# 50 inch Philips (50PFP53332D/37) 8 vertical bar issue



## eden1169 (Jun 16, 2010)

Hello! I'm writing hoping that someone can help us out with our 50 inch Plasma Philips HDTV ready T.V. (mod#50PFP53332D/37). When you turn on the TV there are 8 vertical bars that immediately appear. These vertical bars are about 4 to 5 inches in width and go from top to bottom. The picture is black and white and doubled in some areas. These 8 vertical bars are separated by thin black lines. The sound is good just picture is bad. 

How this occurred: Wife and I were watching a movie. Movie ended we turned off the TV. About 10 minutes later son comes in and turns on TV. He asks me how we were watching TV with these bars in the way? In short 2 year old TV crapped out within minutes. 

I can't believe this at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I called TV repair shops they want $50 to come out and troubleshoot. Times are hard looking for away to fix this myself if it's not to complicated. I'm in Austin, TX so if anyone out there knows of anyone that is honest and reasonable, that info would be appreciated as well. 

Thanks in advance,

Rick


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

check if you have a faulty video cable plugged in

remove any plugged in ad if the picture is normal replug 1 at a time


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## eden1169 (Jun 16, 2010)

Thanks for the reply and the suggestion.

I am using RCA cables (green, blue, red cable). I was using HDMI cables in the past and was having issues with AT&T Uverse Box and HDMI. So I was told to use RCA cables. I've unplugged the RCA cable and still the same issue appears on regular antenna no cables.

I went to a tv repair shop and told them what my issue was and the tech said that its either the motherboard or the panel. if it's the panel throw the TV away and get a new one eek: oh yeah money grows on trees). How do i know if its the mother board? cost of the motherboard is $250.00 according to him.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

i have asked someone to have a look at the thread as my knowledge ends with the cables


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## eden1169 (Jun 16, 2010)

Thank you Dai!


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

it's very difficult to do long distance diagnosis and as you may well know, any one of many faults can give very similar symptoms.

I would start by disconnecting all cables and checking to see whether the problem shows up. Then slowly check all inputs to see whether the problem shows all the time when only one input at a time is connected and used. Try to diagnose whether the problem is always present or only when (a) certain input is/are used.

Without access to 3 main parts of the TV to isolate the possible source, (PSU, DISPLAY PANEL & Main Board) it would be very difficult to pinpoint the fault.

Open it up after removing the power. Check the power supply board which will most likely be the board where the mains cable is plugged in. Look for anything that might be burnt or any electrolytic capacitor that may have a swollen instead of a flat head. Electrolytic Capacitors are notorious for causing many different types of fault.
If you see nothing wrong at the power supply check the other boards too.

if you can, try taking a few high quality photo's, upload to an image hosting site and place links to the photo's here.


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## eden1169 (Jun 16, 2010)

Done_Fishin said:


> it's very difficult to do long distance diagnosis and as you may well know, any one of many faults can give very similar symptoms.
> 
> I would start by disconnecting all cables and checking to see whether the problem shows up. Then slowly check all inputs to see whether the problem shows all the time when only one input at a time is connected and used. Try to diagnose whether the problem is always present or only when (a) certain input is/are used.
> 
> ...


Thanks Done Fishing! I will take some pics and get back to you. I'm slowly starting to feel comfortable with taking this thing apart and looking at the different components. Is there a way to remove these boards and testing them outside of the TV? 

Again thanks for responding and I'll get back to you. Payday is coming and I'm tempted to pay the 50 bucks to have someone come out here and point to whats wrong and replacing it myself. Then again I run into the paranoia that whoever comes out here would not be honest and would just point at let's say the mother board and when in reality its just a pair of capacitors. 

Rick


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

You'll be lucky to find anyone that would "visit", tell you what's wrong and then leave .. unless you get someone who's employed by a company to fix these things daily and very experienced at diagnosis.

Without having a second identical working set that you could use to swap boards between units, there is virtually no way to test individual boards outside of the TV. Each board will require to have some sort of handshaking with other boards or it's possible they will either shut down or just go into some strange state waiting for input that won't arrive. A second identical working set would be the easiest method although damned expensive.

I have occasionally heard (though other forums that I am a member of) that on rare occasions cabling can cause some weird effects with displays so a check that cables are pushed home properly would be another place to start should there be nothing obviously wrong.

I look forward to seeing photo's should you manage to take any .. I'll see if there is anything that might warrant looking at. there are no guarantees though that anything I see will be the cause of your problems. I may just be pinpointing something that could cause you problems later.


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