Chapter 8 - Appendix

Panel Failures Electrical Failures

The key to good troubleshooting when video quality issues are involved There are multiple drive IC’s located along the top and side of the panel
is the understanding what type of distortions cannot be generated by the to “de-multiplex” the data for all of the rows and columns of pixels. If one
panel. The loss of an entire color is highly unlikely. The LVDS transmitter of these IC’s fails there will be a cluster of missing information on the
does not handle the RGB data as groups. The data (along with sync and screen. The second photo in Figure 8-5 contains an illustration of a panel
clock) is distributed among 6 separate transmission lines for an 8-bit with such a failure.
panel. A 10-bit panel uses 12 transmission lines. If one of these lines
fails the result is random, multiple colored lines appearing on the screen.
Distortions caused by the panel will be stationary and, in almost all cases,
will consist of a single line or multiple lines in a repetitive pattern. Any
distortion that is not stationary (flying color spots, loss of detail, etc.) is
being generated by the video process circuits on the B board.
Although the TCON board is considered part of the LCD panel, we will
focus on the panel itself and discuss TCON failures separately since it
generates symptoms that are quite distinguishable from panel issues.
Panel failures fall into 2 different categories: Physical and electrical.

Physical Failures SOURCE DRIVERS

The most obvious failure is physical damage to the panel. This can appear
as a small cluster of damaged pixels or a complete shattering of the panel
glass. Another physical failure may appear as a single or several lines
running vertically or horizontally across the screen. The lines may be VIDEO TIMING
PROCESS CONTROL
brightly lit or dark. This is caused by a failure of the flexible printed circuit
where it is bonded to the panel edge. This is known as a tab bond issue.
Do not confuse this with multiple vertical lines across the screen that are of
the same color. This is electrical and usually caused by the TCON board. LCD PANEL
LVDS LVDS
Figure 8-5 illustrates some examples of tab bonding issues. TRANSMITTER RECEIVER

PANEL B+
GATE
DRIVERS
BU1 TCON

FIGURE 8-4
LCD PANEL DRIVE
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UPPER TAB BOND FAILURE TAB BOND AND DRIVE IC FAILURE

UPPER TAB BOND FAILURE SIDE TAB BOND FAILURE

FIGURE 8-5
LCD PANEL FAILURES
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TCON Failures
Failures of the TCON circuit can cause a variety of symptoms varying
from evenly spaced multiple vertical lines of the same color, fixed random
patterns, colored blotches, or the complete loss of video. A complete
failure of the TCON is difficult to determine since there is nothing on the
display to help troubleshoot and has the same symptoms as a complete
video process failure on the B board. A procedure to help in diagnosing
this failure will be covered shortly.
Figure 8-6 contains several photos of symptoms caused by a failure on
the TCON board. Note the fixed and symmetrical lines in the first 3 photos.
This is a classic timing IC failure on the TCON board. The fourth photo
is interesting. Another task performed on the TCON board is gamma
correction. The correction is performed in defined zones across the entire
panel. The data is stored in an on-board EEPROM. If this data is corrupted
for whatever reason, one or more of the zones will exhibit a severe white
balance issue.

FIGURE 8-6
SAMPLES OF TCON FAILURES
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Troubleshooting a “Dead” TCON

This is a tough one. Fortunately, most of the 2007 Sony models now monitor
the TCON for communications and will shut down with a diagnostics
indication. In units that do not have this feature you will experience
the same symptom as a complete video process failure (no on-screen
graphics, no video, but audio is OK). Based on data gathered from our
panel refurbishing group, about 10 to 15% of TCON failures cause a no
video condition.
If a customer complains of no video from any source you will be asked to
bring a B board to the location since that is the most likely component to
fix the problem. What if you install the board and still have no video? Did
you receive a defective B board? Did you overlook any other symptoms?
Make sure you have audio. This is critical. There have been numerous
issues of technicians troubleshooting older models in which the ATI
decoder IC for digital channels is located on a separate board (QM or Q-
Box). When this decoder fails, it kills all video and audio. The technician
changed several parts based on a no video condition and did not bother
to check for the presence of audio. If it is verified that audio is present, the
following procedure can help isolate a defective TCON in most cases.
Warning: Do not attempt to check for data or voltages on the LVDS
connector at the TCON. This advice has been circulating around and is
not recommended. In Figure 4 a picture of the LVDS connector is shown.
In order to take a reading from one of the pins, you must insert your probe RELEASE TABS
between a narrow area that is shielded and at ground potential. Several
of the pins contain B+ for the TCON and panel. It is very easy to short
one of these pins to ground and if it is a B+ line it is guaranteed you will
be replacing a B board whether or not it was the original cause of the FIGURE 8-7
problem. The LVDS connector is shown in Figure 8-7. LVDS CONNECTOR

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If the TCON is receiving B+ and functioning properly, the timing circuits

are waiting for RGB data to allocate to the proper pixel. When a video
processor failure occurs, there is simply no data being sent to the TCON
and it does exactly what it is supposed to do: Keep all of the pixels dark.
One trick that works rather well is to partially disconnect the LVDS
connector from the TCON board while the unit is running. Do this very
carefully! Both sides of the connector have release tabs that must be
squeezed inward to release the connector. I have performed this over
30 times to the same television without and damage to the connector or
electrical circuits. Release the connector and carefully pull it partially out
of the socket being careful not to pull one side out much further than the
other. Too much skewing can damage the connector and possibly cause
a short on the B+ line. The idea is to remove some of the LVDS data
entering the TCON.
If the TCON is functioning the loss of data will cause the timer circuits to
generate random patterns. These patterns may appear as a brief colored SINGLE MOMENTARY LINE
horizontal bar or continuously active random lines covering the entire
screen. The type of response you get will depend on the panel design
and how much LVDS data you have removed. Sometimes a momentary
line will flash on the screen, other times the screen will fill with random
patterns. If you don’t see any response, try plugging the connector back
in and pulling it out one more time watching the screen very closely for
any reaction. Figure 5 illustrates 2 different types of patterns generated
by the same unit.
If you are able to generate any response on the screen, the TCON is
most likely OK. A TCON that has completely failed (causing a no video
condition) will not produce any pixel lighting on the screen.

MOVING RANDOM PATTERNS

FIGURE 8-8
SAMPLE REACTIONS TO LVDS LOOSENING
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