HLR6167WAX/XAA HDMI port

[mbmackman]

Hello All,

I have a 4 year old Samsung HLR6167WAX/XAA DLP television and it has been having a problem with the HDMI port for quite a while now. When I connect my laptop to the HDMI port of the TV and try switching the source of the TV to HDMI, it cannot find the HDMI source and the only sources it finds are the over the air antenna and the PC source that is connected to the VGA port. I know that the HDMI port on my laptop and the HDMI cable I am using are good because I verified them with a different TV/cable and both of them work properly.

I know that the lamp is very old/past its expiry date. With the over the antenna, the picture shows up good most of the time but shows green rectangles after an hour of use. With the VGA port as a source, there are no such issues with the picture quality though. So what could be the problem here? Could it be the lamp, Digital board or the DMD board? If it is a faulty component within the boards I can do component replacement; I have good soldering skills and have access to a solder reflow oven and basic test equipment like DMMs and scopes. Trying to go through the Service Manual to find out what component blew out is too much work, especially when you don't know what to look for. So if anyone has any solution or know what might be the problem, please reply to this post.

[grayfox]

Hi there.



There are 2 problems I can identify with your detailed explanation:



1- The HDMI input is malfunctioning and not being "recognized". This can be a number of several things but I will begin with the simplest and most common, after plugging and unplugging an HDMI cable the wear on these is sometimes significant to bend one or two pins on the port, I suggest you take a close look at it with a light and magnifying glass, I have fixed these with a small flat screwdriver before! like the kind used for repair on sun/reading glasses. At the worst this would require the replacement of the main input or aux input board, depending if the HDMI is on the back with all the rest of the inputs and outputs or on the easy reach side..

-does this model allow to skip inputs? take a second look at the osd TV menu... this input might have been accidentally set to "skip"



2- Your screen shows a distortion in the shape of green triangles when using an "analog" (antenna) input. This can be a problem with the digital video board, which converts analog to digital video formats for display. Other inputs like HDMI or DVI are already in digital format so they bypass this board and go directly to your screen.



Having mentioned all this my only recommendation is to change the Lamp when the time comes with an Original Philips lamp, like the one installed by Samsung from factory. You can get these online, I buy them from eBay or Amazon I just make sure the seller guarantees it is a Philips original bulb in the housing!



Hope this helps! let me know if you have any questions!

[mbmackman]

Thanks for the reply grayfox.

I think you got both of my problems spot on. I had tried looking if the HDMI source had been skipped on the OSD menu but that wasn't the case, as none of the inputs were set to be skipped. I opened up the TV and took out the Digital board to check if the HDMI port was broken and found out that three of the pins within it had fallen off. They were completely detached from the solder points.

For the green lines issue, I found a video on youtube that showed the exact problem I was having. The video says that it is indeed a problem with the Digital Board, specifically two of the RAM chips. Like you said, other inputs go directly to the TV bypassing the Digital Board and so their picture doesn't have any green lines, which is the case with me.

So it looks like I will be soldering a new HDMI port and if that works, I will try to replace those two faulty chips myself. The HDMI port and chips will cost me about 50 bucks total as opposed to the Digital board which is no longer manufactured by Samsung and costs about 160 on ebay. I don't think I will replace the lamp until these problems are hopefully fixed. I will post an update once the HDMI port is soldered.

[grayfox]

I am glad I was able to be of help,



If you have not yet ordered the HDMI ports, I would recommend (since it is already outside the TV) getting the part number off the board itself and running a search for the entire board online. There are many refurbished/recovered parts, and since this input board is very reliable is it highly unlikely to go out again and to be priced too high, I think in my experience I have aid around 45-65 $ for one. The reason to use the part number of the board and not the model of the TV is to ensure you cover any compatible models ;)



As for the DV board, I would go the same route unless you are completely conformable doing the chip switch. I have many times tried to do so ending up having to order the DV board!

NOTE: when/if ordering, also abide by the exact part number on the DV board, if it deviates by even a digit at the end, it might not work for your set.



Cheers!

[mbmackman]

Thanks for the reply again grayfox.

I got a new HDMI port and tried to solder it into the Digital Board but with the port I got being not exactly the same as on the board, it took me a lot of time to solder it in. When I put the board back into the TV, I did receive a "Weak or No Input Signal" message when I plugged in my laptop through the HDMI port, which was promising at first. With the old port, I couldn't even switch to the HDMI source. However, I found out that my soldering wasn't so precise and a couple of pins had been shorted on the HDMI port tracks. I tried to remove the shorted solder bridges but ended up using too high a temperature and the tracks on the board came off. Forgetting to turn down the temperature after removing solder from the HDMI port chassis legs was my mistake.

I had not ordered the RAM chips but the first thing I tried to solder were those chips. I desoldered and removed one of them and soldered it back it, that was no problem. But since the tracks on the HDMI port had come off, getting new chips wouldn't have solved the HDMI port problem.

So after about $20 and a few hours of soldering spent on this board, I finally gave up. I looked around for a replacement Digital Board and found a refurbished one for about $100. With both the RAM chips and the HDMI port on this same board, I guess both of problems are solved. I couldn't find anything cheaper but it was the only one I could find besides the ones on ebay. I got the part number from the service manual and found the same numbers on the board. The same Digital Board is supposed to be compatible with a bunch of other TV models as well so I think this will work. I have ordered and will post updates once I install it.

[grayfox]

Hi,



Well that sounds like it worked out ok. At least it was a learning experience when it comes to soldering very tiny parts! I myself use a digital microscope, which is like a webcam with a top mount and light pointed down, its a good investment ;)



Let me know how it works out, how convenient for this model to have both on the same board!