Hardware Sony Bravia TV issues (horizontal lines)

[the_randomizer]

So my parents got a 46" Sony Bravia LCD TV back in 2008 and until last week, it's been very reliable and hasn't had issues. Last week, however, my brother began to notice a dark section in the middle of the screen, and on the right side, horizontal lines and double images appear after turning on. They do however, go away after 30 min of use, but based off what I've learned so far, it sounds like the CCFL could be failing...either that, another vital component, but no matter what it is, it will not be cheap and the warranty was only three years long, so it expired in 2011. The parts are just too far cost-prohibitive and I would imagine it would be better for them to get a new TV. Is the backlight about to go out, like, very, very soon? It's just interesting how it began a week ago and how it goes away after thirty minutes. It's not gradual, it just goes away abruptly. If this is the wrong section, my apologies.

 

[Mario92]

Of course most simplest and cheapest thing would be cleaning inside of TV, checking all solderings and bad capasitors, those two things are most common if TV warming up makes problem go away. You should have some experience or make someone with experience do it.
If those fix won't fix the issue it's much easier and cheaper to look up newer model - that's how those things are build these days sadly.

 

[the_randomizer]

Of course most simplest and cheapest thing would be cleaning inside of TV, checking all solderings and bad capasitors, those two things are most common if TV warming up makes problem go away. You should have some experience or make someone with experience do it.
If those fix won't fix the issue it's much easier and cheaper to look up newer model - that's how those things are build these days sadly.

Two problems with that idea, one, it's built onto a wall rig (with ventilation uninhibited or course) with bolts, and two, the TV is no longer covered by warranty. Plus, I have no electrical experience whatsoever, so messing with the internals of the TV is not my area of expertise, nor is soldering and checking the capacitors, so I have to rule that out. We've had it for six years now, and this was before LED TVs existed on the market, so it makes use of a CCFL bulb, and compared to the LED lights they have now, they're not as long-lasting. The parts to replace them are also very cost-prohibitive for most peoples' budgets. It's just weird how the issue abruptly goes away. I don't know of anyone who has that experience either, with that said, it sounds like the backlight is dying, and those can be pricey too. LED lights I assume would last a lot longer.

 

[war2thegrave]

Bad capacitors are in the power supply section would be the most likely culprit, especially in
electronics equiptment built aroundbthat time period.
It would be a quick and cheap fix if you can find someone who can solder.

Another thing is is that if the flourscent tubes or inverters are dead, the television can
be retrofitted with led lighting strips. The tv would use less energy and operate cooler,
but you could no longer control the backlight brightness from the television's menu.
It would also be a marginally more expensive and complicated repair.

 

[the_randomizer]

Bad capacitors are in the power supply section would be the most likely culprit, especially in
electronics equiptment built aroundbthat time period.
It would be a quick and cheap fix if you can find someone who can solder.

Another thing is is that if the flourscent tubes or inverters are dead, the television can
be retrofitted with led lighting strips. The tv would use less energy and operate cooler,
but you could no longer control the backlight brightness from the television's menu.
It would also be a marginally more expensive and complicated repair.

Again, I personally have no expertise on messing around with soldering electronics and I don't know of anyone who knows the complexity of the capacitors and PCBs on the TV components. I spoke to my brother over Facebook and it does indeed sound like a sticky situation that important components are indeed beginning to fail CCFL bulbs don't last as long as LED backlights on average. It still seems to be working in the mean time, but my younger brother (not the one I spoke to over FB) half-jokingly fears that soon the TV will turn on but no show anything on the screen lol, but yeah, eventually a new TV will be needed since replacing the bulb is extremely expensive. Not only that, but problem is that we would have to unmount the TV from the stand (my dad made a cool rig by making his own wall mount in an opening on a cupboard-like structure, but it has perfect airflow, so the TV itself never overheats). We would have to unscrew all the bolts just to get access to the TV, and that takes a while, so that's not an option. Eventually, a new TV will be needed, what TV brand/model...no one knows yet.

 

[Mario92]

Two problems with that idea, one, it's built onto a wall rig (with ventilation uninhibited or course) with bolts, and two, the TV is no longer covered by warranty. Plus, I have no electrical experience whatsoever, so messing with the internals of the TV is not my area of expertise, nor is soldering and checking the capacitors, so I have to rule that out. We've had it for six years now, and this was before LED TVs existed on the market, so it makes use of a CCFL bulb, and compared to the LED lights they have now, they're not as long-lasting. The parts to replace them are also very cost-prohibitive for most peoples' budgets. It's just weird how the issue abruptly goes away. I don't know of anyone who has that experience either, with that said, it sounds like the backlight is dying, and those can be pricey too. LED lights I assume would last a lot longer.

Well if it gets completely broken you have to get it out of that wall rig then anyway? Or am I missing something
And if it did have some warranty I wouldn't be telling you to checking it's internals. I personally have gone trough Electronics Technician area at vocational school so I know it shouldn't be hard at all so you may have friend or two who may know about soldering? Anyway if it's actually the capasitors or soldering like I said earlier and war2thegrave confirmed then you should definitly look into it instead of wondering about it as it usually just gets worse and TV doesn't like it.

Now that you talked about it I remember CCFL TVs back then. Is image quality still fine? As when I worked at electronic shop couple times customers tried to give TVs to be sold as used but their image quality is usually really poor and gray after several years nobody would've bought those even if they worked.

 

[the_randomizer]

Well if it gets completely broken you have to get it out of that wall rig then anyway? Or am I missing something
And if it did have some warranty I wouldn't be telling you to checking it's internals. I personally have gone trough Electronics Technician area at vocational school so I know it shouldn't be hard at all so you may have friend or two who may know about soldering? Anyway if it's actually the capasitors or soldering like I said earlier and war2thegrave confirmed then you should definitly look into it instead of wondering about it as it usually just gets worse and TV doesn't like it.

Now that you talked about it I remember CCFL TVs back then. Is image quality still fine? As when I worked at electronic shop couple times customers tried to give TVs to be sold as used but their image quality is usually really poor and gray after several years nobody would've bought those even if they worked.

Eventually, yes, it will need to be removed when the TV is ultimately inoperative, I don't know anyone personally who is involved with tweaking with electronics, and I vehemently refuse to do something I have no knowledge about. I can't go to school to learn about electronics either (long unrelated story). I don't want to screw with the internals or anyone else as I don't know anyone who can, I've already made that clear in my earlier posts. I'm not trying to sound rude, I should have specified that I was trying to pinpoint the issue and let's be honest here, there's no real point in trying to keep an old TV alive by prolonging the inevitable by replacing this and that, which parts can be very, very expensive; it would be less of a hassle and cheaper to replace the TV when it ceases functioning. I'm sorry, but I am not comfortable with the idea of having me or someone tweak the internals of the TV. The image quality is fine, it's the initial 30 mins that it's crap, white horizontal lines on the right half of the screen and double images, but then goes away after that as if nothing was wrong.

There is also a dark section in the middle of the screen, but either side is normal brightness, the backlight has to be an issue too. That too goes away after being on long enough.My brother turned the TV off for 30 mins and came back and it was fine. When he came back after two hours, the cycle started up again.

 

[Ozito]

I'm quite sure the problem can't be fixed without opening up the tv and messing around in there.
And since you don't want to do that, I would recommend you to just sell the tv "as is" and with that money buy a new one.

 

[the_randomizer]

I'm quite sure the problem can't be fixed without opening up the tv and messing around in there.
And since you don't want to do that, I would recommend you to just sell the tv "as is" and with that money buy a new one.

The thing is, as I mentioned in the first sentence of the OP, it's actually my parent's TV, not mine, and my brother (who lives at home at the moment) is the primary user of said TV, so technically, it's not really mine to be messing around with in the first place. If it was my TV, that'd be another story and I might be more willing to do so, all the more reason why I shouldn't be screwing around with something that's not mine. I know the problem can't be fixed without it being opened and tweaked, but to replace the parts would not be a permanent solution, I don't know people insist that whatever part is defective should be replaced when neither I nor anyone I know personally knows what the issue is and how to fix it. This is what I get for making a thread about this, shoulda made a thread about saying my parents are in need of new TV and what model/make they should get, you know, instead of trying to get an answer on why there were horizontal lines and double imaging. *Sigh*....

Now I regret ever having had the balls to ask about this issue and not about what TV I should suggest for them.

 

[Ozito]

Just tell them to be careful with buying cheap tv's that often appears in promotions (at least here in Sweden), they probably won't last many years due to cheaper components.
Samsung had a lot of problems with bulging capacitors rendering the tv useless, I don't know how it is with their newer products though.

 

[the_randomizer]

Just tell them to be careful with buying cheap tv's that often appears in promotions (at least here in Sweden), they probably won't last many years due to cheaper components.
Samsung had a lot of problems with bulging capacitors rendering the tv useless, I don't know how it is with their newer products though.

It wasn't a cheap TV when my brother got it back in 2008, it's a 46" Sony Bravia and was about $1400 I think...? Before Circuit City went under. Anyway, sorry for getting annoyed at the situation. I'll look around and when the time comes, well, yeah