Basic LCD Monitors troubleshooting guidesAdChoices

Dual Output Dc Power Supplymouser.com/BenchtopPowerSupplyOrder Now, Ship Same Day Mouser An Authorized Distributor12V to 24V Power Supplywww.scadalink.comCSA, Class I Div 2 for SCADA & Industrial ApplicationsBy Bud MartinFirst if you can, try the monitor with other PC first to make sure it is not the PC problem.Notes: We are dealing with high voltage that can kill you! so if you are not sure what you are doing, please have it fixed by the pro that has proper tools and safety equipment. Try to use GFI outlet and isolation transformer when work around the TV set and DO NOT DEFEAT THE GROUND PIN OF THE OUTLET/POWER CORD.

The monitor will have at least 2 circuits boards, one board will be the logic board where the video cable from PC is attached to, the second board used in most monitors today is the Power supply/backlight inverter board combinations. Some monitors will have separate power supply module and backlight inverter board.The monitor should be connected to the running PC otherwise it will go into standby mode.The operations of each board:

1) The Power supply board: It takes the 120vac 60Hz and converts it to high voltage DC (around 160~170vdc filtered by the 80~150uf 250~450vdc cap) by the bridge rectifiers to be used by the switching power supply circuits that converts this DC voltage into high frequency (around 50~100 KHz) AC for driving the step down transformer. The outputs (usually 2 outputs) of the transformer will be rectified by the diodes to produce the regulated 5vdc for the logic board, and regulated 12~20vdc (12vdc is usually for screen up to 17inch, 16~24vdc for 18~24 inch screen).

The power supply circuits are always on (unless the monitor uses the power switch that actually disconnects the power from the outlet which is rarely used these days) which means that it is running 24/7 using the monitor or not, any spikes and surge will be fed into the monitor power supply.

Common problems: Blown fuses, bad caps (leaking/bulging tops or bottom seals, please note that bad cap may look normal but it can have high ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance). The DC filter cap should be low ESR type for using in the switching power supply; general purpose electrolytic types will not last very long in switching power supply circuits. Poor solder joints, over heated components.

Testing:Plug the monitor in but do not activate the power switch so the backlight inverter circuits will be off. Check the 5vdc and the 12~24vdc to make sure they are OK. They should be tested with the load, you can use 6V 1A (6watts) lamp for the 5vdc, and car lamps such as 1157 (12v 8watts lo/26watts high) turn signal brake lamp using high filament connection for testing the 12~18vdc (or use two 1157 in series for 19~24vdc) for the backlight inverter circuits. If the power supplies are working, the output voltages should be steady at the rated voltages. The power supply will go into shut down if it detects too much current draw due to false in the power supply or short circuits in the backlight inverter or in the logic board.

2) The backlight inverter circuits:It takes the 12~24vdc and converts it to high frequency AC to drive the inverter transformers CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) assemblies. The transformers will drive the CCFL by applying the start up voltage (around 1500~2000v), when the CCFL start conducting, the voltage will drop down to about 500~800v.The inverter has detection circuits to detect open circuit if the lamp is not attached or does not fire up after the start up voltage is applied, it will go into shut down. It will also shut down if the lamps draw too much current due to ages (when lamp gets old it will draw more current).The inverter gets two signals from the logic board, one is the backlight ON/OFF signal, the other one is the Dimming signal for the lamps.Common problems:Bad filter caps, resonant caps (in the inverter output circuits), blown transistors/IC, shorted or open transformer winding.Testing:You should have spare lamps for testing the inverter circuits. You can get lamps from www.lcdparts.net

3) Logic board:The logic board get the signals from the VGA (ANALOG) or DVI (DIGITAL) and processes them and feed them to the LCD panel T-CON (Timing Controller) board on the back of the LCD panel.It also sends out two signals (backlight ON/OFF and Dimming) to the inverter circuits when the monitor is on and getting the signals from the PC.If the logic board does not get the signal from the PC, it will put monitor into standby mode.The 5vdc feeding it is converted to 3.3v, 1.8vdc by the switching buck converters to run the processor.The logic board also sends the 5vd or 12vdc power for the T-CON board, if the voltage is not there, you will see white/grey glowing screen only. Not much repair you can do on the logic board unless you have the full service manual and surface mount repair station.

4) CCFL and Inverter circuits testing:If you don not have the inverter and lamp tester boxes (see www.lcdparts.net), you may be able to do a simple test by using these steps:If the screen flashes on for a second, you can disconnect all the lamp connectors and connect it into one of the transformer output connector and see if you will see the flash on the screen, if you do, then try it with another transformer output connector to see if it also get the flash on the screen. Repeat the procedure with other 3 lamps. If all the lamps do flash on for seconds then more likely the lamps are OK. If lamp only flash on one of the transformer output then you will know that the problem in that transformer inverter circuits.If none of the lamps flash at all then the problem is in the inverter circuits, power supply, or not getting the on signal from the logic board.

Bad caps

Power supply/inverter board (L), Logic bd. (R)

'

Dead T-CON bd, blown fuse. Get glowing screen only.

T-CON board's fuse F101

Inverter board surface mounted fuses, F1 and F2

Bad lamps (Blackened ends, burnt /poor soldering)

Bad LCD panel (solid vertical lines)

Bad LCD panel due to bad T-CON board

Failed TV and Monitors:

http://s807.photobucket.com/albums/yy352/budmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Posted by Bud Martin on Saturday, September 25, 2010Read more tips from Bud Martin

LCD Flat panel TV troubleshooting guideAdChoices

TV Parts At Part Storewww.partstore.comReplacement TV Parts At PartStore™. Free Shipping On Orders $75 & Up!3 Output Power Supplymouser.com/BenchtopPowerSupplyOrder Now, Ship Same Day Mouser An Authorized DistributorThis is the basic guide that can be applied to most LCD flat panel TV.By Bud MartinFirst, try unplugging it from the outlet for about an hour to see if the TV will reset itself since the minute the TV is plugged into the wall, the power supply and processor will be running 24/7 and the EPROM can get corrupted by spikes and surges. Try using good quality surge suppressor to see if it will help if it happen often.Look for burnt brown hot spots on the circuit boards, capacitors with leaking/bulging top or seals. Loose wires and connectors. Blown fuses.Notes: We are dealing with high voltage that can kill you! so if you are not sure what you are doing, please have it fixed by the pro that has proper tools and safety equipment. Try to use GFI outlet and isolation transformer when work around the TV set and DO NOT DEFEAT THE GROUND PIN OF THE OUTLET/POWER CORD.

1) The power supply module (There are 4 regulated output voltages:- Standby 5vdc, switched 5vdc, 12~16vdc, and 24vdc).

The power supply converts the 120/230vac 50/60Hz into DC, then the high frequency (50~100kHz) switching circuits convert it back to AC but at high frequency which allows the power supply to use smaller and much lighter weight transformers (Ferrite core instead of heavy iron core), then this high frequency AC voltage is fed to the rectifier Diodes to get the DC output and filtered by DC filter capacitors that must have low ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance), if general purpose electrolytic caps are use, they will fail within a year or less due to high ESR.

The power supply has Standby 5vdc (5VSB, this is a MUST have before anything else will work, when this voltage is not present, there will be no any indicator light on the front panel) which is always on the minute the TV is plugged into the AC outlet, so it is on 24/7 and that is why the power supply will fail even though you may use the a TV not very often. It will see all the voltage spikes and surges 24/7. This 5vdc is used to power the Processor and the Infrared remote receiver module which will be waiting for the command from the remote control or from the power switch, when the Power on command is received, the Processor will send the turn on signal (3.3~5vdc) to the power supply module (PSON pin) to the switch on the main 5vdc for the rest of the logic and Tuner circuits,12~16vdc for the sound amplifiers (mostly Class D amplifier for efficiency and small size) and for the T-CON board (interface board between the LCD panel, some T-CON uses 5vdc, and the Logic board), and 24vdc for the Back lights inverter board (if there is no 24vdc then no back light).Common failures:Blown main AC fuse due to shorted out Diodes, transistors.Bad capacitors leaking or bulging tops: Shorted Diodes, transistors in the DC output side.

Testing the power supply output with dummy load:

24vdc testing: Disconnect the wires that go to the inverter board first. You can use two #1157 (using both Lo & Hi filaments by paralleling them at the base) car light bulbs connected in series so they can handle the 24vdc, this will put light load (about 70w) on the 24vdc output, the voltage out should be steady at 24vdc (+/-2v), if not, the power supply has regulation problem. 12vdc testing: disconnect the 12vdc TV load from the power supply board and attach one #1157 (using just the Hi filament), the 12vdc output should stay at 12v (+/-1v), if not, the power supply has regulation problem.

You should see the lamps go on when the TV power switch is ON and go OFF when the TV is powered OFF.

2) Main Logic board (It has Processor, Tuner, Sound Processor, Sources selector, Power amplifiers for speakers, interface port to the T-CON board for pictures). This logic board sends out the turn on signals (3.3~5vdc) to turn on the rest of the Power supply module (Switched main 5vdc, 12~16vdc, and 24vdc), Inverter backlight ON (if no back light on command then there is no back lights), Logic board supplies 5 or 12vdc to T-CON board B+ pin through switched transistor if T-CON board does not get the voltage from the logic board, you will get white/gray glowing screen without pictures.Back lights Dimming (PWM) control signal.

3) Back lights Inverter board. Its job is to provide the drive voltage for the CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) to give white light for the screen.This board is fed by the switched 24vdc (VBL) from the power supply module, it also get the Back lights on (BL on) control signal and the Dimming (Dim/PWM/) signal from the logic board. So for it to work, it needs 24vdc and the BL_ON signal.Common failures:Blown surface mounted fuses due to shorted transistors/ICs, Transformers.Bad capacitors.

4) The T-CON (Timing Control or LCD controller) board (on the LCD panel assembly). It transfer the universal image signal of TTL and LVDS signal to specific TFT (Thin Film Transistor) LCD.This is the interface board that talks to the Logic board and the LCD panel to produce pictures on the screen. White/gray glowing screen when it fails or not getting the voltage from the logic board (the 5 or 12vdc is supplied by switched transistor on the logic board). Notes: T-CON board is mounted under the metal cover shield.Common failures: Scrambled pictures, Lines, multiple pictures, color smears/blotches, rolling pictures after warm up.Blown surface mounted fuse.No pictures, very dark screen almost like there is no backlights.

5) LCD panel assembly to display pictures. The LCD pixels will block or unblock the back lights from the back of the panel to the front of the panel. This is the most expensive part of the TV, it will be more than the TV is worth.

As you can see, you must have all the above Voltages and signals for the TV to work properly. This may help you narrowing down the bad modules instead of buying the wrong module just to find out later that it did not solve the problem. Hope this will help you out.

Sound problem:

Let verify first to narrow down to where the problem can be. First, check the on screen sound set up menu to make sure the speakers are not set to OFF. If the setting is OK, then attach the powered PC speakers to the Audio Line out RCA jacks to see if you can get the sound there, if you do, then the problem can be in the power amp circuits, if you do not get the sound at RCA jacks, then the problem can be in the sound processor circuit. To get the sound repair, it can be from $150 and up, so if you can put up with using the good set of Powered PC speakers which actually give better sound than the tiny speakers inside the TV, I would keep using it that way, you may want to find out if the on screen sound setup will allow you to set the audio line out to be VARIABLE which means the sound output feeding the PC speakers can be varied using the TV remote control, then all you have to do is to set the PC volume to about half way up and set the TV volume to what ever you want.

Inverter board connector: you can also see the Fuse 4A/160V

Power supply connector:

T-CON board: (metal cover shileding is removed to show the bd.)

Inverter board:

Logic board:

T-CON board is dead, no power or blown fuse on the board, screen turns WHITE, must see it in darkened room, otherwise you may mistaken it for failed backlight.

Bad T-CON board after warm up, you get lines, multiple pictures, strange colors blotches, etc.

Bad caps (leaking/bulging tops). Make sure to replace bad cap with good cap such as PANASONIC FM or FC series from DIGIKEY, they are Low ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance) which is a must for switch mode power supply, and 105c rating. Do not use generic electrolytic caps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Bad T-CON board or power supply problem

24vdc power supply output testing using two 12vdc car lamps in series.

Bad LCD panel, vertical 1~2 pixel wide lines

Failed TV and Monitors: http://s807.photobucket.com/albums/yy352/budmParts:www.shopjimmy.com www.digikey.com for PANASONIC FM or FC series capacitors, fuses, transistors, diodes, resistors.Free service manuals: www.elektrotanya.com Learn about T-CON board: http://www.mediafire.com/?zzjygannjtyPosted by Bud Martin on Tuesday, June 15, 2010