Philips Convergence Fixed

This is a follow-up to the earlier post that I made about the convergence problem I was having on my Philips projection screen TV. The model I have is the 51PP9303H17 which uses STK392-120 18 pin convergence IC's. A few weeks ago I ordered the parts for $13.69 each, got some Artic Silver thermal compound, and a desoldering iron at Radio Shack.

The first problem was trying to decide if I needed to disconnect all of the cables and remove the circuit board from the chassis in order to make the repair. Luckily, the cabling was long enough to allow the board to be tiled up to give me access to the bottom without completely removing it from the chassis. The pins on the IC's have a fairly tight pitch and there are several tiny surface mount components nearby, but I taped over them, and the desoldering iron worked perfectly to remove the old solder. Once each pin was loose, I had no problem removing the IC's from the top side.

A strong spring clamp holds the IC to the large aluminum heat sink. Getting the clamp secured in the tight work space around the IC's was a challenge. After that was done, I tilted the board up again and soldered each pin with the help of a large magnifying glass. The solder job isn't real pretty, but I made sure that each pin was secure and there were no solder bridges. I polished the lenses, put everything back together, crossed my fingers, and turned on the power. After setting the convergence back to the factory default, the picture was as good as new. It took me about 3 hours and $40 for part and supplies.

ASUS 1000HE Netbook

The ASUS netbook reviews on Amazon are amazing, people love this little computer, with all of it's clever features. More than a hundred reviews and over 80% gave it five stars. I wasn't sure how useful a computer with a 10 inch screen would be, but after working with it for a few days, it isn't that bad. It's great for email and browsing the web, but I wouldn't try to do any video editing or graphics design on it. The 1000HE is powerful enough to stream hulu movies at a decent frame rate. The ASUS hardware is rock solid, with many extra features that more than make up for not having an optical drive. Three USB 2.0 ports, wireless networking, Bluetooth, SD card slot, external VGA port, webcam, stereo microphones, 1 GB Ram, 160 GB hard drive, and the latest 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N280 Processor. ASUS is known for their innovative motherboard designs and it shows in the quality engineering that went into this netbook.

The battery life is advertised at 9.5 hours, but that must have been calculated without running any apps. We get more like 7.5 hours with average use, which is still pretty good. Running XP home edition, ASUS added Skype and Sun's Open Office software suite. The info on Amazon said that it was supposed to come with Microsoft Works, but Open Office looks much better. Overall I would highly recommend the Asus 1000HE netbook if you are looking for a second computer to travel with. It's small and packed with useful features, at an affordable price; what could be better than that? It will be interesting to see how netbook sales impact laptops this year.

Philips HDTV Convergence

This week the picture on my Philips 51" projection screen TV went haywire. The upper and lower left side of the screen suddenly developed a problem with the color alignment. After some online research, I discovered this is due to a convergence chip on the circuit board that has failed. Apparently this is a common problem on all projection screen TV sets. Mine lasted 4 years, and I guess that is typical. Nothing gets me more than when I find out something is a "common problem" and the cost to repair it is half as much as the item is worth. No wonder Philips was trying to sell me the extended service plan so aggressively. They probably knew this was going to happen.

So, what now? Well, in my research I discovered several websites with information about how to fix the problem yourself. The problem is so widespread that literally hundreds of people have posted comments about their experience with the convergence chip issue. It will cost about $400 to have a technician come to your home to fix the problem. If you are good with a soldering gun, you can do it yourself for around $40. Since the parts are so cheap, and the TV is already out of warranty, I figure I may as well give it a try. Half the problem with electronics repair is finding out which components need to be replaced. Since most people have reported success by replacing the convergence chips, the work is already half done.