It took me this long to take a better look at the TV. The flyback
transformer is fine, if I pull the pip board I get the menu on the
screen. I reset the pip board and things seemed to be working fine,
but after a few hours it was back to the clicking problem I originally
had.

Another site suggested some cold solder joints, but I'm not seeing them
or finding them with a meter. I could start replacing a few suggested
components, but it's not quite obvious that one of them has failed.
Anyone have a suggestion on where I could buy a replacement board (RCA
model F36665)?

Skew wrote:
My 7 year old 36" RCA TV stopped working about 3 weeks ago. I'd try
turning it on, I'd hear 3-6 clicks that sounded like the relay clicks
during power-on, and then it would stop with nothing happening. I've
been too busy to troubleshoot it so far, but that was my plan.

An old neighbor of mine called about his 5 year old Sony 36" WEGA
doing the same thing, right down to the click count. I thought I
better ask on here if this is a semi-common problem before tackling it
blindly, since I'm merely a wanna-be tech and not a full-fledged TV
repair person.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

On 13 Dec 2005 14:24:24 -0800, "Skew" wrote:

It took me this long to take a better look at the TV. The flyback
transformer is fine, if I pull the pip board I get the menu on the
screen. I reset the pip board and things seemed to be working fine,
but after a few hours it was back to the clicking problem I originally
had.

Another site suggested some cold solder joints, but I'm not seeing them
or finding them with a meter. I could start replacing a few suggested
components, but it's not quite obvious that one of them has failed.
Anyone have a suggestion on where I could buy a replacement board (RCA
model F36665)?

Pull the PIP board out and there is very tiny fine crack in solder
joint at one surface mount resistor out of two resistors voltage
divider. This two resistor is responsible for trimming voltage output
for the LM317 adjustable regulator mounted on small steel heatsink.
Lose that and regulator cuts output and hangs the data bus causing the
TV to do 3 strike and out thing. Regulator supplies 3.3V for the PIP
IC.

The correct part name for this board according to Thomson is F2PIP.

Resolder this two small resistors. This will fix yours for SURE.
Keep us updated! The solder crack is very fine and need strong
magnifying glass to see it. Near one corner right besides the
regulator on solder side.

Cheers, Wizard

The solder will fix it. Otherwise you can buy the entire board for
around $51 dealer cost, $77 list. Part # 247480

The first time I opened the TV up, before posting the message for this
thread, the PIP board seemed slightly crooked. That easily could have
happened while I was pulling off the case, or I may have just imagined
it. I inspected the board for cold solder joints, used a meter to
check some connections, and didn't find anything wrong. On the
optimistic hope that it was just mounted badly, I re-seated the board,
put it back together, and the set worked again... for about 6 hours.
Then it went back to clicking.

I posted on here, and on Jason's and Ron's responses, I pulled it open
again and re-soldered the LM317 and the surface mount resistors near
it. That seemed to do the trick, it was working great. I figured I'd
wait a couple of days before posting my results for the benefits of
others.

Today, I've got a new problem, audio with no video. The menu works
fine, so I'll have to start searching again to find out what's going
on. I'll post my results on here again, along with the links that
helped the most, in case it helps someone else out.

Usually the A/V board is partially unplugged for loss of video on that
model. Sometimes when not being careful putting the back on correctly,
the main board can be broken at the connector connections.

On 18 Dec 2005 14:06:35 -0800, "Skew" wrote:

optimistic hope that it was just mounted badly, I re-seated the board,
put it back together, and the set worked again... for about 6 hours.
Then it went back to clicking.

I posted on here, and on Jason's and Ron's responses, I pulled it open
again and re-soldered the LM317 and the surface mount resistors near
it. That seemed to do the trick, it was working great. I figured I'd
wait a couple of days before posting my results for the benefits of
others.

Right on! That's one problem solved.


Today, I've got a new problem, audio with no video. The menu works
fine, so I'll have to start searching again to find out what's going
on. I'll post my results on here again, along with the links that
helped the most, in case it helps someone else out.


Open it up again and pull the chassis out. Look at bottom of circuit
board for bad solder joints where blue connectors are for the F2PIP
board. Otherwise press the board down firmly and making sure the
connectors are latched, they have catch hook on each blue connectors.

I remembered there was another problem with no picture, menu working
was also the F2PIP board not making good circuit.

While at it,

Look for L14401 coil (marked as L4401), is a dark grey round bar with
gold wire wound around it one layer with two red drops on it. I bet
this one have hot melt glue around it. Remove coil and get hot glue
scraped off, clean out two holes for that. Solder coil back in. This
should fix the no picture.

Cheers, Wizard

Ok, enough QA time has gone by, I'm much more confident the set is
working now.

The last problem I had was audio with no video. I pulled the PIP board
out and inspected the connectors on it and on the main board. They
looked fine and tested fine, so I put the board back in, and this time
I cinched down the metal tab to make sure it was snug. That was it,
perhaps it's not as snug in its old age.

For the next guy with a problem, in addition to this thread, the
following was useful:

http://www.electronicspoint.com/thread-39649.php
http://www.freelists.org/archives/te.../msg00837.html

Keywords: F36665, PIP, no picture, clicks

Thanks again guys.