In article ,
"Mark Zacharias" wrote:

"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news
In article ,
Meat Plow wrote:

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:18:31 -0700, Smitty Two
wrote:

So the g.f. says her bedroom TV won't turn on. If she hits the momentary
on/off button on either the TV or the remote, the green power indicator
lights briefly but goes out again immediately. It's a 1991 Panasonic 19"
CRT, model # CTN1956R.

She's coming down (300 miles) this weekend and will bring the thing with
her if there's a reasonable chance that I can fix it fairly readily and
for little if any money, with some help from the group of course. At the
moment I'm not gainfully employed so my time is free anyway.

I can solder and use basic test equipment and sort out ohm's law and
stay away from charged capacitors, but my AS degree in electronics
technology is rusty.

Obviously a 19" CRT is virtually worthless, and if this isn't a fairly
obvious fault we'll pick up another one free or cheap, or upgrade to an
LCD. So feedback of any appropriate nature is welcome.

Buy your GF a new tv.

Yes, well, your response was voted "Best Choice" by the Usenet Inquiry
Response Evaluation Committee, otherwise known as my girlfriend.

Thanks to all for your suggestions. The TV is working. I intentionally
waited several days to post this follow-up, and the problem has not
reappeared. Since it wasn't intermittent before, I'm reasonably sure the
problem isn't going to resurface.

However, it would be a little inaccurate to say that I "repaired" it. I
did blow 18 years worth of accumulated dust out of it, and remarked to
her at the time that I thought there was a 50/50 chance that that might
be all it needed.

While I had the back off, I inspected the board topside for any bulging
caps or other visual signs of component problems. And I pulled the board
out far enough to check the solder side thoroughly for any cracked
joints. Finding no visual problems, I decided that it was either going
to work or not, but that's about all the time it was worth.

So I lucked out on the 50/50 bet and it cost me little time and no money
to be the hero again.


Good luck - but this only suggests to me that yours is an intermittent
problem - bound to recur.

Mark Z.

FWIW, it's now been two months with no recurrence. The TV is used at
least twice daily.