Panasonic PT47WX42 Digital Convergence $$$$

[bearag]

I was just informed by my TV serviceman that my 3 year old Pany is experiencing digital convergence malfunction and it will cost $450.00 to fix. Has anyone else had this problem? Could this be a Mfg defect? I couldn't fix it using the manual controls.....

[anaqvi7861]

I am experiencing the same problem and estimate to fix it $550.00 I think manufacturer should fix this. It appears to be manufacturer defect.

[57U]

See the Sticky at the top of the Hitachi forum on Convergence problems. The manufacturers are not covering, although they will sometimes pay for parts.

US$550 sounds like a lot. I got mine fixed for half that and the service guy did "everything" - ICs, resistors, board rework, two trips to my house. Some people fix it themselves for just a few $.

[gask99]

I now have the same problem. Is this a simple problem to fix?
Is it a manufacture defect?
Any simple solutions?

[57U]

1. Simple - yes if you are a professional TV repair-person with the appropriate testing equipment.

2. Manufacturer's defect - yes and no. The ICs shouldn't have failed this quickly, however, not all are failing and some manufacturers are willing to supply free parts, however, most of the cost of the repair is in labour, so the parts don't really help much.

Read the sticky I referenced in post 3. It could be just the ICs, it could include some resistors and it could also be cracked-solder on the convergence board.

[MikeDC]

I just replaced my STK392 -110 convergence chip when, one day everything had a blue shadow following it around. The blue convergence wouldn't move on 1/2 of my set.
I found the replacement chips on the net for anywhere from $5.99 to $139.00 for "Genuine Sanyo"chips. I got frustrated and called a local TV repair parts warehouse. I talked to a very helpful counter guy who helped me out. On the net I found you could replace these chips with the STK392-180 chip.
Now for the Wrap-up

2 chips $21.95 each.($43.90 total) but hey I'm supporting an AMERICAN OWNED BUSINESS!

1 soldering iron $10.95 -counter guy suggestion

Heat transfer paste $1.95 - off the shelf

solder - very small rosin core - free! from my gratefull warehouse clerk

De-soldering braid - had it already from years ago

total cost -about $61.00

total time to, remove board from TV, de-solder old chip from board, clean-up holes a little, resolder new chip into board, reinstall board, test TV while swallowing very hard- about 1 - 1/2 hours including eating some leftover chinese my super loving 12 Y.O. daughter heated in the microwave for me.

Spending a hour and a half with your daughter labeling cables and soldering an IC chip onto a board, putting a TV back together and finding it's even sharper than it was out of the box (after doing a simple convergence form the user menu)

pRICELESS

Important note, I only replaced 1 chip, the front one, and feel lucky it was the right one. Didn't try to replace the other chip -never try to fix something that ain't broke!
I now have a spare chip if this one goes bad. and have a new friend at the TV parts counter. A WIN/WIN Situation!! :hyper:

Take your time, if I had the money I would get a controlled temp solder iron ,about $100.00 +, I had to slow down and wait for the tip to cycle on where I could do 3 or 4 pins -desolder or resolder, and wait for about 2-3 minutes for the tip to heat up again. But all in all I did the job with a $10.00 solder pencil. - PTL!!! Questions or comments - just post here and I'll reply.

[THOMAS12]

my TV is PT53wx53 and i have the same problem with convergence. I know that blue and red IC are gone (technition came to my house -$90.00) I am able to exchnge them by myself but I am not sure where the board is with these IC's. They want over $400 for repair.
please advise.
Thanks

[57U]

The ICs are attached to a heat sink. Look for it and you should find the ICs and the board.

[d6500k]

Once done with the replacements, do a complete rebuild of the coarse geometry followed by a fine touch up. (in service mode)

Spending the time getting the coarse right on will place less stress on the IC's. If memory serves, hitting "recall" on the remote when in fine will bring up the x-y coordinates of the curser and put up numbers representing min/max deflection. Numbers over 200 are not good anywhere except the edges of the screen. It is possible to go to "overlimit", just don't.

Again, the trick to save stress on the IC's is to spend some quality time in coarse convergence first.

Great job on the replacements!


Doug k

[Jarek]

I think my Panny needs the IC's replaced also.
Is there any way that I could find out which one is blown? My 1080i convergence is all out of whack, my 480p convergence is fine.
Also, is there anything I should watch out for or is it a straight forward chip replacement? I noticed that the chips have paste attached to the heat sink, is it similar to a computer chip paste?
I'm assuming that the chips need to be unscrewed from the heat sink first. :)
Thank you for any help.

[57U]

See the sticky referenced in post 3. Always replace all the ICs, never just one.

[Jarek]

Tonight me and a friend of mine took out the board, replaced the IC's, checked the resistors with a multimeter, all values were reported correctly, they all looked fine (no burned out). Resoldered the resistors to make sure we have proper connections, took a detailed look at the board, didn't see anything else "out of whack".
Replaced the board, NO CHANGE :( :headb:

My 1080i convergence is still terrible. For "regular" channels my Rogers box upconverts to 480p through one of the component inputs, the picture is very good.

My friend is an electronics guy, he does this for a living (albeit not TV's specifically) so he did everything correctly.

Any ideas or suggestions on what we could do next? Are there any other components like capacitors that could be causing this? Could one of the resistors be bad and still test properly? Clutching at straws here, miss my HD... :(

Any help will be appreciated, thank you.

[57U]

Some TVs require the manual convergence adjustments to be done in two formats - one for HD, one for SD. I'm not positive if Panasonics are like that. Is the convergence "really bad" - bowed lines like in the sticky or is it just "poor" and something that could be fixed in manual convergence if done properly for both modes?

[Jarek]

Nope the convergence is really off. On the Panasonics you have to do the manual convergence in all modes seperately. I did that in 1080i, both the regular and fine with 9 crosshairs but the picture is still bad. The middle is ok but the sides are bowed in, the picture looks like a trapezoid. The crosshairs in the corners are also "bent", they will not overlap each other. Also you can see each guns colours seperately, once again it's the worst on all four sides.

[57U]

Sounds like something still amiss with convergence. Sometimes the ICs have blown again, right after they were replaced, if there were issues with the resistors or board(s).

Weird thing is, one of the formats is fine....

[Jarek]

Is there any other components that we could test? Capacitors? DCU?

[Jarek]

Fwiw, just in case someone else has the same issue, it seems all I need to do is fix the convergence from within the service menu.

Any idea what would cause my HD convergence only to go "out of whack" like that?

Is there any way to reset the convergence to a "basic" state and fine tune from there?

[pres6]

i have a pt-47wx42 and the blue gun is jacked.
can anyone tell me the convergenge chip number for this tv? and also what the resistor values are for the affected resistors? i am trying to gather parts before i tear apart a semi-working tv... any help is appreciated. this tv was free so i am trying to make it a cheap fix... i am not afraid of any electronics..or any parts replacement jobe, and if anyone is willing i will take pics of the board so someone can tell me what resistors we are talking about.. thanks
JCC

[SWCheney]

I found this guy's write up VERY helpfull!

http://cmpalmer.blogspot.com/2006/11/fixing-my-own-tv-part-ii.html

I hope you do, too!

SWCheney

[kingroach]

I bought two STK-110 from this website:
http://www.acme-sales.net/index.shtml

costed me like $30 inclusing shipping. Opened up the back of the tv, unplugged the board. Took the convergence board to local electronix shop and the guy soldered the ic's for $20. Brought it back home, plugged the board and picture came..

[sanderella]

As a gift to my parents, I purchased a Panasonic Rear Projection Television in the summer of 2001. I paid approximately $2,200 and thought I was getting a great deal as I had always thought of Panasonic as one of the leaders in consumer electronics.

About 2 to 2 ½ years into owning this TV, the red convergence started to malfunction. I contacted Panasonic and was told that my limited warranty was exactly that, LIMITED. It did not cover convergence problems. So I took this issue into my own hands and called for repair estimates. The cheapest estimate for labor and parts came to a whopping a $350.

Reluctantly, I hired a TV repairman and agreed to pay this exorbitant amount of money. He checked various components inside the TV board and proceeded to replace 2 convergence amps plus the associated resistors. There was some soldering involved and the whole process took about 2 hours. Finally, he adjusted the convergence and other data with the remote and the TV was back to normal. I was satisfied.

Fast forward another 2 years, my green convergence is out. Now, the cost of parts and labor are up to an average of $400, I’ll blame that on inflation. I bite the bullet and hire another repairman because I was too cheap to throw this unit away and buy a new TV. I should have just invested a little more money on a brand new TV set, but hindsight is 20/20.

This time, I ask the repairman a lot of questions like a student and watch his work like an eagle. He was very sympathetic and tried his best to educate me on this issue. I learned that these particular convergence amps (also known as IC’s) get very hot and blow out after a few years. He also noted that over 80% of rear projection TVs will have convergence problems due to this faulty convergence amp. The problem has become so prevalent that many repairmen are using an upgraded version of this part. The original installed part number is STK 392–110; the upgraded part number is STK 392–180. Apparently, the STK392–110 lacks in thermal performance. Simply put, they get too hot and finally they blow. Another thing he mentioned was that when this part was originally installed by Panasonic, the folks at the manufacturing plant were not applying the thermal compound grease on these ICs efficiently, thereby causing more heat to build on the IC and again causing it to blow.

Fast forward to February 2008. My horizontal blue convergence is out! I’m not paying anyone to fix it! I want Panasonic to take some responsibility and remedy my situation. On a whim, I googled my TV’s model number on the internet, PT47WX49E. There were hundreds, if not thousands of others with the same problem. There were way too many posts and forums regarding this issue. I was appalled to find that the convergence was blowing out on average of 2–4 years. It wasn’t just my particular TV model; several other Panasonic models were having the same problems. Now, would I have purchased this unit for over $2,000 if I knew that it would have problems after 2 years? That would be a definite NO.

I’ve called Panasonic at 800–211–7262 several times to absolutely no avail. Though they were somewhat polite, they were not helpful at all. In fact, I felt as though I was talking to a recording each time. The so–called reps knew nothing about the products they were selling to the public! All they could say was that the TV was no longer under warranty or there are no known recalls on this particular model or something similar in nature. They suggested I hire an authorized Panasonic repair technician!

I am well educated, but I am not wealthy by any means. I don’t have the luxury of paying $400 every 2 years to maintain this faulty TV. Even if I did have the money, this is principally WRONG on every level! This is purely a manufacturing defect. Panasonic used a faulty part. No one buys a TV with the expectation of it lasting less than 2 to 3 years. I feel terrible inside. My parents are out of a TV for the third time. They are in their 70’s, and this is pretty much how they get their source of news and entertainment. I just can’t afford another TV or another repair for that matter.

At this point, I am at my wit’s end. Has there been a class action suit against Panasonic yet? Or is it in the works as I write this? I refuse to sit back and take this from Panasonic. Who wants to file a class action suit against them with me? I’ve spent way too much time, money and energy on this issue. We need to be compensated.

[gshock05]

Hey guys my PT-47WX42 just gave out with the same problems as described in this thread. And this was after only 3 years of usage. There was no way to manually adjust the convergence with the remote. The corners and the sides were still "bent" but the colors were converging right.

I was surprised that when i first googled my model number, the first hit on the page was the same problem i was having and there are many people with the same problem. This is just ridiculous that so many people are having the same problem as i do. i am frustrated and will refuse to fix it. I might just ebay this set for materials. i am done with Panasonic sets.

My old 51" Mitsubishi lasted me about 9+ years before it went dead. Then i got this Panasonic for about $1400 at CC which was a good bargain at that time when HDTV's were in the $2000 range. I guess i got what i paid for.

Looks like it's time for me to shop for anther television that is not from Panasonic...

[mfoco]

I have a Panasonic PT-47WX42 47inch TV. The red beam went out of convergence. I replaced both ICs with STK392-150. But red is still out. Using the convergence menu, red adjusts vertically, but won't budge horizontally. On the left side of the screen it's in alignment, but across on the right it's way off.

Blue and green are ok.

Is there something else that should be replaced? It almost looks like a horizontal motor for the red beam has failed.

[57U]

Did you replace the appropriate resistors, check for cracked solder and buy "name brand" ICs? See the following thread, especially post 1.

http://www.hdtvoice.com/voice/showthread.php?t=28929