Out of a whim, I just bought a nice, clean white MX2000 for the summer house, since the GF complained about the current TV being too big

Basically it works just fine and the picture is really nice considering the age, but a little intermittent. If I tap the set,  it can flash about any colour, display return lines, etc. So I guess I'll be looking for dirty connectors and loose solderings, but is there anything special to look for?

And does anyone have the service manual or at least the schematic? They're not on the site...

-mika

(Yes, I've worked on TVs before, so I should know how not to kill myself in the process...) 

This is very common with the MX2000,and is usually due to dry joints inside the tuner/if module.These modules were made by ITT and are long unavailable,but can be repaired,although it's fiddly.You can remove the module from the board,carefully dismantle it,and resolder the connections.

ITT now thats a make of TV I have not heard of in a long long time. Remember my Grandparents having one, it was the first remote contolled TV I saw.

 

Craig

solderon29:

This is very common with the MX2000,and is usually due to dry joints inside the tuner/if module.

Actually I'm not using the tuner (and therefore probably the IF) stage at all, just the SCART with a STB (Finland already gave up all analog transmissions...).

Anyway, I found the service manual on the friendly interweb so I'll probably look in there tomorrow. The "tapping sensitivity" is so clear that I'm sure I'll find dry joints somewhere and maybe I'll replace some obvious PSU caps as well. Do you think it would still be useful to go through the tuner/IF even when I'm not going to use the RF input?

By the way, are white video terminals also called "Mars bars" ?

-mika 

tournedos:

By the way, are white video terminals also called "Mars bars" ?

-mika 

You don't see many of the white ones, I used to use one with a Beovision 7802. It now sits in a display cabinet at Lifestyle AV as I gave to Lee when I sold the TV. Just call it a white Mars Bar.

 

Craig

My parents had a ITT television - it is the first televison I can remember at home. It was a white portable and had odd coloured control buttons - a limey green one sticks in my mind. I can't find a picture of it on the net. Does anyone remember this TV or not enough info supplied?

Graham the odd coloured buttons must of been a feature of ITT TV's as I remember the one on the remote of my Grandparents been the same. Also the remote used to slot into the TV for safe keeping, something I have not seen on any other TV's.

 

Craig

No a faulty tuner won't influence the av input.The connections to the scart socket may well have become dry jointed.This chassis can suffer from a variety of dry joints,after all these sets can be at least twenty years old,but still capable of good results!

I opened the set an hour ago. It is a bit more complex than I expected even without the teletext option

Anyway, I removed/re-inserted most connectors, went through the most obvious bad solders (big components, places that have been hot, the board at the end of the tube) and cleaned up the insides. After powering up, the colours are OK almost at once and nothing happens when I tap it.

I'll still go through the easily accessible basic adjustments, renovate the nice white umm... Mars bar, and call this operation a success.

-mika
 

While doing the adjustments (oh how I miss the times when a test picture was broadcast for at least half of the day instead of mobile games for morons), I also noticed that there was a thin brighter stripe at the top of screen. Pop comes the contrast screen off, and yeah right, the actual tube surface is smeared with brown gunk. Apparently this set has been in a smoking household sometime in its past...

Armed with some kitchen cleaner and rags, I cleaned the screen and now the picture is approximately 37% brighter and  39,5% sharper. Why don't people do this themselves? It's even in the owner's manual...

-mika