RCA D52W20 fails to start

[Alex Tsiboulski]

I've had the RCA D52W20 for over 2 years now. It's served me well, amongst
all the bad ratings it's gotten. Today I found out about the service menu,
so I decided to play with that. 190+points of convergence was a blessing. I
then decided to see what was in geomatry, so I shifted my screen to the left
a little to compensate for my PS2. All I remember after that was I either
went up or down and moved the slider on another option and the TV turned
off.

Now all it does is the power blinks green and it makes the sound like it's
trying to startup.
Please any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Alex Tsiboulski]

I just did a little bit more research and found the service manual. On the
link it said "There have been reports of EEPROM being scrambled after
geometry adjustments have been made."

I'm afraid that sounds like what happened to me, what do I do?

here's a link to the service manual.
http://home.austin.rr.com/doctorjoe/ITC222align.pdf

 

[kip]

Alex best call a shop who has the chipper checker and tell them what you
have done.

 

[Art]

Too bad the average consumer does not read that disclaimer before playing
with the "Serviceman Menu"!!IMHO. Seen too many that have almost been
relegated to the junk status by Tweaking by the un-informed.

Alex best call a shop who has the chipper checker and tell them what you
have done.

 

[Alex Tsiboulski]

Art,

though my knowledge in television electronics is not as far reaching as it
is in the PC realm, I'm far from an "average" consumer. I know my hardware,
and I knew the risk I was taking as soon as I went into that menu. In my
defense, curiosity did get the best of me when I entered the geometry menu,
but I did not save any settings, I barely even moved a slider in any
direction. So I'd love to know how the same result wouldn't have happened to
a professional.

I'd appreciate some useful input from you, or none at all. Your opinion had
nothing to do with the current situation.

Too bad the average consumer does not read that disclaimer before playing
with the "Serviceman Menu"!!IMHO. Seen too many that have almost been
relegated to the junk status by Tweaking by the un-informed.

 

[ampdoc]

As someone said before, a service company with the chipper check box and
software can write defaults back to the eeprom in a matter of moments. This
is most likely all you need. It is also at this point probably the only way
to fix the set since it will not start normally for you to manually enter
the defaults.

 

[Alex Tsiboulski]

Thank you ampdoc and kip.

 

[Art]

It is totally obvious that by your permissive actions you renedered your
product inoperable. Enough Said! Get the thing into a shop, pay for the
repair, and don't screw with it again. Clear enough
Alex??

 

[Alex Tsiboulski]

As if being permissive was such a bad thing.

I understand that I may be calling people for support, but that doesn't mean
they should be acting like assholes and treating me like I am completely
ignorant. Be it Thompson's customer service, or any local repair shop, I've
seriously had enough.

I'm better off buying a Chipper Check, some schematics, and maybe WinSTIPS.
My time is better spent learning a new skill, than dealing with assholes.

Much rather go that route than pay overcharging repairmen. $50 for them to
give me an estimate? It costs me the same amount to buy a Chipper Check.
Which might be all I need. Then from there they charge me inflated labour
and part replacement costs. No thanks. Why bother when it might so happen
that I need to send it back in. I rather know how to fix it myself time and
time again, if need be.

If my TV happens to break beyond repair during my attempts, then boohoo.
I'll buy a new one, and be happy with the fact that I picked up some new
skills and have a brand new TV.

My initial question was asking if anyone knew what the problem could be.
I wouldn't have even bothered posting here if I wasn't considering repairing
it myself.


Alex

 

[Leonard Caillouet]

While I think Art was a bit terse and condescending, you will get little
help if you go off generalizing that techs rip you off because they charge
$50 for an estimate. If you think you can figure it out, buy the equipment,
the manual and go about learning how to fix the POS that you have. Frankly,
I send them to the local TCE ASC because they are more familiar with them
and they can be a PITA to work on. I know this because I have similar model
that a client declined the estimate on that I fixed as a learning experiment
like you describe. I find the sets to be less than worthy of my time and
effort. It also has a lousy pix.

Leonard

 

[Alex Tsiboulski]

I agree with you that it's a POS. Especially for anything that isn't being
sent as an HD signal. I don't watch TV so until I got my 360 I was
disappointed with it. That's why I'm willing to risk fixing it myself, cause
if it breaks more, I'll have an incentive to go out and buy a quality one.

This was my first HDTV, and it was an impulsive buy. As are most of my major
purchases.
Same thing happened with my first computer, and camera. Seeing as how I'm
now a photographer and can repair computers. I plan on going the same route
with this TV.

I'm sorry if it sounded like I was degrading all techs, I'm sure there are
the honest ones out there. I was simply venting because all the ones I've
called have been really condescending with me. Whenever I asked them how
much a certain service would cost, meaning I didn't need an estimate. They
would get very rude with me and insist I didn't know anything.

I know the case is "Who's calling who". But It really sets me off when any
business treats their customers in a rude fashion.

As for the lousy picture, yup. That's why I'm in this mess to begin with.
That's what I was trying to adjust.


Alex

 

[Leonard Caillouet]

The techs here help people like you all the time. Most of them know that
trying to DIY a repair on a TCE product is usually a waste of time. The
learning curve can be steep, and the problems can be many. Just negotiating
the service literature is a chore if you are not familiar with it. Getting
info out of Thomson is nearly impossible if you are not an ASC. I work on
nearly all brands and have been servicing projection television nearly since
the earliest consumer products became available. I have access to several
hundred knowlegable techs on several forums and listserves, and have access
to all of the service literature. Still, I find that if I don't work on a
lot of a particular TCE chassis, it is problematic and wasteful for me to
attempt to service them. Art knows this, as do others here who would tell
you to take it to a tech who does a lot of them. He has helped lots of
folks here. Believe it or not, he was helping you. If it was a simple
problem like a convergence output or PS problem, you would have received
appropriate suggestions.

BTW, if you get it working, replace that cheesy mylar mirror with a first
surface glass mirror, do the mechanical and electrostatic focusing, turn the
contrast down to about 40% of what it is from the factory, adjust the
brightness and color appropriately, and you will improve the pix more than
anything you might do in the service menu.

Leonard

 

[Alex Tsiboulski]

You lose me a little on the TCE acronym, not quite sure what it means.

I'm willing to accept the learning curve. If I find that I can't possibly do
this, then I'll just send it into a shop, at least by then I'll be comforted
by the fact I tried my best.

So I guess first off, I'd like to know if you know what this symptom means.

Every time I plug it into the wall it immediately does the following:

- light in room dims for half of a second.
- 1 very rapid green blink, followed immediately by the green light coming
back on and staying on for nearly a second.
- green light goes away for around a second, at this point a tweet sound
happens.
- green light comes back on and stays for 6 seconds, near the beginning of
this it makes a staticy sounding startup noise.

I downloaded a demo of WinSTIPS and they didn't have any info on the ATC221
chassis, I suppose that it may be in the paid version.

Would using a Chip Checker II allow me to restore factory defaults?

If not, and the problem is rooted deeper. Then could you provide me with
some safety precautions on opening the back, as that's my main fear right
now.

I was actually planning on getting rid of that garbage mirror, it's glare is
horrendous. Would it be safe to leave it as is afterwards if it's in a safe
environment? without adding that surface glass mirror. Thanks for the other
tips as well.

Also, apologies to Art if my reply sounded hostile. Utter frustration from
dealing with the techs around my area left me in a grumpy mood.


Alex

 

[Leonard Caillouet]

If you need to ask about safety precautions, you need to go to Sam
Goldwasser's FAQ:

http://www.repairfaq.org/

If the lights dim, the set is likely drawing too much current and going into
shutdown. Something may be shorted. I am not an expert on this chassis
nor on similar ones. I would be quizzing other techs who are after I
checked the obvious stuff.

Leonard

 

[Alex Tsiboulski]

Alright Leonard, thanks a lot for your help and quick replies. Greatly
appreciated.

 

[Art]

Alex: Apologies accepted. As Leonard said, many of us rabid routers have
seen way too many of these nuisance effects and become a bit pointed as a
result. Many of the service techs have endured RCA (TCE) <Thomson Consumer
Electronics> fall from one of the better products in consumer electronics to
currently one of the worse, including very poor report with their service
and parts department. Also, since they have decided to have the products
produced in Mainland China, our supply of specific service parts from then
have almost totally dried up. <