LCD touch screen dead help! at DVinfo.net

Jon Welsh · April 10th, 2010, 10:13 PM

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

Min Lee · April 11th, 2010, 01:38 AM

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.

Jon Welsh · April 12th, 2010, 03:54 AM

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

Jay Bauer · April 15th, 2010, 01:56 AM

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.

Dave Blackhurst · April 15th, 2010, 05:14 PM

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!

Jon Welsh · June 5th, 2010, 07:52 AM

I got it fixed . It was 400 aus dollars

Charles Newcomb · June 25th, 2010, 10:33 PM

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

John Reilly · July 14th, 2010, 01:24 AM

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

Fred Harmon · July 26th, 2010, 06:54 AM

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.

Dave Blackhurst · July 26th, 2010, 01:55 PM

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"...

Fred Harmon · July 26th, 2010, 03:17 PM

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...d-problem.html where someone else appears to have a camera with the exact same symptoms I do.

Dave Blackhurst · July 26th, 2010, 07:31 PM

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!

Fred Harmon · July 29th, 2010, 03:31 PM

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.

Dave Blackhurst · July 29th, 2010, 11:14 PM

YAAAAAAAAY! Always good to hear of a sucessful repair!

Chris Hocking · October 15th, 2010, 03:55 AM

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!

April 10th, 2010, 10:13 PM	#1
Jon Welsh New Boot Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Newcastle, Australia, NSW Posts: 5	LCD touch screen dead help! 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

April 12th, 2010, 03:54 AM	#3
Jon Welsh New Boot Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Newcastle, Australia, NSW Posts: 5	lcd screen 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

June 5th, 2010, 07:52 AM	#6
Jon Welsh New Boot Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Newcastle, Australia, NSW Posts: 5	got it fixed I got it fixed . It was 400 aus dollars

July 14th, 2010, 01:24 AM	#8
John Reilly Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Eastern Los Angeles County, CA Posts: 70	LCD Screen Dead -- Good News! 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

April 11th, 2010, 01:38 AM	#2
Min Lee Major Player Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 200	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.

April 15th, 2010, 01:56 AM	#4
Jay Bauer Tourist Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Houston Posts: 3	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.

April 15th, 2010, 05:14 PM	#5
Dave Blackhurst Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Apple Valley CA Posts: 4,874	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!

June 25th, 2010, 10:33 PM	#7
Charles Newcomb Major Player Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Salida, Colorado Posts: 561	I just got mine back yesterday... new ribbon cable & labor = $250.00, Video Magnetics in Colorado Springs.

July 26th, 2010, 06:54 AM	#9
Fred Harmon New Boot Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Fort Worth, Texas Posts: 5	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.

July 26th, 2010, 01:55 PM	#10
Dave Blackhurst Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Apple Valley CA Posts: 4,874	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"...

July 26th, 2010, 03:17 PM	#11
Fred Harmon New Boot Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Fort Worth, Texas Posts: 5	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...d-problem.html where someone else appears to have a camera with the exact same symptoms I do.

July 26th, 2010, 07:31 PM	#12
Dave Blackhurst Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Apple Valley CA Posts: 4,874	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!

July 29th, 2010, 03:31 PM	#13
Fred Harmon New Boot Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Fort Worth, Texas Posts: 5	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.

July 29th, 2010, 11:14 PM	#14
Dave Blackhurst Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Apple Valley CA Posts: 4,874	YAAAAAAAAY! Always good to hear of a sucessful repair!

October 15th, 2010, 03:55 AM	#15
Chris Hocking Major Player Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 595	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!