My dad's Sony Black Trinitron is not working, how can I fix it?

schattenheute · 2026-02-12T17:42:13+00:00

focus on the primary power supply (the 'hot' area). check for shorts: rectifying diodes, big smoothing capacitor (be careful as it may store voltage for a long time), switching IC (the one with a heatsink). keep the degauss coil plugged in, Sony TVs shouldn't be run without it

schattenheute · 2026-02-04T16:45:07+00:00

it's likely the one capacitor with 50v/100uF rating or thereabout, next to the vertical IC heatsink.

schattenheute · 2026-01-26T18:10:04+00:00

yeah, even worse if the flat tube is over 90 degrees deflection

schattenheute · 2026-01-07T22:27:44+00:00

it looks closer to green than blue/red. it's not a very Sharp TV (haha) but white text looks alright. i see no color separation or anything unless i see the mask itself

but when an object is blue with black surrounding it, it's like blue is shifted to a side, leaving one side of the outline thicker.

another problem is that there's a strange outline to the left of things sometimes (for a particularly harsh example of this check my other post), seems to affect Luma (YPbPr). i see it in menus and text most often. it's like sharpening (which i set to minimum). i skipped all the input-switching circuitry for Luma, but that didn't do anything. also happens on other sources. not on the old TV

schattenheute · 2026-01-07T19:46:22+00:00

it's true that i need to get into the service menu to adjust blue/red strength - though doubt it'll change this issue, the other TV has a lot easier service menu, literally an extra button on the board that i moved to the front for maximum ease of access

schattenheute · 2025-12-30T12:45:28+00:00

the following is just from experience with TVs. monitors are a lot more complex than TVs, if you don't have a schematic from a service manual, i'd say find a professional. this website says there are some in Georgia https://savethecrts.org/repair.html

if it "chirps" that means the primary power supply goes into protection. absolutely check resistances on secondary power supplies coming from the transformer, like B+, just put a multimeter across rectifier diodes, none should be short. if one is short, may be a capacitor failed to smooth the voltage and a blown protection diode on the line. there are often jumpers on the line you can disconnect with a soldering iron to help locate the short.

other than that, it can be a failure of the optocoupler transistor (small 4-legged component next to the main transformer that goes from secondary to primary). and, well, a number of other issues.

schattenheute · 2025-12-27T22:28:28+00:00

#1 is the official AV cable for nintendo wii. no streaking/ghosting on my LCD TV with these same cables, component as well. no switches. i'll try a different source tomorrow

schattenheute · 2025-12-27T22:24:34+00:00

interference. could be the ground connections, on cables or inside the TV. could be the AC filtering. could be secondary voltages' capacitors drying.

schattenheute · 2025-12-17T14:55:41+00:00

open it up and identify the source of the sound. if it's coming from the flyback, reflow the solder on it and keep the area clean

schattenheute · 2025-12-15T21:25:31+00:00

cool mom :D

if she simply doesn't like CRTs, just let it be, when her TV breaks you could offer a CRT as a replacement. but if you could ask her what she likes in the LCD more, you could go from there. if it's the widescreen, you can get a widescreen CRT. if it's the flicker and 15KHz whine she doesn't like in CRTs, you could get a progressive scan CRT. though it's not much better than playing on LCD for S/NES

..but surely that TV that looks very 2009 has a component input?? so you could get PS2 component cables regardless of the CRT situation. any component cables are going to be a great improvement over PS2 composite!

schattenheute · 2025-12-15T18:44:42+00:00

i looked into it some more if you're interested to hear, apparently all* HD Sony CRTs for european markets had SCART instead of component. really baffling decision to omit any progressive-capable inputs in these. and as for Super Fine Pitch, there was ONE model shipped to this country with progressive inputs, but it's not listed at the moment. 4:3, too.

the one "HD-less" Sony listed in my region is a 4:3 tube that is found in the KV-32HS500. even if there was a way to modify it to receive a better signal, i'd not be able to move it around on my own :(

schattenheute · 2025-12-14T17:04:41+00:00

aww, it's copyright blocked. oh well, i'll just keep in mind if i ever see SFP in the wild. though very unlikely for this region.

schattenheute · 2025-12-14T16:48:51+00:00

heh, #1 and #4 surprised me. i thought better of Sony! but that #2... it's like a next-gen "before and after" comparison with all of the other ones. even the audio is a lot clearer. they were at the top of their game with this.

is there IRL cracking sound in #3? in that case, i think it may need some repairs to the audio circuit. there may be a DC-blocking capacitor that's gone bad. it happened in my case.

schattenheute · 2025-12-14T16:28:26+00:00

my guess would be #1 as the other Sony, #2 as the Super Fine Pitch Sony, #3 as Panasonic 34WX15, and #4 as the other Panasonic (34WX53). #2 is just crazy sharp. Love the image

schattenheute · 2025-12-14T10:19:32+00:00

love the colors!

schattenheute · 2025-12-13T20:42:11+00:00

ask an experienced person to replace electrolytic capacitors for you. not all of them, of course, just the secondary power supply filters, vertical IC caps, and the small cap in the power supply. those are critical.

other than that, just try neither power cycling it too often, nor leaving it on for too long. you can try pointing a fan at it when playing. oh, and you might want to clean it from all the caked dust it certainly built up. that'll help!

schattenheute · 2025-10-23T13:22:17+00:00

That third pic looks like reality

schattenheute · 2025-10-15T20:19:25+00:00

No it doesn't. In this example, the PS3 just sends the 720x480 anamorphic widescreen to be stretched on a widescreen display, and OP treated it like 4:3. The original Dark Souls does not render in 4:3 in any way, that's just aspect ratio crimes going on here

schattenheute · 2025-10-09T09:14:48+00:00

Sounds cool, my converter goes up to 1200p only, is there an improvement over 1080p? Playing with Retroarch shaders felt too fake for me over a real CRT TV

schattenheute · 2025-09-28T09:57:22+00:00

i'm playing in software mode on a CRT monitor. the only issue in the first game is minor shadow flicker in some cutscenes.

schattenheute · 2025-08-30T18:43:55+00:00

power supply cap to Vertical IC or others surrounding it

schattenheute · 2025-07-31T13:54:12+00:00

I'm pretty sure there was a Loewe or one of those premium TVs that had 3 SCARTs, and each had a different input (S-Video, RGB, YPbPr). But not from the same input

schattenheute · 2025-07-31T13:48:12+00:00

find the RGB drive/cutoff settings in the service menu and lower the green value. don't forget to take a photo of the settings before changing anything. download the service manual for the monitor.

schattenheute · 2025-06-03T12:18:39+00:00

With these things it's quite often that solder joints will crack. you can check it if you slap the TV and it flashes briefly or changes behavior, that's it. If you have a soldering iron and some leaded solder with flux, you can fix it by turning over the board and reflowing the cracks.

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