First - I am a Noob here but it looks like a great site. I have a 4 year old Apex 43" rear projection tv - model # GB43HD09 - that recently (about 8 weeks ago) started exhibiting typical convergence issues. We were able to 'deal with it' by giving it a slap on the side and it would sort of snap to. Over the past week this remedy quit working. I started poking around the web last night and found some other sites though they were not as thorough as this one. I removed the back of the unit. I found that if I applied pressure to one of the STK heat sinks the problem went away. Obviously either this processor is defective or it has a bad solder joint.
I decided go ahead and remove the one that was acting up. I unscrewed the screws at each end of the heat sink thinking it would then just lift out. It didn't. I then decided to try to unscrew the STK from the heat sink. Unfortunately I needed a 90 degree screwdriver to get in between the obstructing parts and could find it. I decided to retighten the heat sink and call it a night. After I did this I powered the set up and the pressure on the sink no longer remedied the situation. Did I likely do something to make the situation worse - maybe by attemping (not too hard) to lift the sink up??
Anyway - I want to do it right. Is it necessary to remove the booard from the set before doing anything? Can I make this repair with the board in place? How do you remove the chip from the heat sink? What is holding the heat sink in place once the 2 screws are removed? Do I need a service manual? Does anyone have one? Sorry for the long post and some likly stupid questions. Thanks in advance.
It sounds like it is just the solder joints, but if you tried to pull on or wiggle the ic, you may have dammaged the solder pads, try to just re-solder it first. Don't use an inductive soldering iron, the one with the trigger, use only a grounded soldering iron. Remove the board and flip it over, then take a little electronic solder and tin the iron, then put the iron on the solder joint and melt the solder, then touch just a very small amount of fresh solder to the joint. check you work after you are done, make sure there are not solder bridges, between the pins, Solder both ic's.