For contact info, please see the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Email Links Page.
Copyright © 1994-2004
All Rights Reserved
Reproduction of this document in whole or in part is permitted if both of the following conditions are satisfied:
1.This notice is included in its entirety at the beginning.
2.There is no charge except to cover the costs of copying.
We will not be responsible for damage to equipment, your ego, blown parts, county wide power outages, spontaneously generated mini (or larger) black holes, planetary disruptions, or personal injury that may result from the use of this material.
A number of organizations have compiled databases covering thousands of common problems with VCRs, TVs, computer monitors, and other electronic equipment. Most charge for their information but a few, accessible via the Internet, are either free or have a very minimal monthly or per-case fee. In other cases, a limited but still useful subset of the for-fee database is freely available.
A tech-tips database is a collection of problems and solutions accumulated by the organization providing the information or other sources based on actual repair experiences and case histories. Since the identical failures often occur at some point in a large percentage of a given model or product line, checking out a tech-tips database may quickly identify your problem and solution.
In that case, you can greatly simplify your troubleshooting or at least confirm a diagnosis before ordering parts. My only reservation with respect to tech-tips databases in general - this has nothing to do with any one in particular - is that symptoms can sometimes be deceiving and a solution that works in one instance may not apply to your specific problem. Therefore, an understanding of the hows and whys of the equipment along with some good old fashioned testing is highly desirable to minimize the risk of replacing parts that turn out not to be bad.
The other disadvantage - at least from one point of view - is that you do not learn much by just following a procedure developed by others. There is no explanation of how the original diagnosis was determined or what may have caused the failure in the first place. Nor is there likely to be any list of other components that may have been affected by overstress and may fail in the future. Replacing Q701 and C725 may get your equipment going again but this will not help you to repair a different model in the future.
One alternative to tech-tips databases is to search via Google Groups (formerly Deja.com/Dejanews) for postings with keywords matching your model and problem and the USENET newsgroup sci.electronics.repair. See the document: Troubleshooting of Consumer Electronic Equipment for more information.
They also offer ServiceTalk, an on-line discussion group for electronics repair professionals. This members-only forum has access to a subset of WinSTIPS (about 17,000 tips).
Here is a list of my 390 sites containing free repair tips, forums, free schematics/service manuals & EEPROM access, I have organized them in accordance to subject so you would have to go through them and find which sets have what you need:
The next one is provided at the Bucks County Tech School Audio/Video Technology Web site.
These types of sites seem to come and go so it is worth checking them out from time-to-time even if you don't have a pressing need. If possible, download and archive any useful information for use on a rainy day in the future. Some also include many useful links in addition to the tech-tips info so are worth investigating even if you don't have a specific symptom to deal with! The sites in this list were active as of the version date - that's all I'll guarantee! :)
-- end V1.15 --