for dry joints around this circuit by tapping this small board with the
back of your screw driver and see if the color changes every time you tap this
circuit softly.
You can invest on a mirror (medium size) and be watching the screen from the
mirror when you are working behind the television and you want to see the
screen without straining yourself.
If the color keep on changing or you see some splashes on the screen expect dry
joints around this board and therefore you should re solder it thoroughly.
After that it is now time to do some voltage testing starting with the three
cathodes pins on the CRT neck board
In some television it is marked as KB, KG and KR, take the voltage between
this point and the cold ground and record the three voltages on a piece of paper.
Move your meter and test the base of the three RGB transistor amplifier and
record down your figures and finally test the voltage at the emitter of each of the
transistors and write down.
So the Red Cathode you should have three measurement for Collector, base and
emitter. Please note that the Collector voltage is almost same as the Cathode pin
voltages.
Also pay attention to the main supply for the RGB amplifier marked with the
violet/purple color below because if it fails it will affect all the three cathodes.
It is usually around 190 Volts dc and after passing a high value resistor is
reduced to 145 volts on to the collector of the RGB transistors.
If you measure and find any voltage at the cathode pin is zero perhaps one of
these high values is open and you can check with your meter.
Other cause of low voltage at the cathode pin is the transistor is shorted
collector-emitter junction hence creating a short to the ground.
Also if the base bias voltage is high it means the transistor is conduct more and
take the collector voltage to the ground.
When this situation happens where the collector voltage is reduced usually
results in that particular color increasing in intensity.
On the other hand if you find the collector/or the cathode voltage is high, for
example you get 190 volts instead of 145 volts this means the actual transistor is
open or there is no bias voltage at the base.
Any faults which make the collector voltage to increase usually causes that
color to disappear and therefore if the green color is missing the screen will be
purple/violet Blue missing screen will be yellow and if the red color is missing
screen will be sky blue
Also if the bias voltage is high for example if you have green Base voltage is 3
and blue base voltage is 3 and the red base voltage is 8 then the screen will be
too red. Same to others.
Tip
You also touch the big value resistor on this circuit and if any is too hot it
means there is a shorted component on that line, also if the resistor is cold
means there is an open component or circuit or even the very resistor is open.
This can help you to narrow down the problem if it is being caused by short or
open faults.
Chapter 14: Understanding and troubleshooting Vertical circuit
Another block where there is potential of problems in CRT television and

monitor is the vertical circuit.
Vertical circuit problems can be manifested in many ways and therefore one has
to be keen when getting clues associated with the vertical circuit because some
of them do not point directly to the vertical circuit has a problem but if one is
keen you can always tell if it’s the vertical problem causing the symptoms or
not.
From my experience whenever you see the television screen height is narrow
(does not occupy the whole area from the top to the bottom of the screen)
Then suspect some problem on the vertical circuit, others may have some write
line at the top or bottom part of the screen.
Others you can see a horizontal line across the screen but there is picture at the
top and below that line but the picture is somehow distorted/squashed but the
sound is okay in all those scenarios.
Also black stripe above and below the screen is common, symptoms like lines
on top of the screen or no image at the bottom points to a faulty Capacitor
around the vertical ic.
Scan around all the related capacitors around that ic, you can also touch those
capacitors with the power off and whatever is getting hot should be replaced.
Also any capacitor with the top silvery part slightly swollen is considered bad
and should be replaced directly-no need of testing.
Usually intermittent horizontal line points to dry joints on the vertical ic itself or
the vertical yoke connector.
Usually re-soldering all components around the vertical ic together with the ic
itself plus the yoke connector solve this problem in many cases.
Finally you can also touch the actual vertical ic again with the power off and see
if it is getting too hot for your fingers. It should not run very hot and if too hot
please change it directly.
Also lack of power supply to the vertical circuit(ic) can cause a complete field
collapse-one single horizontal line on the screen and therefore it is good practice
to verify that the vertical ic vcc pins are all getting voltage and the correct value.
There is a capacitor between two pins of the vertical ic and has a high failure
rate. If this capacitor dries up it will cause the screen to have some white lines
across the top of the screen.
Also any fault that open the path of the vertical pulses to the ground will cause
total field collapse
Be sure to check the filter capacitor to the vertical ic. If any has its top swollen
even a little please change it directly. This is very common with china made
television.
Chapter 15: Understanding and troubleshooting the Audio circuit
Some times on your line of repair you will encounter a case where a television
is brought in for repair with NO audio PICTURE OK symptoms.
Please note that I mean the picture is present and very clear but there is no
sound from the speaker. If it is no audio and no picture this is a different case
and should be handed on another topic
Below you can see an audio circuit of a television using ic LA4266. Things to
look for here includes.
a) First be sure the television is not muted via remote control.
b) Set your meter to low ohm and test between the two pins of the speaker. If
okay it should have low reading between 4 ohms and 16 ohms.
c) Check the supply to the audio ic is present and if not maybe the ic is shorted
or there is an open component on that line. Check back and see what is blocking
the voltage. It could be open diode or capacitor shorted to the ground.
d) If the sound is intermittent re solder the actual ic and also the component
around this ic.
e) If the above is okay then consider replacing the ic- you should also touch the
actual ic with power off and if it is getting very hot then you should replace it
directly.
Low audio output from the speaker.
If the output sound is low then it could be the actual ic is faulty or the output
Coupling capacitor has developed high esr and should be replaced.
Distorted sound from the speaker
If the sound from the speaker is distorted it could be the input coupling
capacitor is faulty, speaker paper cone or dry joints on the actual audio ic or the
component around it.
Chapter 16: Understanding and troubleshooting the Tuner circuit
If you receive a set with the symptoms no AUDIO and No PICTURE then the
best place to be troubleshoot is the Tuner circuit.
Usually for the tuner to function it will require the Vcc-in the above model is 9
volts and if this voltage is missing then the tuner will not work and hence no
picture and no audio.
Also tuners which use varicap to tune require the tuning voltage(VT) which is
usually around 30 volts but when one is doing channel search this voltage can
vary between zero to 30 volts and therefore be sure to confirm this voltage
because without it the tv will not be able to tune channels.
AGC voltages is another important supply and this help to adjust the gain of the
tuner automatically depending on the signal strength. This voltage can vary
between 3 volts and 9 volts depending with the TV model.
If you test and find these voltages are present and still no audio and no picture
then check for dry joints inside the components inside the tuner itself. This is
very common with sony TV but all model are possible to have dry joints inside
the tuner also.
Also be sure to re solder all components related to the tuner.
To open the inside of the tuner you need to solder it out of the circuit to avoid
disturbing other component around the tuner.
In order to see dry joints inside the tuner it is necessary you use a magnifying
glass and therefore you need to add one to your work bench.
Chapter 17: Understanding and troubleshooting the micro processor
Just like computers television set have micro processor which control the
functions of the Television.
Microprocessors are quite reliable and highly protected from static discharge
and power surges.
Most of the time if you suspect the problem is as a result of bad micro you
should first be sure that the following is okay because if any of the following is
missing then the micro will not work.
1. Micro power supply- usually 5 volts
2. Micro reset supply- usually 5 volts
3. Crystal oscillator is okay.
Also be sure to check the two ceramic capacitors on the input and output of the
crystal oscillator if one is shorted then the micro also will not work.
If any of the above is missing/has a problem then the micro will not work and it
will appear like the actual micro failure but when you correct the problem the
micro will be up again.
Please note that the ic used here is for educational purposes only and therefore
the pin reference can change depending on the television model.
Finally if you touch on top of the micro and find that it is getting hot and the
voltage is very low(less than 2 volts) then most probably is shorted and must be
replaced.
To confirm if the micro is shorted find the micro vcc pin and unsolder it and if
the television is now getting powered it means the micro is shorted.
I mean if the micro is shorted the television appear dead with power on LED off
but if you unsolder the micro vcc pin you will find the TV power on LED-
Lights and this will confirm to you that the micro is shorted.
This is very common with JVC TVs from my experience but other models also
can have the same problem.
Usually micro are expensive and therefore it good to always keep junk of dead
television set because most of the time television go to the dust bin with this
crucial ic in working condition.
Chapter 18: Understanding and troubleshooting the remote control
The remote control circuit in television works like the transmitter and receiver
in radio circuit.
Inside the remote control there is a circuit which emits pulses (signal) and in the
TV circuit board we have another circuit which receiver signal and these pulses
are send to the microprocessor for interpretations and action.
Usually if you receiver a case where the remote is not working it is important to
isolate if indeed it’s the remote having the problem or the receiver inside the
television.
To isolate the problem you need to confirm if the television front buttons are
working and the remote is not working. If the front buttons are working then
only can we suspect the remote control unit.
If you open a remote control unit you will find very few components and an ic,
this ic is very stable and rarely get fault and therefore should be last on the list
of suspect.
The crystal oscillator is very fragile and get faulty very easy especially if the
remote is dropped and therefore if you suspect the remote has been dropped just
change the crystal oscillator and In most cases cure the problem with the remote
control.
Other problems with remote control you can easily pick them if you are keep at
the board, but the common one includes: bad connection between the battery
contacts and circuit board. Crystal leg broken or loose, corroded battery
contacts, dust between the key pad and the circuit.
To test a remote control without its model TV you can use an AM radio and
tune around 530 kHz and try to press the buttons of the remote control and if the
remote is working then you should hear pulses through the speaker of the radio.
On the other hand if the remote receiver inside the TV is not working still you
will not be able to use the remote control.
Usually it has 3 legs and near to the power ON led inside the television circuit
board and in most cases its black in color.
Of the 3 legs, two should have 5 volts and the other one is zero (ground) if the 5
volts supply is missing try checking backward and find what is blocking the
supply.
Also there is usually a small electrolytic capacitor with can cause problems if it
has dried up and therefore should be changed directly.
Chapter 19: LG Television NO PICTURE- AUDIO OK blue background
This is a LG television made in Egypt (or is it made or assembled in Egypt) and

the customer complain was No picture but audio is okay.
So I went down to his residence to check on it…remember most of my repairs

are done on the site and therefore I normally do some preparation for the task
ahead of the time.
In this assignment I had prepared myself with the basic equipment plus a circuit
diagram of the LG television (any) because mostly TV circuit diagram for a
particular model are very similar in terms of major circuit modules.
In this case from the symptoms given by the owner via the phone I was very
sure the problem was likely to be on the CRT circuit board, so I went down to
his place and found he was not around but the houseboy was around to assists
me with what I wanted.
Asking him about the television he told me that there was another technician
there and I wanted to know how far he went into the television even before I
opened it and he confided with me the technician came and after a keen
observation on the screen for about ten minutes without his eyes blinking he
told them that the problem is new in the world and therefore he sees no hope on
the television and therefore the best place for it is in the dustbin or make it a toy
for his children.
My friend that is why it is very important always to get a second opinion even
in the medical world.
I mean if your doctor tell you that your leg need to be amputated (God forbid)
please ask him/her for some times and get another doctor to hear his opinion.
For me I was very happy with this technician because he was honest with
himself and never attempted to repair it because he could have done even more
mess. So I opened the set and went straight to the small CRT circuit (RGB)
I did a voltage testing on the points highlighted and filled the figures (voltages)
on the sheet of circuit diagram I had carried with me as shown below.
Now let us analyze the fact at hand…in electronics we deal with facts, in our
case at hand the facts are voltage measurements and being voltages they are
represented by figures and as you know figures never tell lies and therefore
when need to deal with this truth.
From the figures and from what my electronics teacher told me about the RGB
circuit I was not happy with the figures for the BLUE cathode at the CRT pins
connector which was at 65 volts…as a rule of thumb the voltage at this point for
the three cathode should be nearly the same with an margin of plus or minus 5
volts between the three cathodes and therefore the 65 volts on the blue cathode
is first suspect.
So I tried to figure out why this voltage is very low compared to others , looking
at the voltages on the B-C-E of the Blue transistor amplifier I noted that it has 4
Volts at the BASE and 4 volts at the EMITTER..
Again I am not happy with this because the Voltage drop across the base-
emitter of a transistor should be between 0.3volts to 0.7 volts for silicon
transistors but in this case was zero.
Did I say zero? Yes this means the voltage entering the base is 4 volts and
coming out at emitter is 4 volts again…how can it be?
The only reasoning is that the transistor is shorted base-emitter junction and
hence behaving like a jumper across the base and emitter.
So I decided to remove this transistor out of the circuit completely and actually I
was able to get a picture but missing the blue color and therefore the screen was
yellowish..THE PRODUCT OF RED AND GREEN.
With that I concluded that the blue amplifier transistor is actually the culprit and
having a few of these transistor at all times I rushed to the workshop and back
with two pieces of the type and replaced it.
I replaced the transistor and the picture was back to normal.
Chapter 20: PANASONIC TV MODEL TC-14E1T with intermittent single
horizontal line (blue).
Sometimes screen is lit but no picture, sound ok. Also the osd(i.e. channel
number is visible but blurred)
Intermittent problems are mostly caused by dry joints; you can confirm this by
hitting the Television gently with bare hand on the sides. This I did and
confirmed there were many dry joint because the screen kept on changing.
Sometimes I even managed to get a picture, which was reddish purple in color. I
mean this Television has all sort of weird symptoms.
The Television was using I.C LA7837 for the vertical Drive so I decided to
Google for the datasheet of this IC and I bumped on this shown in the diagram
below.
You know sometimes if you fail to get the circuit diagram of the exact model
you are working on you can go round this problem by getting only the data
sheet of the suspect I.C and this can go a long way in assisting you to know
which pin is which for proper diagnosis.
Very important is the supply (v cc pin) which is very important because a new
working I.C from the factory is as good as a bad one if the V CC supply is
missing, it’s like trying to drive a new car without gasoline.
That is why it is very important to make sure the supply voltage to any I.C is
present and is correct value.
So from the data sheet I was able to see that for this particular I.C LA7837 it is
feed by three Voltage sources.
Pin 1 is feed with 12 Volt DC; pin 8 and 13 is feed with 24 volts each, Please
note that the 12 volts is from the secondary of the power supply and the 24
Volts is from the secondary of the fly back transformer and therefore one can
fail and the other remain but still the vertical I.C will not work.
I mean if any of the three supplies is missing the vertical I.C will not work and
therefore if you find any of the supply missing be sure to do the voltage testing
from that pin backward and find out what is blocking the voltage.
Look for open fusible resistor or filter capacitor for that line has developed high
ESR. Usually if capacitor has high ESR causes the supply for that line to drop.
One thing I was sure about is that there was a problem with the vertical circuit. I
measured all the components around the vertical I.C and they seem okay
according to my meter.
The voltages were also okay to me. I.e. main supply 24volts both sides of the
diode, and 12 volts for pin 1.
After doing a lot of re-soldering on all the suspect areas including the main ic
which generate the vertical pulses I finally decided to change the vertical ic.
This made the Television come back to life.
Below see the actual vertical circuit of this Panasonic Television
Conclusion:
1. Intermittent horizontal line in crt television and monitor is usually caused by

dry joint on the Vertical IC or dry joints on the vertical yoke connector
2. Capacitor dried up…try touching the top of electrolytic capacitors around the
vertical ic and whichever is getting hot should be replaced.
If all the supply voltage to the vertical ic are okay and still you are experiencing
vertical failure symptoms consider replacing the vertical I.C directly.
Chapter 21: Gold star TV vertical partially closed
This Gold star television came in with the customer complains the picture has a
problem…so I powered the television to confirm his report.
As a technician it is very important to confirm what the customer has said in his
presence otherwise the set might have gone to another technician with no color
symptoms and when the customer picked it from technician A he/she didn’t
bother to check the condition after staying at this technician A for six months
with the usual excuse of lack of spares.. And was just returned to the box and
brought to technician B who in this case happens to be you.
No color symptoms you have figured it is not a big deal and therefore you will
hold it a bit to attend more serious repairs...so two days later you decide to
work on that set with no color.
So you apply power with your eyes fixed on the screen to confirm what the
customer told you two days ago.
Pressed POWER ON button and nothing happens.
Checking on the power outlet it working well and therefore you decide to open
the set to see if the fuse is gone and when you finally open the television you
notice the fuse is okay but a lot of the circuit has been tampered with and
components even missing including the microprocessor, you know how much it
cost in your local currency.
Just when you have confirmed the above here comes the customer coming to
see the progress of the set and as you begin to thank him for coming your way
so that you can show him how his set was abused by the previous repairers he
tells you that he only knows you and if you are not able to fix his set just bring
it back the way it was with” NO COLOR SYMPTOMS’. Or he calls the police.
These things happen and if they have not happened to you yet please take my
advice otherwise history does repeat itself.
So I applied the rule above and I switched on the Gold star television and I
observed the following:-
1. The set came up beautifully and I noticed the picture was partially closed
with a black slip below and on top of the screen.
2. Sound was okay.
As a technician you can make a lot of conclusion just by watching the screen if
you have a good knowledge on how that equipment circuit works.
Let do some conclusions from the above observations.
A: There is something on the screen in our case CRT television. This means the
primary power supply is okay, horizontal drive circuits is okay, horizontal
output circuit(fly back, EHT, screen, focus, heater, RGB circuit) are doing their
work well.
Beside the picture is covering the whole screen width(horizontal) and therefore
we can conclude that the horizontal circuit, primary power supply and the audio
circuit are okay and therefore not considered for trouble shooting.
B: The picture is height is low…then have a problem here because we expected

the picture height to cover the whole height and the circuit which is supposed to
open the picture upwards and down seems to have a problem.
So my conclusion was that there must be a problem with vertical circuit of that
television.
I open the set looking for the vertical circuit and after scanning a bit I noticed
three capacitors which have their top swollen a bit as you can see in the picture
below.
I decided to confirm my eyes by doing an ESR on the three capacitors and they
were as follows C564 1 000uF/25 was 35 ohms, capacitor C562 470uF/35V was
20 ohms and C457 1000uF/25V was 8 ohms.
All of them were way too far from the good ones which should have been less
than 0.5 ohms and therefore I replaced the three and that solved the low height
symptoms.
Latter I checked my circuit diagrams achieve and I got this circuit which has a
circuit near that television because I could not get the exact circuit and I
observed the following.
In the above diagram notice the two filter capacitor for the secondary source B4
27 Volts and B6 10 Volts.
Both supplies for the vertical circuit with ic LA78040 shown below.
Also I hope it is good to point out here that almost all ics are feed with two or
more power sources as seen below on this ic and many others.
On the circuit above you can capacitor C457 1000/25V which was also swollen
has also some effect on the vertical circuit because as you can see the vertical
pulses from the ic passes through the vertical yoke through this capacitor down
to the ground via 1 ohm resistor R459.
As you know capacitors does not drive direct current therefore only vertical
pulses will pass to the ground.
Also note that if the resistor 459 (1ohm/1watt) open it will also have some
effect on the vertical circuit…this resistor has a high failure rate and therefore
be on look out whenever you have a vertical problem.
Chapter 22: Samsung Television dead
I received a phone call from a customer who wanted me to go and check his
television which has developed a problem and was not working.
So I walked to his residence for that mission with a few tools: a multi meter
which in electronics world is actually the eyes of the technician, I mean you
can’t see electricity (voltage) with your own eyes but the meter can see and tell
you if there is voltage or not and a screwdriver to open up the set.
The set was brought to me and I asked a brief history of the set especially the
last moment before it died, I was told there was some smoke seen coming out of
the set before they switched of quickly.
I didn’t intend to confirm that by powering it on again and therefore I opened

the set and started scanning around the power supply looking for a component
with catastrophic failure because I figured that since there was smoke, there
must have some fire also and where there is fire there must be a heat mark or
component swollen or broken to pieces.
Yes! I noted one capacitor with the top part swollen, the capacitor was rated
100uF/160V, in electronics sometimes if you don’t have the schematic you can
have an idea of the voltage expected on any line by using the working voltage
of the main filter capacitor of that line, for example usually when designing
circuit the rule of the thumb is that the working voltage of the filter capacitor
should be double the expected voltage on that line.
Therefore a capacitor rated 160 volts like the one above expect around 90 volts
to 120 volts on that line, usually in television this capacitor with the 160Volts
rating supply the B+ voltage to the fly back and therefore it is the main source
on the secondary side of the power supply output.
Next I decided to check the state of the fuse and it passed the meter test with
flying colors, so I decided to apply power and do some voltage testing.
I applied power and to my surprise nothing happened, no smoke so I concluded

that whoever said that he switched off after seeing the smoke did it a little too
late.
So I started my voltage testing, with my meter negative probe on the main

capacitor negative pin, I started to test the voltage at the actual main capacitor
and there were zero Volts …Nothing!
Hint: when you get zero volt on a circuit means there must be an open circuit or
component but not a short, usually a short causes voltage to go low and
pulsating(at least there must be some funny reading on the meter)
I checked the ac voltage across the power cable input connector on the circuit
board and found 220 vac, so what is preventing the voltage from reaching the
main capacitor.
So I checked backward from the main capacitor looking for any open
component or circuit cracked, from the testing I noted that the surge limiter is
open circuit.
After this I decided to take the television with me to the work shop for further
testing, at least now I have some clues to the problem.
I replaced the two component and applied power using my homemade series
bulb and I noted that the bulb was lighting with intense light.
I concluded there must be a shorted component on the supply and therefore I

switched off and started touching component around the power supply looking
for any which is getting very hot. I bumped on one high wattage resistor which
was too hot to my fingers.
So I concluded that I have a bigger problem than I estimated, the TV was quite
old and was using I.C STR50103A as the regulator and because I could not get
the circuit diagram of this TV I rushed to my friend Google and I got this data
sheet.
Before I went for the datasheet I had taken the voltage testing of this i.c and was
as follows:
Pin 3 is the main dc in from the main capacitor, I was expecting around 300 vdc
but I can only measure 252 vdc.
Pin 4 is the output of B+ to the horizontal circuit, please note this TV is very old
and therefore is using series type of switch mode power supply. Here again I
was expecting around 100 volts considering the filter capacitor on that line is
rated 160 Volts.
That why I decided to check on the datasheet for this ic to get the expected
voltages on those pins and this is what I got:
Pin 3 is 282 Volts (around 300 vdc on 220 vac outlet or 155 vdc on 110 vac
outlet) and pin 4 the output to the horizontal circuit is 118 vdc but this has gone
up to 250 volts.
Now you can see why this B+ capacitor has to blow is due to this increased
voltage on that line (from 118 volts to 250volts)
With that I concluded that this ic STR-50103A must have gone forever, looking
at that ic internal structure you can see two transistors and I concluded that one
must have shorted collector emitter and therefore I instead of doing his work
has a regulator it is acting just like a jump wire.
I replaced this ic plus the surge limiter and the blown capacitor and powered
again the set via series bulb and the machine came back to life.
Just before I went into celebrations for the job well done I noticed that the
picture was very clear (like digital picture but no audio)
I was not told about this before so I comforted myself that may be there is sound
mute via remote control and started looking for one from the owner and they
told me that it got lost over 10 years ago and therefore they have been using
only the keys.
I opened the set again this time looking for the audio circuit of this set and it
was not easy to locate because I was looking for an ic bolted on an heat sink
only to find that this TV is using discrete components for the audio circuit.
I started doing some voltage testing not sure how much voltage to expect
because I could not locate the circuit diagram for this television.
Then by coincidence when following 110 volts from the underside of the circuit
I noted a pin with 110volt and zero volts on the other leg. This component is in
series with 110 volt so how can it be zero volts,
I turned the board the other side and I saw the component was white in color
and from the circuit it was marked as a fuse.
Took a resistance test on it and it turned out to be open and I was very sure this
could be the end of my woes and indeed it was the cause and after replacing it
and powering the set I liked what my ears heard…
Chapter 23: JVC 14'' DEAD AFTER A VOLTAGE SURGE FROM A GENERATOR
The customer complains was that the TV was blown by high voltage from a
generator.
I opened the set and scanned around the primary side of the power supply and
found the main filter capacitor was bulging out.
I replaced it together with the control chip (str-G6653) which almost always
goes when there is power surge.
After replacing the two components the set came up but no color (Picture was
black and while) with some very thin lines across the screen.
I hit the set softly with my bare hands and the color came on but intermittent.
Then I concluded that the set has dry joints too. I soldered all the suspect areas
starting from the RGB neck circuit board.
And Component around the main ic (Jungle) and the color came back to
normal.
Later I went to his house to check on the root cause of the problem which was
the generator.
You know in electronics it is not wise to just replace the faulty components,
always look for the root cause of the problem, it may be dry joints or Capacitors
that have developed high ESR and therefore if you only replace the faulty
component chances are high for call back.
This will affect your reputation and also waste more of your time, it is better to
do your repair pretty well and that customer bring to you more customers by
referrals than waiting for the same machine to come again after some time..It is
simply not fair to your customers.
The generator was switched on and after measuring the output voltage was
found to be at 330 Vac.
But why did the Main Capacitor which is rated 400Volts blow up? This is
because you meter measure R.M.S (root mean Square) of the AC and not the
peak.
To get the peak Voltage you have to multiply your meter reading (AC) by
1.414. (Therefore 330 X 1.414= 466 vdc)
Way above the maximum voltage rated for the main Capacitor.
So I adjusted the Generator Voltage to 220 Vac and went back to my workshop
to serve other customers.
Chapter 24: GLD TV FIELD COLLAPSE WITH A SINGLE HORIZOTAL LINE
GLD TV FIELD COLLAPSE WITH A SINGLE HORIZOTAL LINE across

the picture (clear picture below the line but distorted picture above the line.
Also white lines across the upper part of the screen. There is also blank part
above and below the screen.
In my opinion a technician and a medical doctor have a lot in common, we deal

with symptoms(facts) analyze them and figure out from the data at hand the
most likely cause of those symptoms.
Fortunately for doctors they have added advantage because at least with human
being they can speak out how they are feeling, add some additional test and
there you go, Drug prescription is done. Ok?
Now for technician’s machines don’t speak, therefore we rely heavily on keen
observations, testing critical test point, some history from the owner on how the
problem started etc to be able to figure out the actual circuit causing the
problem (symptoms) at hand.
This part is very critical, the more information you gather the more likely you
are going to narrow down to the actual circuit which is causing the problem.
If the machine (Television or Monitor) has something on the screen, you can get
a lot of clues on the screen behavior even before opening the machine.
Let take this GLD TV as a case study, the information on the headline of the
article is what I was able to observe on the screen.
I have tried to reproduce the symptoms on the picture below
1. Screen height is narrow.
2. A SINGLE HORIZOTAL LINE across the picture
3. Clear picture below the line but distorted picture above the line.
4. Also lines across the upper part of the screen.
5. There is also blank part above and below the screen.
These are 5 strong facts all pointing to Vertical Circuit, am I right?
NOW LET OPEN THE TELEVISION AND TEST OUR ANALYSIS
After opening this particular set I noticed two capacitors 1000uf/35v which had
their top silver part swollen.
I put my finger on them and they were also getting hot. This was enough
evidence that these two capacitors are faulty.
Both capacitors were on the secondary output source and after following that
source it lead me to the vertical IC (LA78040). Even if this capacitor were not
swollen I would have gotten them pretty easily because the first thing I could
have done is testing the supply to the vertical I.C. If capacitors with filter
functions develop problems (fail) usually causes the voltage to drop on that line.
If the voltage is lower than normal there will be subsequent effects on that
circuit may it be vertical, RGB, horizontal etc. I replaced the two capacitors plus
the vertical I.C to avoid call back because I figured out that because this IC was
being feed with dirty dc (not clean dc) it might have developed some internal
injury which might manifest after sometimes.
Conclusion
Whenever you see a single horizontal line across the screen always suspect
problem on the vertical circuit regardless of other symptoms on the screen.
Usually vertical problems manifest themselves in various ways with some being
weird (funny). Also presence of lines on this circuit besides the single lines is a
strong indication that a capacitor might have failed too on that circuit. I.e.
vertical
After you have localized the faulty circuit open the set and go straight to the
suspected Circuit. In this case vertical circuit was suspect. Do a thorough scan
on all components around the vertical I.C. usually symptoms like lines on the
top of the screen and sometimes a black stripe or no image at the bottom are
pointer that one or more capacitors are faulty. Scan and check any bulging
capacitor top or capacitor getting hot which are sighs of bad capacitor.
Tip: How to recognize related components on a particular circuit;
Use the numbering of component on that circuit.
Chapter 25: JVC Television Dead 21”
I was brought a dead JVC TV to repair; when I pressed the power ON button, I
could hear the degaussing coil engage as usual on power on.
I opened the set and I measured the voltage across the main capacitor. No
voltage was found-absolutely zero volts. Alas what is the problem now? All
over a sudden I heard a loud crack sound and noticed a resistor has broken
down—see resistor R904 above across the degaussing coil- what was it doing
there in the first place(anyway in most set its written optional but in this case it
was there)
I never had a chance to know its actual value to date. It was also very hot and
broke into pieces.
After that the voltage was able to flow up to the control chip (STR-F6653).
Now pin 1 is 318V dc which is normal in this case but there is a funny reading
on pin4( start up VCC pin) it should be 19 volts but on my meter it was reading
less than 12volt and pulsating-usually when you find lower voltage than
expected and pulsating means there is a shorts on that line.
So I lifted up the VCC pin 4 and the voltage increase to 25volts. With that I
concluded that that I.C was shorted on that pin.
I replaced the I.C together with Posistor and the unknown resistor which burst
into flames instantly on power on. The resistor value which I figured was low
resistance almost caught fire.
So I decided to leave this resistor completely and only replaced the I.C and the
Posistor and the TV started running on like new. To date I have not replaced the
resistor and the customer has never come with any complain. Isn’t funny
sometimes we remove components to make a machine to work again.
What was the use of the resistor in the first Place? Remember in all this the fuse
never shorted. Could it be even the Posistor was good also? Because there is no
way a Posistor can short and the fuse does not blow....
A word of Advice:
Never disable the x-ray protection circuit because this can cause serious x-ray
radiation which can harm the user- Always think safety first in whatever you do.
Chapter 26: Chanwong TV-china with No Power symptoms
This TV has no power symptoms-first I checked the fuse and it was blown but
not blacked inside meaning there was no heavy shot in the supply.
Remember a fuse can tell you a lot about the last moment of any equipment
before it died (in medical terms postmortem)
1. Fuse blown, dark inside - Means the machine died due to heavy shot. Please
be sure to use the light serious Lamp to bring up the machine after replacing the
fuse.
2. Fuse blown, clear inside- Means the fuse might have died through natural
dead.
After I replaced the fuse it didn’t blow again confirming to me that there was no
serious shorted component (I mean component shorted which is taking the
supply directly to the ground.
I measured the output voltages and there was none: absolutely zero volts. Then I
checked the voltage at the main capacitor and it was 320 v dc which is okay.
The voltage was also reaching the switching transistor collector same voltage.
I measured the S.O.T base voltage and it was 0.02 volts. I followed the start up
circuit divider and the voltage was ok and no resistor was open.
But from the above voltage measurement you find the Zero volts at the base of
the S.O.T is suspect.
Either the S.O.T (v513)is sorted base-emitter because its taking the voltage to
the ground. ). Or V512 (c3807) is shorted collector-emitter because it’s also
taking the base of the S.O.T to the ground. Or capacitor c517 across the
collector emitter of v512(c3807) is shorted to the ground.
I removed the two transistors i.e. S.O.T (v513) and driver v512 and measured
them out of circuit together with cap c517.
To my surprise the S.O.T v513 (D1710) was shorted Base-Emitter junction i.e.
was 82 ohm both ways on diode test on my Dmm meter. It should have been
high and low (I mean the B-E junction has two reading meaning the transistor is
shorted B-E junction which is very rare.
After replacing this Transistor (chopper) and the broken fuse the machine was
back to life.
Conclusion
If there is zero voltage at the output then most probably the primary section is
the cause of the problem.
Narrow down to the faulty circuit (area) by use of voltage testing only. This one
is a very fast and valuable method I have come to learn.
Chapter 27: Sony TV 1902 GE.NO PICTURE NO SOUND only screen
display i.e. channel Number.
This is quite old machine over 10 years. The customer complains was that the
machine has intermittent picture on and off.
Usually if the picture misses they would tap slightly at the back of the TV at the
RF inputs.
Also the TV used to have a drift on the channel when off (every time they put
off the TV they must tune again because they find the channel is not clear).
First suspect dry joints. I did a thorough check for dry joint and I did all that I
could but to no avail.
Next is voltage checking around the CRT circuit and I noticed that the RGB
collector voltage is high... i.e. 200 Volts before and after the 15 k resistor. All
the three cathode. I measured the RGB BIAS VOLTAGE and I found 0.76
Volts in all three. Hence the reason why the collector voltage was not dropping.
I.e. it’s like the RGB TRANSISTOR ARE OPEN BECAUSE THERE IS NO
BIAS VOLTAGE.
I followed that circuit up the main Jungle ic and the voltage was the same.. I
suspected the ic could be faulty…but before I embark on that mission I was to
be very sure it is that ic because it is quite expensive to change.
By the way all other low signal voltage were ok...the 9 v, 12 volts were ok
meaning the ic and the turner is getting powered.
I did esr test around the processor ic and changed whatever capacitor I was not
happy with but still no change.
Then when fixing the Ariel into its sockets I noticed that it has some effect like
if there is some disconnection inside the turner.
I opened the turner and did a thorough re-soldering. Both the inside of the turner
and the inside of agc, if, sif, circuit(like the turner) and when I powered the
machine. Everything is now perfect.
Conclusion
I don’t know why this particular TV could cut the RGB bias voltage from the
processor ic when there is no input from the turner. Usually in new machine the
bias voltage I guess should be ok 3v each but the screen would be snow…no
sound and picture though.
Anyway I learnt the hard way that whenever you experience no picture and no
sound symptoms the best place to start is the turner circuits(inside and out the
turner)…especially dry joints inside the turner and the VCC for the turner( 5
volts-turner, 0 to 33 v- turning voltage and 12 volts-band switching in some
model)
The tuner components are usually quite reliable unless the antenna experiences
a lightning strike.
However, manufacturers still cannot reliably solder the tuner connectors and
shields so bad solder connections in these areas are common even in new sets.
Also whenever you have a issue with any electronics gadget please take your
time to think logically using flow chart to narrow down the problem to the
actual circuit…very important even before you open the machine.
Chapter 28: Conclusion
My dear friends and fellow technicians we have come to the end this course on
CRT Television troubleshooting and repair.
And my final word I can give to you is a quote by Albert Einstein, the most
famous physicist of all time, he was known for his brilliant mind and gentle
spirit, who believed he was just one small part of the world, trying to figure
things out.
He said……
Anyone with a functional brain can soon become an expert in any field if he or
she would simply study the subject only fifteen minutes a day.
I believe if you can follow that simple principle when studying this course then
I will be looking for you at the top.
Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors
Humphrey Kimathi
Author of CRT Television repair course.

CRT TV Repair Course Humphrey Kimathi

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No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

The book is divided into two parts:

Part one: is composed of 18 chapters of the major circuit blocks in CRT TV

Basically the Chopper transformer is used to provide line isolation and

Fly back transformer

Just as we have the chopper transformer as the main components for

2)NTC (Negative temperature coefficient)

When you switch on the television you notice that at first

Most of the electronics equipment nowadays use switch mode power

This is also a safety component and is always connected on across the AC

Effect on the supply when the Varistor fail

Effect on the supply when the component of emi filters fail

In smps you will find them as a bridge or four discrete diodes

Effect on the supply when Main Capacitor Fail.

Effect on the supply when chopper transistor Fail.

Hot ground/Cold ground

Usually transistor fail by shorting collector-emitter junction but also short

Basically a transistor has three legs. 1. Base 2.Collector 3.Emitter.

the collector, emitter and base leg when testing.

Little tip on how to test a transistor

Testing NPN transistor…consider it like two diode connected back to back as

3. Testing collector and emitter expect high both ways.

Testing NPN transistor…again use the same principle

If you notice a previous repair to a TV or monitor the switching transistor

Socket (with switch) 1

Below is the circuit diagram of the series bulb

The series bulb now completely assembled and ready to use

Means: there is short in the supply

2. Bulb light very bright and then goes down to dim

3. Bulb lights is Pulsating

Horizontal circuit can be divided into two sections.

1. Horizontal drive circuit

2. Horizontal output circuit

2. Current resistor-Set the current and voltage to the driver stage

4. Drive transistor-act as on/off switch, can be either a bipolar or MOSFET

5. Drive transformer-this is basically used for impedance matching between the

What can go wrong on the horizontal oscillator block

What can go wrong with horizontal drive circuit block

What can go wrong with horizontal output circuit block?

What happen if these component fails?

Horizontal output transistor (H.O.T)

Sometimes the television may go into shutdown for safety purposes, it is a

Fly back transformer is probably the biggest component on the television

This is a common phenomenon with HOT whereby a customer brings in a

This problem of H.O.T getting shorted immediately or after some times of

Another block where there is potential of problems in CRT television and

a) First be sure the television is not muted via remote control.

Coupling capacitor has developed high esr and should be replaced.

Also be sure to re solder all components related to the tuner.

1. Micro power supply- usually 5 volts

2. Micro reset supply- usually 5 volts

3. Crystal oscillator is okay.

This is a LG television made in Egypt (or is it made or assembled in Egypt) and

So I went down to his residence to check on it…remember most of my repairs

I replaced the transistor and the picture was back to normal.

This made the Television come back to life.

Below see the actual vertical circuit of this Panasonic Television

1. Intermittent horizontal line in crt television and monitor is usually caused by

Pressed POWER ON button and nothing happens.

2. Sound was okay.

Let do some conclusions from the above observations.