I've had a trouble-free Panasonic 31" flat screen for 11 years. Over the past few months, (right after turning the set on and then for several minutes after warm up) there have been stacked horizontal white lines showing up at the top of the picture. (mostly at the top 5-6 inches of the screen) The lines would eventually disappear or become not as noticeable after the set was warm. Today, I turned the set on, and I get perfect sound, and channel tuning, but only a single horizontal line through the center of the screen. There must be a picture, because I can see color changes in the line, and the back of the picture tube is lit up when the set is on, but functionally, the set is now useless because 99% of the screen is black and pictureless. This set has mainly a large picture tube, and a full component board. Any thoughts on wether its worth repairing would be appreciated. I'm thinking I may have been lucky with the trouble-free years I got and should move on since repairs may cost me more than a comparable new set. The picture was still great up until today, so I'm hesitant to put it out on the curb just yet. Any opinions would be appreciated.

Jim, January 2005

The fault is one of the most common failures TV engineers see and usually straightforward for an engineer to repair. Often, these repairs can be carried out in the customers home.

On a TV of this age, it's likely that the frame output I.C. became dry jointed (poor solder on its connections) and failed. Possibly some electrolytic capacitors in the same circuit may need replacing too, as they too tend to break down as the TV ages.

Neither of these components is or should be very expensive.
Typical costing..IC maybe £8 - £15, Capacitors maybe a couple required at £1 - £2 each. Plus Labour charge say £40 - £70.

There is a good chance that the frame output IC for your TV is available after 11 years, although I will warn you that there are a few frame IC's (eg. the TDA8175), used in some Panasonic models, around that era which are discontinued.

If you enjoy this set and the picture was good before failure, it's worth repairing, although you might ask the service agent, to supply their estimate first.

(PS. Don't run the TV faulty with the white line, as it can burn a permanent image of the line on the tube phospher.)

Cobweb, January 2005