Apologies, I should have mentioned earlier, that cap was fine. The crusty was that it had been replaced before and they hadn't cleaned the board. I also tested the 330uF 450V cap and it's fine. The 2200uF caps are also good.You've already confirmed C1936 is faulty (as it was crusty underneath, it will be high ESR), that is by FAR the most likely cause of your issue. It's the reservoir capacitor on the voltage rail that is monitored for the regulation, which is why voltages are fluctuating all over the place. It will absolutely, 100%, affect all voltage rails.
That specific capacitor is a VERY common failure on loads of different switch-mode supply circuits, and if you're unlucky (or leave it too long before you change it) it can cause catastrophic damage to the the rest of the unit, as PSU rails may be higher than is allowed, and often it kills large IC's, which are usually unobtainable.
So replace C1936, and keep your fingers crossed it's caused no further damage.
Have you checked them with an ESR meter?, if not you haven't checked them at all?.Apologies, I should have mentioned earlier, that cap was fine. The crusty was that it had been replaced before and they hadn't cleaned the board. I also tested the 330uF 450V cap and it's fine. The 2200uF caps are also good.
I'll work my way through the others a well. I'm sort of ignoring the small value caps, but possibly wrongly. I can remove a good working IC1901 from another monitor and test that, but currently assuming it's a passive.
I have, yes. All within tolerance and reactance. My meter is not the best (always been reasonably reliable though), but got a new one arriving MondayHave you checked them with an ESR meter?, if not you haven't checked them at all?.
Do you have an oscilloscope?.
I have, yes. All within tolerance and reactance. My meter is not the best (always been reasonably reliable though), but got a new one arriving Monday
Dug out my oscilloscope today. What should I be checking?
Thanks Nigel. Excellent advice. I'll wait for the new meter to arrive tomorrow and get going on the caps then. I can at least check some readings with the scope today.You don't mention ESR, and that's what's critical, value and reactance are pretty well irrelevant, did you use an ESR meter - a capacitance meter is no use. Normal testing very often shows them as good, it's the ESR which has failed - not shown by a capacitance meter.
Check the ripple on the secondary rails, if the capacitors (like C1936) are high ESR the rail with have excessive (and obvious) high frequency ripple on it.
Basically you can check the capacitors in-circuit (almost always), with it powered down, using an ESR meter - this often requires you to remove the PCB to get to the bottom, to get on to the capacitors.
An alternative method, leaving the PCB in situ, is checking the ripple on the secondary reservoir capacitors using an oscilloscope - this obviously requires the unit to be powering up to 'some degree', if it's dead you're back to an ESR meter, and removing the board. It's also quick and easy, because you can check on the outputs of the rectifier diodes, which are easily located, and easy to connect the scope to. I'd often use this method on satellite receivers, as the bottom of the PCB isn't accessible without removing it.
Some units use a 'pi' type filter on one or more of the outputs, two capacitors joined together with an inductor - if the first (reservoir) capacitor goes high ESR the second one still filters the rail, but at a much reduced voltage, due to losses through the inductor - the scope test on the rectifiers still spots this though.
In my previous career I repaired thousands of switch mode PSU's in TV's, satellite receivers, etc. - and replaced many thousands of electrolytic capacitors.
I appreciate this is probably a 'one off' for you, but as I was almost certainly going to see multiple examples of the same units, I always documented what had failed - particularly in the case of catastrophic PSU failure - and I made up drawers containing the parts that I had found failed (as a kind of repair kit). If I ever came across another component failure, I added it to the list and the draw
I was doing it professionally, and once I'd gained experience on a specific unit, the first thing I'd do is replace all the components that I'd previously had fail, this saved masses of time - and reduced labour costs to under an hour for almost all such repairs, easily swamping the added costs of a few components. You might have spent three days on the first one you saw, and you can't charge three days labour- but hopefully the losses involved on the first one are recovered from the higher profits on later ones (spending 15-20 mins while charging for an hour).
Incidentally, on a couple of TV chassis's (a Grundig and a Tatung), they used almost identical PSU's, same IC, same transistor, almost identical circuit - yet if the main reservoir went O/C (the big 350V one on the incoming mains) the Grundig PSU self destructed (requiring my kit of bits, plus the large electrolytic). Yet the almost identical Tatung set carried on working, you got a bit of hum and a small picture, but the set still worked, and you just needed to change the electrolytic - job done. I could never get my head round that?.
More honest to charge it for three days, than to charge for doing nothing, as I was charged 20E for the diagnosing nothing.You might have spent three days on the first one you saw, and you can't charge three days labour
Getting one diode as short circuit for a few seconds, then it stops. Reversing the leads gives the same result. I'll take it out of circuit and test properly. I'm guessing this is a cap charging though?For 'ticking' check the secondary rectifiers aren't S/C, it apparently uses ones in parallel, and these make them very prone to failing S/C. You can check them from the top, with a simple diode test (although you can't tell which of the parallel diodes is S/C - but you should change both, for ones out of the same packet).
Yes, cap charging.Getting one diode as short circuit for a few seconds, then it stops. Reversing the leads gives the same result. I'll take it out of circuit and test properly. I'm guessing this is a cap charging though?
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