Plasma X-Y-Z Board Troubleshooting

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ु े मेरे दो त ने भेजा है ,म ने
आपके सामने शेर कया है - वण मेवाड़ा -
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In this article, I will help you to understand where these 3 boards are located, what they do, what
happens when they fail and how to troubleshoot these boards.

**DANGER! A plasma TV has voltages in excess of 380V on some connectors.**

The capacitance on the Vsus bus (>4,500µF) is easily enough to jump-start your heart and can
power the TV for half a second with a fully white picture, that’s over 200 joules. UNDER NO
CIRCUMSTANCES TOUCH ANY PART ON THE BACK OF THE TV WHILE IT IS
RUNNING OR SHORTLY AFTER POWER OFF!

I highly recommend you have someone around watching you while you service the tv.
I’m using this (see image above) LG plasma 60ps11-ua because I know every part in it.

First, what the boards do:

1. Y-Sustain Board: This is the board that drives all the Y-axis panel signals coming from the
logic board, that where it’s name comes from. This board also requires the Vs and Va voltages
derived from the power supply board. The Y-sus board PRIMES the panel. Makes it light up the
panel from Pitch Black to a Subtle Gray. If it stays on longer than a couple seconds, that
indicates it’s good.

2. Upper SDR or Y Driver Board: Is the board that drives all the upper half part of the plasma
screen signals coming from the Y-Sustain to the individual lines on the plasma panel.

3. Lower SDR or Y Driver Board: Is the board that drives all the lower half part of the plasma
screen signals coming from the Y-Sustain to the individual lines on the plasma panel.

4. Z or X Sustain Board: Are actually the panels discharge board and controls the X- axis part of
the plasma screen, also it’s supplied by Vs and Va voltages from the power supply board. The Z-
sus board sets the brightness level of the picture. If it’s bad, you get a picture, it stays on, but
your picture is so dark that you see speckles/blobs of dots that move around and it’s because the
brightest part of the picture just “barely lights” up the panel. The X-sus’ purpose is to
create/deliver the picture in Vertical Bands. When those go bad, you get a normal picture, but
you also get BANDS of vertical that are black or bands of noise about 2 inches wide.

5. The Main Board: This board does all the video, and the sound, and the system control, and it
looks for “fault codes” and shuts the TV down. It does the Onscreen displays like the volume
bar, the menu, the Input/channel displays...It does everything.
6. The Logic Board: This board takes the picture from the main board, converts it to digital,
sends the digital data stream to the X and Y boards, and sends the brightness to the Z board.

Board failure
Possible Errors:

• Flashing pixels on screen.

• Have audio but no video.
• Vertical color lines on screen.
• Vertical Bars on screen.
• Vertical color lines along with video.
• Picture goes Red predominant after a while.
• Horizontal lines on image.
• Dark image.
• TV turns ON, and shut down.
• Negative image.
• Screen goes black, and come on with picture.

All the above faults are related to either X,Y or Z sustain boards. These boards look different to
models to models, and manufacturer.

Y-Sustain board is likely to be more faulty than others. There are buffer boards to this Y-Sustain
board. If Y-sustain board is found faulty, it is the best practice to replace these buffer boards
along with it because damage to Y-Sustain board might damage these boards too.

Common problems:

1. Motion Blur: The picture is slow to update (motion blur) and has a purple or lilac tinge to it.
Z-SUS

2. Horizontal lines: The picture has lines going from left to right in fixed positions. The Y-buffer
is faulty or the Y-driver connections are loose.

3. No picture: This is a big one, lots of causes, lots of problems. First, check if you have sound
when you plug in a source. If so, it’s probably not a power supply fault. Does the set respond to
the remote control or side buttons? Is it stuck in standby? There are too many power supply
faults here to debug.

4. Flashing display: This is usually accompanied with a “ticking” coming from the YSUS board,
about once every second, in sync with the blinking display. This failure indicates one of the two
large ICs on the board has failed. We replace both ICs, though, since the still live one is not too
far from failing either
5. No image on display (black screen), sound possibly present. Sound is most likely working
fine, even if you do not hear it, as it is easy to lose proper input and, therefore, sound if you see
nothing on the screen and start pressing buttons in hopes of bringing it back to life.

6. Bottom half of screen is black with sporadic color: There are a couple of problems that will
cause this symptom. The lower y-buffer board, y-sustain board, or the z/x-sustain board, on rare
occasions the power supply.

7. X-Y-Z Sustain Failure: This can cause different issues, these are some of the most common:

• Negative image
• TV turns on and then shuts down after 2 seconds
• Flashing pixels on screen
• There is sound, but no video
• The screen goes black, then returns to normal
• There are vertical colored lines, but no video
• There are vertical colored lines with sound
• There are vertical bars
• There are horizontal lines on the image
• The picture goes red after a while

There are hundreds of symptoms; these are the most common.

If Your Plasma TV Has No Picture and No Sound:

Here are the steps you need to take in order to troubleshoot your malfunctioning plasma TV.

1. Turn off the TV and unplug it from the wall.

2. Wait 5 minutes so that the capacitors are discharged.
3. Unplug the connector going into the Z-sustain and then plug the TV back in.
4. Check for sound. If there’s sound, then the problem is with the Z-sustain. If not, then:
5. Unplug the TV and wait another 5 minutes. Then disconnect the Y-sustain and re-connect
the Z-sustain.
6. Plug the TV back in and check for sound. If there’s sound, then the problem is with the
Y-sustain.

If the problem seems to be coming from the Y-sustain, you also need to check out the buffer. To
do that, follow these steps:

1. Unplug the TV and wait 5 minutes.

2. Remove the buffer and see if you get a picture with sound.
3. If your TV has two buffers, disconnect the upper buffer and see if you get a picture on the
lower screen.
4. Then disconnect the lower buffer and see if you get a picture on the upper screen.
5. If, after removing one of the boards, you can see a picture, you know that the removed
board is the problem.
You should also check out this video, which can guide you step-by-step through the process of
repairing your plasma TV.

Plasma TV Has Sound but No Picture:

If your plasma TV has no picture, but the sound still works, then the problem is usually due to a
faulty Y-sustain. If you’re lucky, it could just be a blown fuse, which is easily replaceable. But if
not, you might have to replace the entire Y-sustain. To test the fuse, follow these steps:

1. Unplug the TV and wait 5 minutes for the capacitors to discharge.

2. Set your digital multimeter to 200 ohms.
3. Touch the red and black together. The reading should be around 0-2 ohms.
4. Connect the probes on each end of the fuse with the multimeter. If it reads “1” on the left-
hand side, or “OL,” then the fuse is blown. If you get the same value on both sides, then
the fuse isn’t the problem.

If the fuse blows again, you will need to repair or replace the Y-sustain. (It’s often times much
easier and cheaper to replace the board than to fix it—unless you have a lot of experience doing
these repairs yourself).

Signs of Plasma Power Board Failure

1. No full start-up, relay clicking-
2. Relay clicks once then shuts down into protection mode-(red standby power light)
3. Relay clicks in cycles, then goes to protection mode-
4. No relay click, stuck in standby only
5. Dead no picture, no sound, no standby light
6. Turns off after 10 or 20 minutes
7. Turns on, immediate shut down
8. TV, turns on, no picture, no sound.
9. Clicking on/off, on/off
10. No Power
11. No 5 Volt
12. Black Screen, Red flashing standby light-Capacitors
13. Flashing red power light

Signs of Plasma Main Board Failure

1. No sound
2. No picture but has Menu display
3. Intermittent sound
4. No video from input
5. Picture distorted
6. Grey colored screen
7. Snow Picture
Signs of Plasma X-Y-Z Sustain Board Failure

1. Screen cuts on and off

2. Startup then shuts down
3. Colored Pixels on screen
4. Dark image
5. Sound, no video
6. Horizontal lines
7. Vertical colored lines

Signs of Plasma Buffer Board Failure

1. No video, has sound

2. Black vertical Bars
3. Different size vertical lines
4. Horizontal lines

Signs of Plasma Logic Board Failure

1. Only Left or Right side of screen working

2. No video, has sound
3. No menu display
4. Vertical and horizontal lines
5. Part of screen distorted

Y-Sustain Board
If the Y sustain is bad, you cannot have a completely blue screen. It will either be a bad picture,
no picture or dead. It has nothing to do with the sound, unless buffers are shorted.

Common Y-Sustain Board Failure

1. Blows or Pops, smells like a fire cracker.

2. No picture or distorted picture
3. Distorted picture, or colored snow.
4. TV flashing white screen about every second and a ticking sound
5. TV comes up, display is dark, there may or may not be sound. If no sound, suspect
Buffers
6. TV clicks on and quickly back off
7. Clicks on and shortly after back off, then after a short pause tries again

Here are some symptoms of Y-Sustain board failure–

1. TV on, screen primed with no picture

2. Brief picture, then TV on with no picture
3. Picture on then off at start up
4. TV on, no picture, then shuts down
 5. Audio on, no picture
6. TV on, no picture, primed screen only

Lg Plasma reset:
If the red light is blinking in front of the TV and the TV does not switch on. Then remove the
back power cable from the TV. Press the on/off switch on the side so that you drain all the
residual power. Plug back the power cable. Switch on the TV using remote control. Once you see
the green light press the channel ( ) button do not let it go until the TV switch`s on. This process
will bypass the traditional power to switch on the TV instead the TV will be switched on using
the TV channel power to the TV

Z-Sustain Board

1. The picture is slow to update (motion blur)

2. Has a purple tinge to it
3. Foggy
4. Half of the screen may be distorted more than the other half
5. This is in about 95% of cases the Z-sustain

Z-Sustain Board Repair Kit

Kit content:

• 6 Power IGBT Transistors

• 12 surface mount resistors
• 1 fuse

Fixes following symptoms:

• Will not turn on

• No picture or Blown Fuse
• Z-Sus board not working
• Blown fuse
• TV has sound no picture
• When turned off, you hear a zap

X-Sustain Board- ( buffers at bottom of panel) Always causes black vertical bars. If your
Plasma Screen has lines on the screen going from left to right, suspect Logic Board, Control
Board. Thin black horizontal lines on most Plasma TV’s is an indication of a bad board known as
a x driver board. Their may be a slight possibility it can be a small ribbon cable that runs from
the driver board to the plasma panel. Another possibility, it can be a bad panel. If your lines keep
getting worse, suspect a bad ribbon cable.

Symptoms and Repair for Plasma TVs

1. Stand-by only, no full power up - Y-Sustain

2. Thin white horizontal lines across top of screen - Y-Drive Board or Y-Buffers
3. No full start-up, relay clicking - Power Board
4. Dead, no stand-by power - Power Board
5. Standby, then immediate protection mode - Power Board
6. Quick flash, then shut down into protection mode - Z-Sustain Board
7. Sound, no picture, no menu - Y-Sustain Board
8. Partial start-up with one relay click, then shut down - Power Board
9. Relay clicks once, then shut down - Power board
10. Momentary start-up with welcome screen, then shut down - Y-Sustain Board
11. Thick horizontal black line across middle of screen - Y-Drive Board(Buffer)
12. Horizontal black line across lower section of screen - Y-Drive Board-(Buffer)
13. Scrambled lines and patterns on menu screen, jumping picture - Logic Board
14. Protection mode only, then dead - Power Board
15. Stand-by, then protection mode - Power Board
16. Quick flash, black screen, no menu - Logic Board
17. Dark Screen on start-up, then shut down - Z-Sustain Board
18. Protection mode only - Power Board
19. Immediate shut down - Power Board
20. No picture after 5 to 10 seconds - Y-Sustain Board
21. Picture scrambles after power-up - Logic Board
22. TV, shuts down immediately - Y-Sustain Board
23. Menu scrambled with fuzzy picture - Logic Board
24. White screen only, quick shut down - Logic Board
25. Blue screen, then shut down - Logic Board
26. Relay clicks in cycles, then protection mode - Power Board
27. TV, shuts down after 10 seconds, when on - Main Board
28. No audio, on all inputs - Main Board
29. Power up, no picture, then shuts down - Z-Sustain