Hi and Happy New Year from Sydney!

Im hoping I can obtain some advice on my TX-33V2X currently awaiting repair with a local repairer. Ive been waiting 3 weeks now and these are the problems.

The set has been fantastic until recently, when a fault seemed to develop with the front pop-open Control Drawer on the lower front of the set. The problem was when this control panel was poped open and being used to say, change channel, the volume control was actually changing! The solution was not to touch this control panel, and just use the remote control as the main control unit. Ok and forget about problem and repair cost...

Next problem which started recently was a delay in start up. It went like this. Switch on by remote, no action, then after a few seconds a 'white screen' appears with a thin black horrizontal line. Strange. Push channel selection, program appears and is bright and sharp as normal. But this start up delay was getting progressively slower to appear over the past month also. Last time it was about 5 minutes before it would turn on.

Then, you guessed it, no action next time. Turned on.... Waiting waiting waiting... no white screen, nothing. So OK, its repair shop time, and backed up the 4WD to back door, and tried to work out how the hell you lift these 80kg sets. Get the wife! he he. So between 2 of us we got it in. (How do you service guys do that???)

The good part was the servicemans TV repair table on wheels was the matching height to the rear of the 4WD, so that was an easy slide out at his end. Into his garage it goes. Yep, he works from home and had a recommendation from the local Betta Electrical retailer. (Bit worried about the sight of lots of dead TVs in the carport though!)

The repair technician has so far advised me:
1. The front panel is a spare part which is no longer available. Ribbon cable might be breaking down???
Q - Is this fixable?
The panel ribbon cable looks ok but it feeds into the control panel under some plastic welded lugs. Might destroy control panel getting apart?

2. Techy suggested the TV start up delay problem might just be old power supply Caps needing replacing. Last report was warming them up started the set OK...but the white screen then appears. Is this delay related to the white screen?

3. Black Line/White Screen - Bad news... Techy said not seen that before!
Q- HELP anyone???

4. Left Channel sound problem also - have had for years - slightly distorted higher frequencies, like SSS ing sounds, but only when using the TV's tuner. Mono seems to help eliminate it. But when using VCR's tuner, no distortion at all from left channel, so definately not speaker or amplifier circuits. My techy Repairer said this is bad news if its in the tuner.
Q - Any ideas while its apart?

The repair man has now been sick and says has been unable to phone around for maybe a spare part (control panel) which maybe lurking in someones old parts stock.

So, Help!!! anyone on the above?
Or does anyone know the control panel spare part and where I can get one mailed out maybe?

Many thanks for any time and trouble. Great tech site!

Regards

Bruce

The control panel is supposed to be replaced as a module. The ribbon
cable will be difficult to reliably fix. It is replaced together with
the panel.

There are worn caps in the power supply and the scan circuits, that are
causing the faults you are describing.

As for the sound problem, this is probably a component(s) that are
failing in the sound demodulator area, or in a sound sage that is after
the demodulator, that is before the switching circuits that select the
input devices. The tech is going to have the proper test equipment, and
service information, and knowledge to know how to find this one. This
type of fault can be complex to find.

The white screen problem can be from a number of things. Considering
the age of your set, I would not rule out that the picture tube is
starting to fail. The other faults that can cause this may be in the
brightness control circuits, blanking circuits, or in the video drive
circuits. The CRT would be much too expensive to replace, even if you
could find one. I believe it is no longer available, as like many other
parts in this model.

Considering the faults on this set, and the description of the person
who is working on the set, I would have brought it to the Panasonic
authorized factory service.

Another thing, is that if the man is not well, he must be a single
independent technician since your set is not being properly looked
after since he has been off from work.

Also, considering what you have described here, in consideration the
age of the set, I would be seriously thinking of a new set rather than
trying to service it. There is nothing saying that after it is
serviced, that other parts will soon fail. You may get locked in to a
situation where you put a lot of money in to the set, and you will be
in a position where you will need parts to service again, that are no
longer available.

When a set is about 5 to 6 years old, I would say if it needs service,
I would be very cautious about how much I would invest in to it.

To be fair,I would pay the man for his work, and scrap the set, or tell
him to dispose of it for you. You can then go out and buy a new set,
and have a new warranty for a reasonable period of time. The new set
will out perform the old one that you have. Both Panasonic and Sony
have excellent sets for a reasonable cost.

Jerry G.
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