Read the FAQ at www.repairfaq.org before doing anything.

Tuners are not always replaceable any more. Hence the $200 new price on the
tv set. The less modular the tv, the lower they can sell it. You should
have at least seen this on the big box store computers, everything is on the
motherboard, making add ons and expansion more of a pain.

As to removing the lower shield. Whatever you do DO NOT PRY the shield off
by placing a screwdriver against the circuit board under the shield. This
is one sure way to damage surface mount components under the can.

The other suggestion, pull the board and bottom plastic frame, and send it
off to PTS for a rebuild, check with them for the price.

FYI if the tuner grounds are not fixed soon, you will not have a tv to watch
as the eeprom will be corrupted and the tv will be dead. The cable box or
VCR as a tuner is not a good option on those sets even as a temporary "fix".

David

"Barry S." wrote in message
...
On 11 Aug 2004 10:25:34 -0700, (David) wrote:

Look up the information in the repairfaq for the ctc177 series
chassis.
It is highly unlikley you have the equipment available or experience
working on surface mount tuned rf circuits to do any kind of repair
inside the tuner.

Equipment, probably not. I don't have access to a SMT rework station,
spectum analyzer, or signal generator at this time. (Engineer no
longer working in the field..) I would think on a consumer appl like
this, the tuner unit itself would simply be replaced.

It is not a replaceable part, but gets repaired to the component level
and requires extreme care, lots of experience to avoid further damage.
I would definitely recommend taking the tv into someone with lots of
experience on that series of chassis that has all the reuqired
equipment (including a 125 channel cable tv tuner signal generator).
Worst case repair should still be under $120 total parts and labor,
typical average $80-90.

The TV was $200, NEW!!!

Sounds like it's getting a cable box and either repaired when I have
access to rework equipment or simply disposed of..

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