Incredibly old flat panel playing up

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bendud

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#320005 24-Jun-2025 21:21

Hi all

The Father-in-law is rocking the worlds oldest telly…

Philips 42PF7320G/79. I reckon well past its 20th birthday. It’s got an odd behaviour - grey screen and no audio or video for about 30 minutes or so, then turn it off and turn it on again and it works as well as ever.

It’s a spare bedroom TV so not in any way critical - but keeping it out of landfill and saving a few hundred on a replacement would be good.
Any bright ideas? The manual buttons on the side don’t work any more than the remote (new battery). I gather some of these old panels have a small battery like the CMOS battery in a PC(?).
I’m a little wary taking the back off as presumably some large capacitors in there.

If anyone has a repair manual or some easy troubleshooting ideas please feel free to shout out ;-)

Thanks in advance

From the Antarctic Riviera

hsvhel

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#3386866 24-Jun-2025 21:26

How to put this nicely......

Maybe an electronics drop off point?

There is none to sub repair value on something like that

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bendud

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#3386869 24-Jun-2025 21:33

That’s fair comment; it’s just if it can be fixed without killing anyone it does save a few hundred bucks for a replacement. In electronics years it’s clearly just had a telegram from the queen…. But he’s happy as it has new fangled HDMI ports and everything!

From the Antarctic Riviera

SATTV

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#3386870 24-Jun-2025 21:34

At a guess it will be Electrolytic capacitors causing the issue.

I would replace all of them with 125 deg c ones if they are not 125 already.

If you are worried about electric shock, don't do anything, the TV is past its use-by date and for $650 from PB you can get a new 50" for $650

I know you want to keep it out of landfill, but you are going to need a bit of money and time to get the caps you need and replace them. I assume you have good soldering skills and a decent solder station and desoldering station? You may be able to get away with wick.

Good luck.

I know enough to be dangerous

bendud

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#3386871 24-Jun-2025 21:37

Thanks- that’s kind of what I was assuming would be the outcome but always sensible to check.
Mediocre soldering skills only and that’s on a good day…

Thanks for the common sense ;-)

From the Antarctic Riviera

bfginger

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#3386891 25-Jun-2025 06:21

I'm shocked if any of those late Philips plasmas are still working as they had very high failure rates. It has 480P resolution, likely undefeatable 3% overscan and uses 160w of electricity.

Most failures were caused by a couple of bad capacitors on the power boards. I think they were 3300uF 10v. You should be able to find old threads online about it. If it isn't them playing up, there's a forest of capacitors in there and replacing them all isn't for the novice though you might be able to see some bulging. Usually the power boards caused problems with turning and staying on so it could be a PCB failure.

If he doesn't care about the latest smarts maybe look on Trademe over a new one.

xpd

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#3386906 25-Jun-2025 08:20

Check FB local groups for free TVs as well... our local group seems to have at least a couple a week being given away.

XPD / Gavin

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Eva888

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#3386981 25-Jun-2025 14:09

bendud:

That’s fair comment; it’s just if it can be fixed without killing anyone it does save a few hundred bucks for a replacement. In electronics years it’s clearly just had a telegram from the queen…. But he’s happy as it has new fangled HDMI ports and everything!

b

Tell dad you have been advised it could be a fire risk and ask if his house insurance is up to date and to please check it. That should get a decisive response on its fate.