Troubleshooting & Repair Guide to CRT-based TV and Monitors: Intro and Article Index

This guide has come into being out of pure necessity. Over the past few years, the number of television repair centers and knowledgeable repair technicians has dwindled due to manufacturer and consumer attitudes to ward televisions as “disposable.” For the past fifteen years or so, many people have acquired the opinion that it’s just as expensive to get a TV repaired as it is to buy a new one, so why not just toss out the old TV? This isn’t necessarily a good idea.

The expense of TV repair has climbed, there’s no doubt about that. How ever, while part of this has to do with the fact that there are repair centers that deliberately overcharge their customers, a lot of it is the result of a lack of individuals (including technicians) who know how to repair a TV.

You can blame it on the lack of repair information available, or blame it on the fact that technical schools and repair centers have not placed an emphasis on learning TV repair because of the TV’s “disposability.” Whatever the case, televisions do not have to be tossed out the minute they develop glitches or problems, and they do not have to be expensive to repair. In our ever-changing global economy, buying a new television to replace an old one is not always an option. If an individual has the proper information and tools at their disposal, then repairing a TV becomes simple and very economical. With a minimal amount of technical knowledge, you can learn to repair your own TV with the help of this guide.

This guide was written using the years of experience accumulated by Howard W. Sams & Company technicians while creating DATASHEETs, which is technical data and schematics on televisions that have been created since the end of World War II. For 50 years, Howard W. Sams & Company has provided the most timely and state-of-the-art TV technical data available, and has introduced many techniques to help service technicians and electronics hobbyists.

Following World War II, electronics manufacturers’ time, effort, and resources were directed toward meeting the increasing demand for new equipment and parts, and toward trying to integrate new electronic technology developed during the war. As a result, most manufacturers stopped producing service and replacement parts information. Individuals found it increasingly difficult to find the information needed to repair certain electronic components and technical equipment, including TVs—not unlike the situation that exists today. It soon became apparent that something needed to be done to make service information readily available to the professional electronics technicians, as well as to individual hobbyists who preferred to make their own repairs.

To produce readily available service and replacement parts data, Howard W. Sams rented 5,000 square feet of space in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1946, hired 12 employees, and began producing DATASHEETS.

DATASHEETS are designed to provide as much detailed information as possible for easy servicing of individual television sets. Contained in each DATASHEET is technical data and schematics covering IC functions, important parts information, miscellaneous adjustments, parts lists, safety precautions, schematics, wave forms, voltages, troubleshooting tips, and more. Throughout the changes that televisions and the industry have experienced over the years, DATASHEET has remained the most up-to-date and accurate source of TV service data available. DATASHEET schematics are used throughout this guide to provide you with the most comprehensive and user-friendly information possible for the television part that you are troubleshooting. Appendix B also provides detailed information about DATASHEET and how to use it.

The Troubleshooting & Repair Guide to CRT-based TV and Monitors contains all the information the novice TV repair technician needs to service and repair all models and makes of televisions. Section 1 covers Television Basics, including how TVs produce pictures and sound, how they receive signals transmitted from broadcasters, and more. This information is useful because it will be easier for you to service a TV once you understand exactly how it works. Section 2, Working Safely, covers basic safety tips and safety problems commonly encountered in TV repair. Section 3 covers The Basics of Troubleshooting, outlining general techniques and troubleshooting methods. Sections 4 and 5 explain Troubleshooting Power Supplies and Video Circuits, including CRT and PIP. Section 7 covers Troubleshooting Deflection Circuits, which control the horizontal and vertical scanning that produces pictures on the TV screen. Troubleshooting High-Voltage Circuits is described in Section 8, and Tuner Circuits are covered in Section 9. Finally, Troubleshooting System Control Circuits is featured in Section 10, which also covers closed caption, remote control and channel memory (RAM) circuits. Each Section includes a brief quiz at the end as a summary to the information covered, and Appendix A contains a more extensive test for students or for anyone wanting to test their knowledge of TV repair.

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