Dilemma - Replace or repair Pioneer KRP-500A Plasma.....

Hatchorder

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Back in December 2008 I purchased a Pioneer KRP-500A Plasma TV. It is connected to a Yamaha Amp, 5.1 surround sound, Sky, Pioneer Blu ray and it has just developed the 8 flashing blue light fault - I believe it is the voltage regulator on the mainboard which is the fault. I can cure it by standing it on a coolpad for 10 minutes or cold starting it first time in the day. There is not a single other problem with either to box or the panel - no burn-in - nothing.

So, my options are:

1) Buy a couple of the Voltage Regulators and rip it down and replace them - I have done lots of these sorts of repairs before and have a micro tipped gas soldering iron which would make the job much easier and I do not feel stressed about doing the repair. (I have been able to isolate the fault to the VR's because of being able to cool the unit for 30 mins and it fires up straight away again.) (Cost £5.00 plus my time)

2) Find someone to do the repair for me - so far many people are coming back to say they don't do it or it is a 2 or 3 week wait and are quoting £200- £250... plus shipping costs and a 2 week wait.

3) Buy a replacement Media Box - which can either be a refurbed unit or a low hours unit - but there is no guarantee that the VR's are not in the same state. (Cost £200-£300) and they have no warranty unless they are a refurbed unit.

4) Looking on ebay there are people selling low hours full 500A (350 hours) for £850 - I could make an offer and then I have a replacement panel - even though there is nothing wrong with mine.

5) Bite the bullet and replace it but:
a) Can only go to 55" because of space for TV.
b) I think anything will be a step down in terms of picture quality from my existing Pioneer?
c) Not worried about price - the KRP 500A was £2,500 back in 2008! Just want best picture quality.
d) Needs to have 4 HDMI inputs and do not care about speakers as I have seperate surround sound system.

So my thoughts on this seem to be swerving me towards OLED but there seems to be a few other runners in this race.... So:
LG OLED 55CX
Sony KD-55A8
Samsung QE55Q80T

Or is my instinct right - sort my KRP 500A out first?

Not worried about Smart TV - Have a media box connected to my NAS which has all my films ripped in MKV in full HD lossless and only have SKY HD+, a Nintendo Wii and Switch attached and a DVD,VHS,HDD Panasonic copier/recorder running from it.

HELP!

Thanks and regards,

Ian
 
Get it repaired if you don't want to spend the money on a new TV but if do want to move on, update to OLED see very recent comparison, OLED clearly wins.

Take a look at the Panasonic HZ2000 which is their best OLED and has excellent picture quality though most other OLED's are close runners up. it's a slightly improved version of last years GZ2000 (review1, review2).
 
Thank you for the input. Fantastic comparison and made me realise that there is hope for the dying Kuro crowd!. May have to splurge and then repair the old one and sell it if it works. In the meantime I got a 5 fan laptop cooler, sat it underneath as it is flat and connected it to the front USB port using a thin ribbon cable which allows the front to close and even during the hottest days it powers on every time. I know it will fail someday, but thinking that if I do repair it I will drill a load of holes into the bottom of the casing when I take it apart and leave it sitting on the laptop cooler - It was only £12 and consumes less thay 1000th of the power of the telly anyway and is so quiet you do not notice it!
 
Thank you for the input. Fantastic comparison and made me realise that there is hope for the dying Kuro crowd!. May have to splurge and then repair the old one and sell it if it works. In the meantime I got a 5 fan laptop cooler, sat it underneath as it is flat and connected it to the front USB port using a thin ribbon cable which allows the front to close and even during the hottest days it powers on every time. I know it will fail someday, but thinking that if I do repair it I will drill a load of holes into the bottom of the casing when I take it apart and leave it sitting on the laptop cooler - It was only £12 and consumes less thay 1000th of the power of the telly anyway and is so quiet you do not notice it!

Apologies for the thread resurrection, but do you have details of the laptop cooler you use? Mine is suffering the same issues and am torn between repair or replace (most likely with the HZ2000 mentioned above)
 
Hi I had the same problem with mine - managed to fix it with it a reflux of the main io board ( its the pcb with the rs232 on it ) basically involves taking the board out covering all plastics with aluminium foil and placing in oven at 210 for 10 mins and leaving in there until oven is cool place the board on little balls of foil its not resting on anything was amazed but it has fixed it (vga card trick) the other possibility was removing and disconnecting the board cleared any static build up
 

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