HLR5067 Problem

**bnckeye27** · **10-06-09, 10:17 AM**

The other day I was behind the TV cleaning up the snake pit of wires. The power had been unplugged and I bumped the TV no harder than it's ever been bumped before moving, but enough to lift the back end of the stand slightly and bang back down.

When I hooked the power back up nothing would happen when trying to power on - the green "lamp" light just blinked and blinked.

After a few trials it came back on, but started freezing - both picture AND sound, every 20 seconds.

I unplugged the TV again to let it "reset," (per the manual), and turned it back on. The frequency of the freezing dropped to once an hour or so and later (in the last day) to maybe twice per day.

Anyone know what's wrong here? The repair shop suggests it's the DMD driver (without seeing the TV), and wants $571.10 for parts and repair. Does this sound like the part based on the symptoms? If so, can I do it myself?

**bnckeye27** · **10-06-09, 02:08 PM**

and now my wife just called from home and said there are two gray lines across the top middle of the screen.

**lcaillo** · **10-06-09, 02:45 PM**

Are menus in the set affected? Which sources? What kind of signals?

**bnckeye27** · **10-06-09, 02:49 PM**

Quote:

lcaillo wrote:

Are menus in the set affected? Which sources? What kind of signals?

Menus aren't effected, and this happens across all sources - I routinely use HDMI and Component 1 and Component 2 - it happens to all of them. The picture and sound freeze, go to black, and then come back on as normal after about 5 seconds - when it comes back on the source displays in the usual spot (top left). My wife says the lines appeared after she did in fact bring up a menu and only some of the lines went away...so from what I can tell she's saying, the lines were two pieces of a menu box that didn't disappear. She shut it off and unplugged it, and the lines went away.

EDIT: Sorry, signals are from digital cable, DVD, and Xbox 360.

**lcaillo** · **10-06-09, 02:56 PM**

If menus are not affected you likely have a bad digital board. Look for the threads on the pressure fix in this forum. It is not a permanent fix and could make it worse, but if you get a change you can be more confident that the digital board is the problem.

**bnckeye27** · **10-06-09, 03:02 PM**

Thanks, I will check it out.

**Jason1976** · **10-06-09, 07:27 PM**

the digital board can be bought from www.samsungparts.com there is a 50 dollar core charge on the old digital board but the replacement board will only cost 188 dollars after you get your core charge back.

**Jason1976** · **10-06-09, 07:35 PM**

if i wouldn't of fried the digital board i would of tried the video number two here. it looks like the metal of a tea light candel. http://www.ifitjams.com/2008/08/refl...rocessors.html looks like they had the same issue with a BGA chip. The alcohol kludge only requires a penny worth of alcohol and a tin to put it in. I guess it gets the solder hot and melts it.

one of you may want to try this but it may mess it up or it may fix it.

**trnelson** · **10-17-09, 10:13 AM**

I am having the same problem.
This has been going on for months.

At first, I thought it was Time Warner Cable. I even called them out a few times to change the box. Then I thought there may be issues with some of the HDMI cables, so I troubleshooted those. Then I was convinced it was my Denon head unit. Strange thing about my situation is the the picture AND sound (from the Denon) seem to drop out at the same time (hence why I was convinced it was the head unit).

Here is the typical sequence of events: picture freezes and sound continues => picture and sound drop out momentarily => picture and sound return

This AM, I plugged my DVD player into the Samsung via the component, and connected the sound to the Denon via R/L audio cables. In this configuration, the picture continues to drop out, but the sound remains steady. I am not sure why a connection to the Samsung via HDMI would result in drop-outs of video AND audio, especially when the Denon is playing the audio.

Most frustrating is that this appears to be totally intermittent with no pattern whatsoever. It could be working fine one evening, and then the next morning the picture won't even stay up for more that 10s.

While I write this I am also attempting a 'hard' reset. That is, I have unplugged the Samsung and have allowed it to sit. I will plug it back in after I send this off, and see what happens.

**trnelson** · **10-17-09, 11:42 AM**

Plugged the Samsung back in, fired 'er up, and everything looks good.
This will likely last about a week, before the problems start again.

I still think its a strange issue.

**trnelson** · **10-18-09, 10:58 AM**

The hard reset lasted about 12 hours. I repeated it again last evening with success, but sure enough, the problem is back this morning.

Other symptoms include:
- it appears that the frame rate occasionally gets cut in half, as the picture becomes very course and jumpy
- occasionally, I will also get temporary green lines horizontal and similar disturbances
- one of the first symptoms was failure of the lamp to start after turning the TV on. In this case, the lamp indicator starts to flash after the lamp fails to fire, which according to Samsung, indicates an expired bulb. So of course I bought a replacement and installed it, but the same problem occured. Similar to the picture freeze + drop out, this problem is also temporarily fixed by a hard reset.

Again, this is very disappointing. I mean, this thing just turned 5 years old! Compared CRTs I owned in the 'good old days', this unit is still a baby!

I'm not sure if I should try and repair it according to the advice given above, or simply buy a new TV. One thing is for sure, if I dare bring it to a repair shop, I will surely end up paying upwards of $500 to get it fixed. Note that so far, this issue has cost me around $200 to diagnose (cost of new bulb, new HDMI cables). But I'm not sure if repairing is cost effective when I can buy a much better TV now, for just a little more than the likely repair cost.

If I take this route and buy a new unit, one thing is for sure: it will not be a Samsung.

**Jason1976** · **10-18-09, 11:34 AM**

Quote:

trnelson wrote:

The hard reset lasted about 12 hours. I repeated it again last evening with success, but sure enough, the problem is back this morning.

Other symptoms include:
- it appears that the frame rate occasionally gets cut in half, as the picture becomes very course and jumpy
- occasionally, I will also get temporary green lines horizontal and similar disturbances
- one of the first symptoms was failure of the lamp to start after turning the TV on. In this case, the lamp indicator starts to flash after the lamp fails to fire, which according to Samsung, indicates an expired bulb. So of course I bought a replacement and installed it, but the same problem occured. Similar to the picture freeze + drop out, this problem is also temporarily fixed by a hard reset.

Again, this is very disappointing. I mean, this thing just turned 5 years old! Compared CRTs I owned in the 'good old days', this unit is still a baby!

I'm not sure if I should try and repair it according to the advice given above, or simply buy a new TV. One thing is for sure, if I dare bring it to a repair shop, I will surely end up paying upwards of $500 to get it fixed. Note that so far, this issue has cost me around $200 to diagnose (cost of new bulb, new HDMI cables). But I'm not sure if repairing is cost effective when I can buy a much better TV now, for just a little more than the likely repair cost.

If I take this route and buy a new unit, one thing is for sure: it will not be a Samsung.

thats why you never want to buy one of these tv's used. who knows how long it has been plugged in. people sell them as is and then they are like well you saw it working here. something must of broke doring the move.

**trnelson** · **10-19-09, 08:11 AM**

Good point.

By the way, thanks for all your input regarding this issue. This has been driving me nuts for the better part of a year, and I found it very difficult to diagnose. But the description offered by yourself and lcaillo were very helpful.

I also saw the other thread that explains how to do the fix.

My background is actually EE, and the explanation of the BGA solder failure makes sense to me. This would also explain why the problem is so intermittent, as temperature is likely a huge factor.

I also know enough about electronics to recognize that the pressure solution will never be a viable long term fix. Electronics are very, very finicky these days. If the layout and architecture is not perfect, all you need to do is breathe wrong and something will malfunction.

I agree with other posters that replacing the board is the right move. But I also agree with lcaillo that this may be very tricky because of software concerns.

Jason, I give you mad props for attempting to reflow the solder. I used to work with a vendor that fabricated boards for a project I was working on. If I wasn't laid off as a result of the terrible economy, I would pull the board and ask my vendor to run it through their reflow machine. But this is very difficult to do without the proper equipment, and you easily risk turning the board into a scrap.

Because this failure is obviously a result of poor quality control by Samsung, Samsung should be responsible for fixing this. Unfortunately though, it will likely take a a class action lawsuit to get them to admit to the problem and issue a recall/fix notice.

Because the boards are currently on backorder, I think I will continue to cycle power when the thing acts up. Eventually though, it will need a new board.

I'll also keep looking for deals on a new LCD, but like I said before, Samsung is not an option anymore. Too bad, as they offer so many different products, most of which are aesthetically appealing. However, I place a premium on quality.

**lcaillo** · **10-19-09, 09:04 AM**

Quote:

trnelson wrote:

Because this failure is obviously a result of poor quality control by Samsung, Samsung should be responsible for fixing this. Unfortunately though, it will likely take a a class action lawsuit to get them to admit to the problem and issue a recall/fix notice.

This is a very interesting and difficult question and I would suggest starting a new thread to discuss it. The degree to which a vendor should be responsible for problems that occur beyond the warranty period is a good one to debate. If we define that every matter of poor quality control or design that don't last as long as we would like should be covered by the maker, we would increase the price of products dramatically. On the other hand, there should be some reasonable life span expected on a product.

Like I said, interesting question, if someone wants to start a thread. I suggest that the place to do so would be in the General Service and Technical Information forum.

**Jason1976** · **10-19-09, 09:25 AM**

Quote:

lcaillo wrote:

This is a very interesting and difficult question and I would suggest starting a new thread to discuss it. The degree to which a vendor should be responsible for problems that occur beyond the warranty period is a good one to debate. If we define that every matter of poor quality control or design that don't last as long as we would like should be covered by the maker, we would increase the price of products dramatically. On the other hand, there should be some reasonable life span expected on a product.

Like I said, interesting question, if someone wants to start a thread. I suggest that the place to do so would be in the General Service and Technical Information forum.

I saw another forum were a group of people won class action agaist Toshiba and Mitsubishi dlp tv's I wouldn't even know were to start. I guess all it takes is a lawyer to have this same tv and to have issues before the law suit starts. unless he likes throwing money away

**lcaillo** · **10-19-09, 10:56 AM**

The value of, and the reasons for such lawsuits are a topic for another thread. Please start one to discuss them. This is a very interesting discussion but we need to keep threads on topic.

**trnelson** · **10-19-09, 05:21 PM**

I agree that this topic deserves a new thread.

I will start one momentarily. I will mention though, that I talked to Samsung today. They claim to not be aware of this problem. And of course, there is nothing they can do about it at the moment. I expected this.

The good news is that the digital board is now available. I purchased one today.

Leonard: I'm not looking forward to the software aspect of making the swap. I guess I know enough about this stuff to be frightened! But I'll pay attention to the other thread; hints are plastered all over the place. Thanks again for your expertise about this issue.

**trnelson** · **10-29-09, 01:29 PM**

Changed the digital board yesterday.
Took me 90 minutes.
No significant software issues. Only needed need to flip the horizontal axis.

Overall, very easy.

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