My trusty Philips iDTV has recently started exhibiting a range of faults. For some years my 8 year old daughter has impressed us by being able to crash the digital tuner (blue screen), but we’ve never got out of her how she does it.

However, recently, it has been intriguing us with a range of strange new problems, usually after a few hours viewing, including:
- picture goes mostly black with a few coloured marks, slowly rotating horizontally, sound OK, same on analogue and digital tuners
- picture goes to solid colour (e.g. purple or green), no sound, controls ineffective
- set won’t come out of standby
- picture corrupted then enters lockout (red LED flashing)

In each case the fault is cleared by switching off and on again.
In Customer Service Mode the last errors (Line 2) are 005 and 065, alternating. I believe that 005 is tuner and 065 is Slow IC bus blocked. Unfortunately I don’t have access to ComPair or a DST, but I do have the manual, a ‘scope and tenacity!

Has anyone seen faults like these before? Any suggestions as to where I should start looking?

Hope somebody can help.

Rob

[ismael-1986]

ur daughter si V. clever to have done that

as for the other problems sounds like u have a video problem in the tv or u must have sommat magnetic near, also sounds like an IC problem good luck

Thanks Ismael. I'm wondering whether it may just be a mechanical fault. Anyway, I shall wait till after Christmas so the family doesn't complain too much then have it apart and see what I can find.

I'd still appreciate any other thoughts from those who've got experience of the early Philips iDTVs.

[ekimq]

*Sigh* There's me thinking I've got a lemon. Mine's doing exactly the same things _and_ you can add:

. Sometimes ignores the remote completely
. Sometimes everything except teletext works

How do I get it into CSM?

Well, I think all we can say is there are at least two 32DW9625 lemons, until we hear about others...

CSM is mentioned on page GB 28 of the MG3.1E Service Manual. You get into it by simultaneously pressing the 'MUTE' button on the remote control and the 'MENU' button on the TV for at least 4 seconds.

Line 2, Code 1 in the list gives the last 5 errors in the error buffer and Line 3, Code 2 gives the first 5. Unfortunately, to get much further I think we both need access either to the diagnostic aids for the set (ComPair or DST) or are lucky enough that someone out there knows the solution.

Can anyone else help?

I think I may have found the solution to our problem ekimq, and I'd be interested to see if it solves your one too.

I purchased second hand an identical TV on eBay, and checked with the vendor that it had not suffered from the same fault, which he assured me it hadn't. Having got it home and wired it in, within a couple of days it was doing the same thing! So, it must be something to do with our house - which probably means mains or aerial.

I started with the mains and tried connecting both TVs through a surge suppressor mains block (Maplin had 2 x 4-way ones for about £15). Amazingly, since doing this both have performed faultlessly for more than a week.

I can't say for sure that the problem is solved, but it does look as if these particular TVs (perhaps when the power supplies get old?) may become susceptible to mains spikes, which get through into the digital circuits and cause crashes.

I would be really interested to know if this solves your problem too!

Hi Robmorland,

I found your solution most interesting to read about. I don't have that problem as my Philips set is only eighteen months old but years ago I had an old set that displayed similar symptoms and it went to the dump as it was too old for economic repair.

Let's hope that a lot of people read about your solution, it might be the answer to a lot of problems. I admire your determination.

[ekimq]

Hmmm!

I'll give it a try when I get home - fingers crossed

I've got my fingers crossed ekimq!

Meanwhile, I have put one of mine back onto 'raw' mains as a control to see if the problems return.

The only difficulty with this fascinating experiment is that we are now the proud owners of two 32 inch TVs, both apparently working perfectly, and my daughter has fallen in love with the second one, which is in her room (on CBBC continuously). This in turn is causing stress for my wife, who is having difficulty moving around the house for all the TVs. (I'm not expecting the Forum to have an answer for this one)

We've got a 32DW9625, purchased June 2002.
On Digital the sound drifts and develops a buzz on CH5 so we have to change channels to stop it. Picture often freezes, and sometimes just becomes a locked fuzz of colour which then affects analogue as well. Remote often fails to work. Only way to clear the problem is to turn TV off and back on. TV has always been plugged into a surge master socket block, so your soln. doesn't work here.
Also, text is fuzzy/soft around the edge of screen.

Luckily we purchased a D&G extended warranty. Diagnosis was new decoder and new tube required = uneconomical to repair! Have now been offered (after some 'correspondence') Philips 32PW6720D (50Hz) and Sony DAV-DZ100 as replacement, which we are considering. Seems that 100HZ models are not made by many now. Seems crazy that TV of 3 years ago is better spec.d than most CRT TVs now.