Yesterday I got an RCA R52WH77 rear projection TV for free from a friend who was planning on just throwing it out because it has a problem. I took the TV off her hands because I want to try and fix it first.
Here is the problem with it:
The TV will work fine for about 10 minutes and then the picture fades and gets really dim. Then the picture cuts out altogether after a few minutes.
I know she told me that she tried to get it repaired but they wanted $500 to fix it.
I already removed the front screen and I can see the three lamps below. Any ideas on how to fix this thing? Does anyone know where I can get a repair manual?
The High Voltage section is probably shot. It’s not going to be worth fixing, unless you can find the parts for free. Also, unless you know what you are doing, you could (literally) kill yourself.
It’s clear you really don’t have the background to do this. Some component is overheating. This can be due to the part itself going bad or a nearby part has failed and is allowing the wrong voltage to pass thru it. So even if you can find the strained part, finding out the real cause is not trivial.
On top that, working with even a rear projection tv with the cover off can kill you.
Stop messing with it and start working on a way to dispose of it.
Those “lamps” are actually individual CRTs - one for each color. hey require extensive alignment after any repair, or the picture will be really bad. I used to have a three-gun projection TV. I think I spent more time fiddling with it than I did watching it (although it produced a very nice picture when everything was in alignment). I had the specialized alignment generator necessary.
The best fix is to put on the curb with a sign saying “FREE”
This is a dinosaur TV - it came out in 2006 or so, and back then, rear-projection CRT sets were old.
The actual problem with this set is most likely a blown fuse that’s nearly impossible to find a replacement for, a blown power transistor on the convergence board and bad solder joints on the flyback(s). This terrible trio is a common fault with this TV. From what I understand, the bad solder joints in the high voltage section cause arcing and power spikes. The transistor then tries to protect the fuse* and eventually fails, leaving the fuse susceptible to overloads.
Unless a CRT has failed, you do not want to touch it, much less remove it. Electronic convergence is bad enough, but mechanical re-alignment is a beast. It’s not at all like swapping out a light bulb.
Old electronics joke:
What’s the best way to keep a ten cent fuse from blowing? Connect it to a $17.45 power transistor.
I’ve never seen a rear-projection TV that provided a picture I liked. If someone offered me a NOS/NIB one gratis I wouldn’t take it; let alone one that needed to be repaired.
As it turns out, my neighbor the electrical engineer knows a little bit about these TV’s. He agreed with the suggestion that the problem lies somewhere in the high voltage board, which supplies power to the 3 CRT’s. We spent the evening taking the TV apart. After grounding the CRTs as best we could, we removed the high voltage board. There are no obvious signs of failure, except that one of the leads on the flyback transformer looks like it may be poorly soldered. I’m going to research this more to see if I need a new transformer or a whole new board.
My 2002 Sony 50" rear projection TV was having problems. Bad power supply board and optical block.
The cost on just the parts, not labor, outweighed the cost of buying a 50" lcd 1080p set.
These sets just aren’t worth it to fix. Parts are not cheap and even if you can get it to run “like new” it’s still inferior to getting something brand new for the same price.
Back about the year 2000 (whenever they first came out) my wife and I bought one. A year or so ago it experienced a picture shutdown. I was fortunate to have a live-in son who bought a $35 part and fixed it.
Now a year or so later apparently the same part is bad because he is as I write replacing the same part - all the circuit boards and CRT set are out and his soldering set is active.
I agree - if you don’t know your way around a circuit board, you are not going to fix this TV.
This is a person (now in his early 30’s) who at age 10 modified the remote starter in my F250 pickup so the engine would keep running as long as I wanted (heating the truck cab). As purchased and mechanic installed the remote starter would shut the engine off after 15 minutes.