Hi,

I was shooting a wedding yesterday with me HVR-A1P and just as the bride was about to arrive to the ceremony i was just about to make some last minute adjustments to the shot and then discovered my touch lcd screen died, worst timing ever....

Its like the bottom half of the screen is still working,but the top is not. For example i can get menu to come up with all the quick settings, but i cant actually go into the camera set menu, whenever i click on something in the main menu screen It comes up with the TC/UCB preset menu, which is down the bottom. It then wont allow me to press on either TC/UCB, or click the x button to get out of it, which are again in the upper half of the screen. I can down arrow but cannot use up in the main menu. For example if i scroll down to press the shutter speed button in the quick setting which is in the upper half of the screen when you get to it, the camera will automatically click on the automatic shot tranision setting, which is down the bottom.

I hit the master reset button and it didnt fix it.

Has anyone had this problem and knows of a quick fix or is it going to be a trip to the repair agent...help please, we have swell coming this week and i need it to shoot surf.

John

Mines is broken too but if i rotate the screen 180 degrees and put the screen back in the body, then i can still press the buttons. It won’t fix the problem but its a workaround. I read repairs for this runs about $300-500 so its not worth it for me to fix. If you send it in, please let me know how much it cost and how it goes.

Yeah, i tried that with the reverse screen but when a selection comes up in the middle of the screen it still wont work, im having it repaired as when i hit the master reset button it reset all the setting so now i cant use the firewire to load it because it is automatically set on that ilink setting rather the the convert to dv.

i will let you know how much it is but its already cost me 120 to get it looked at!


jon

Min Lee, I used to have the exact same issue with my A1U. The screen would only work when rotated 180 and pushed into the body. Only then could I see anything and use the touch screen. I sent it into Mack Cam and they fixed my screen and my firewire port for less and $150. Give them a call and arrange for an estimate. It is much cheaper than sending into Sony and I will use them for all my future repair needs.

It's not that difficult a repair, $150 sounds reasonable, the "flexible board" part is roughly $25... I'm sure there are cheaper options than Sony service, just make sure they know what they are doing, as I think sometimes shops break as much as they fix!

I got it fixed . It was 400 aus dollars

I just got mine back yesterday... new ribbon cable & labor = $250.00, Video Magnetics in Colorado Springs.

Hi, Everyone:

I had recently suffered this same issue--screen on my HC-1 goes dark in "shoot" mode, but would remain fully lit when it was facing outward and folded against camera body.

I found that calling Sony, who responded with the information I am supplying below, was extremely efficient and helpful (thanks to all you posters who had similar problems and determined, in many cases, including mine, that the culprit was the flexible ribbon cable).

When you call the 800 #, you are calling the Phillipines, where polite, and good-english speaking personnel
will answer live, after minimal menu-selection on your part, and research your request, cite the part or part #, including cost and availability and take your credit card info, which then triggers shipments out of Laredo, TX, as happened with my confirmation, below.

I got the new, genuine Sony part, just as they said, with my "rush" shipment, which I ordered.

I then had a local technician remove the old cable, install the new one, and my cam works perfectly.
He charged me $140, including basic service, including cleaning of the spherical heads with a 48 hr weekday turn-around in the Eastern Los Angeles County area.

I hope this information is useful and competitive compared to some of the "Sony $500 Repair Specials"
which we have all been hearing about...

Best of Luck,
John Reilly



Sony Part Order Confirmation: July 7, 2010

Please do not reply to this email. Should you have a question regarding your order, contact us at www.sony.com/accessories. To ensure a timely response, it is important to include your Sony Parts & Accessories order number.

Dear Sony Customer,

Thank you for your purchase at Sony (DAPC) Direct Accessories & Parts Center.If you would like to check the status of your order, please contact us at (800) 488-7669.

Sony Parts Order Number: S01FK871

Your order contains the following item(s):

Part Number: 186540611

Quantity: 1

DESCRIPTION: PWB, FP-259 FLE Flexible Ribbon Cable for (but not necessarily limited to) Sony HDR-HC1, resolving issue of LCD screen going semi-dark in deployed "shooting" position... (However, LCD screen, prior to repair, was still fully lit, when folded open-face, back upon cam body).

Subtotal: 22.31

Tax: 2.17

Shipping Charges: 23 (overnite from Laredo, TX to Los Angeles)

Order Total: 47.48

FYI,

Not all LCD problems are due to a bad flex cable. I have an HCR-HD9 that shuts off when I open the LCD. I downloaded the service manual and order the flex cable and replaced it myself and that did not fix the problem. I also examined the old flex cable and it was just fine with no tears or cracks.

I'm now getting ready to order a new LCD display and the LCD driver board (PD-325) for it. I think the problem is in the LCD driver board itself, but I'm ordering both just in case it's the display itself.

PartStore.com has both parts. The driver board is $75 and the Touch Panel display block (TP Block Assy 27ESH) is $190.

So anyway, my point is that not all LCD problems are caused by the flex cable. If your camera chimes and shuts off when you open the LCD, you may have the same problem I do.

Fred -
These small cameras are of course highly complex and can have numerous "failure points". The flex cable WILL cause the symptom of the camera shutting down - either shorting or otherwise causing a surge, but there obviously are other possible causes. The flex cable is the "easy fix", and the most likely suspect given the nature of it being a "moving" part.

Your particular cam apparently has other issues. One of the two parts you suspect may fix it, or it could go deeper into the logic circuitry of the camera and not be triggered when the LCD is disconnected as you describe.

Most consumer electronics are not "simple" service scenarios, except of course when they happen to be easily recognizable mehanical type failure... or a matter of swaping a relatively minor subsystem part. Mainboard failures are usually not even worth bothering with due to cost, and even the two boards you're looking at are adding up to be close to uneconomical (and I doubt you will be allowed to "return" the one you don't need - I don't know of any parts place that will deal electronics that way, because you may damage the "return" while "testing" if there's another problem). You might be better off to keep an eye out for a "parts donor camera"...

I spoke to the parts place before I ordered the parts, and I can return them as long as they are still in working order and haven't been damaged. My plan is to replace the circuit board first as I suspect the problem to be a bad cap in the switching power supply on it. Sony and others have had lots of problems with leaking/bad caps, so that is a prime candidate in my mind, especially in light of the way the problem got progressively worse as time went on. If the problem goes away when I replace the circuit board, I won't even have to open the LCD and can return it and get my $190 back.

I looked at replacing the camera, but very few now have S video outputs, and I already have a lot of stuff on tape so I need a mini DV unit. It would cost me at least $1000 to replace it. So I'm gonna roll the dice and see if I can get lucky. If it is the circuit board, all I will be out is $75. If it takes both parts, I'll still only be out $270. If neither part fixes it, then I'll chalk it up as a lesson learned and go buy another brand camcorder.

The unit acts to me like something is pulling down one or more of the power supply voltages when the LCD first tries to power up and that is causing a fault which tells the camera to shut down and reboot. It tries to reboot and does the same thing again over and over. Since I can get the LCD to come on by letting it power up and then plugging in the cable, and all the touch screen functions on it work, I'm guessing that there really isn't anything wrong with the LCD itself, and the fault lies in the driver circuit. At least that's my hope anyway. Well see...

While I acknowledge that there have been a high number of failures of the ribbon cable, I'm just trying to point out that this is not the only failure scenario of the LCD, as can be seen in this post, http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-hvr-a1-hdr-hc-series/474421-hdr-hc5-lcd-problem.html where someone else appears to have a camera with the exact same symptoms I do.

Hey, if they will do that, go for it, unusual return policy, but it's definitely good for you! I price checked their site for a couple parts I'm familiar with, and their prices are a bit higher, but with liberal returns policy, might well be worth it!

There is an S-Vid output "hidden" on the A/V jack on current Sonys, AFAIK, but since you need a tape based unit, I can see why you're trying to resurrect this one, it's relatively cheaper - I've got an HC5 sitting here to dump the last of my tapes, and an HC9 that had a bad mech and apparently drum that I'm trying to bring back to life - got the mech done only to find the heads/drum are damaged - camera is in great shape, but someone hacked the daylights out of the tape mech area getting a tape out... got to go in one more time and do the drum!

Electrical problems are of course the toughest on these small electronics, and I've never had much luck with board level troubleshooting... although sometimes you get lucky. The faults I've seen when it's related to the LCD being opened were the cable, but I'm sure there are other possibilities that can go wrong.

Best of luck with the repair, if your half doesn't work out and my drum transplant fails, maybe we should Frankenstein the remains!

Victory!

The problem with my HDR-HC9 was in the Touch Panel display (TP block assy). I ended up getting a new one from Sony direct for about $160 (PartStore was out of stock). I'm going to return the $60 circuit board, since I don't need it.

Camera works like new now.

YAAAAAAAAY! Always good to hear of a sucessful repair!

I have just discovered the exact same problem on my Sony A1P as Jon's original post. Just like Min, if I rotate the screen 180 degrees and put the screen back in the body, then I can still press the buttons.

Are we sure this is actually a broken ribbon cable? I find it funny that a ribbon cable can break in exactly the same place on multiple cameras, and yet it still works when you put the screen back into it's body. Is this is a well known Sony manufacturing fault?

I was assuming, before I read this thread, that the problem was due to the A1P loosing it's screen calibration. Does anyone know if you can manually re-calibrate the touch screen?

Thanks for your help everyone!

Chris!

Chris -

I think there isa calibration menu buried somewhere in the menu system - I know I've seen it on my other small Sonys.... of course it probably won't help...

It's not Sony exclusive fail point (others have reported similar failures in other brands on other parts of DVi), it's simply a result of having an articulated screen - if it gets moved around enough, eventually it will start to fail, like any other moving part.

If you poke around DVi you'll find some pictures of a cameras stripped down with the cable showing (I think it was a JVC?). it's not the easiest job to replace the cable, but it's not rocket science either (more like a Origami 301 final exam, from a psychotic professor!).

It TYPICALLY will be the ribbon cable that goes (some of the traces break on the flex cable/board), but as Fred noted, he had a similar "fail", that was the result of different parts going with age.

This forum has been very helpful in diagnosing my HDR-HC1 problem....a broken flex cable to my LCD/touch screen. After searching the forum I eventually ended up being directed to a site where I was able to download the service manual. The service manual has a section "Supplement 1 and 2 etc. The flex cable issue sounds like it is a very common problem. The supplements shows additional solutions to the problem by the use of adhesive tape at critical points, folding the flex cable properly etc.
My question is does anyone know of a repair facility that is going to repair the flex cable problem according to the service manual? In other words a triple AAA repair facility?
I love this little camera and want to give it another chance. However, I also realize there is a monetary limit that makes sense. I haven't tried Sony yet but fear their bill to repair it may be "over the top".

Hi Guy -
Well, aside from the cable folding being an exercise in origami, it's not that terribly dificult - IIRC the supplements are to help explain the way the folds and sticky tape on the part are supposed to be done - it's not easy, but not impossible either, having done a couple now...

As far as I have been able to tell, there's not a way to really "reinforce" the part - it's just a cable that is flexible, and you can only get so many "flexes" out of it before it begins to fail. OR, if somehow the hinge motion is exceeded, it's an instant fail.

You've got the SM, the part's about $25, if you can't find a place to do it at a reasonable price, set up a nice clean work area and get a set of jeweler screwdrivers... if you like a little DIY, you might enjoy it!

Wouldn't be great if someone did a video of the repair. I'd pay for that.
Instructions in print are much better than nothing but a video showing the whole process would probably make it look a lot simpler. Most reasonably handy persons could probably do it themselves if they saw it being done.

The next time one crosses my path, I'll have to remember to set up video. I always shoot stills as I go so I don't end up with parts left over... printed instructions are great, but as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words...

I guess that makes every second of video worth 30,000!

If I can't find a repair facility or the cost of the work is too high, I might try it myself and take a video of the process. The part is only $25.

I haven't check this thread since I posted. I'm glad folks dug it up. My camera has gotten worse. Now I get weird static lines but can still press touchscreen when folded back. My colleague has the same camera, her screen first turned green but now is completely blacked out and touchscreen doesn't work even when folded back.

I just got a chunk of change for repairs. Question is try to get the $25 part and repair it myself or send it in to mack cam for $45 for estimate per camera or use these cameras as decks and put that money towards something else.

My camera already went through one $500 repair from sony (which took a whole month and they stole my memory card). As much as I adore this camera, maybe it's time to retire it.

I contacted Sony in Canada and they will "Fastrack" fix it for $375 (plus taxes...atrocious here in Canada) and shipping, unless I drop it off at a Sony Store then the shipping is free. There is a proper way to do the repair so I am hoping it will be done correctly if I go ahead.

I am in the same boat as far as trying to decide on whether it is worth the money and the risk (something else may fail). However this little camera is very similar to an A1. It doesn't have DVcam but who cares about that. I have purchased the A1 lens hood with the retractable shutter, a Panansonic DV 30 eyepiece which makes it great for outdoor shooting (I wear glasses) and an extra battery that lasts 5 hrs.

I could probably part it out on Ebay but then what would I replace it with?

There's several canon vixia in the $500 range with better image quality. What it lacks are XLR and some minor firmware features. A more direct replacement would something like the panasonic hmc40 or jvc hm100. After getting a 5D2, both these cameras seem overpriced and most small sensor cameras loss my interest. I put off buying another video camera unless it has large sensor which leaves only the sony vg10 and pana af100 as of now.

That's the big challenge for "aging" cameras... the technology has moved very quickly, and when the cost of repairs is quite high, you have to look around at alternatives, or figure out how to "DIY" if the repair is simple enough.

There are lots of people (myself included) that are pretty happy with Sony's current "top of the consumer line" CX550V, worth a look if you have a computer that is fast enough to process AVCHD. They have a "pro" version, the MC50, although it really doesn't have any "pro" features added over the CX550, other than a bigger battery, lens hood and a mic/mount.

Hello

I just did it myself.
Pretty easy...
See images

http://www.flykam.com.au/SonyA1/a1.jpg

http://www.flykam.com.au/SonyA1/a2.jpg

http://www.flykam.com.au/SonyA1/a3.jpg

http://www.flykam.com.au/SonyA1/a4.jpg