background lines on Samsung SIR 4040R

Hi,
I searched around a bit but didn't find anything like this so here goes

I have a 3 (maybe 4) year old unmodified Samsung SIR 404R. Its worked fine and continues to work fine wrt recording and such, but it now shows faint black lines in the background. They're at an angle say 60 degrees (upper right to lower left of TV) , evenly spaced about 2 inches apart on a 32" screen (regular definition) on all outputs. The lines "move" back and forth at random.

Also the edges of the grey screen at boot shows what I'll call tearing, its solid towards the middle. I'll have to see if i can post a pic of the screen

For basic troubleshooting I removed all cabling and started over with just the Coax output (with the satellite inputs removed and connected), with just the composited output and with just the Svideo output. They all look similar, although the lines seem most noticeable with the Coax connection.

I also remove and reconnected all cabling in the house. And then I remembered I have a non-Tivo DirectTv receiver in the basement. When I connect that up the picture is perfect, so its definetly the DVR, not the TV or cabling.

This looks like a tuner or output issue to me, which would suck because thats probably the most difficult thing to troubleshoot. Anyways, has anyone seen anything like this? Any chance replacing the HD might affect this (since its on all outputs)? I'd hate to toss a good unit for a minor annoyance, but it seems to be getting worse

Thanks
matt

 

Damn, everytime i think I've covered the bases, I forget one of the steps! Thanks for the input.

I just completed the test and the results are exactly the same. The grey screen at power up is tearing and the lines are on all outputs, s-video, coax and composite.

So Now I know its the unit. Any chance someone sells the motherboard? Or a board that will fit the bill? All the connectors are soldered on, replacing those is beyond my skill level/ Although I do know someone who can do that sort of thing. have people been down the replacing components road? From some of the posts I've read, it looks like anything is fair game

I need to drag out my meter to get the temp, that will have to wait till the morning. I did open up the unit and get all the dust out, that didn't help. I do build a fair number of PCs, nothing felt excessively hot, not that "the calibrated finger" is all that reliable. What temp range should I be looking for ?

Also is all the output circuitry tied together by a common ground or another signal wire? That would narrow down whats broke


Maybe I should take this as a sign to convert to HD

 

Sorry for the delay.

The internal temp seems to stick around 46 - 47 degrees C. That seems to be okay. Interestingly enough I notice a video menu in the settings (I haven't been in that menu in eons) and switched the aspect ration from 4:3 to 16:9 just to see if anything change.

It didn't change the picture much (the TV is a 4:3 screen) but the lines went away. I changed it back and they're still gone, so I don't know if moving the receiver around (and associated cabling) actually did something good, or if poking around in the menus did something.

In either case, thanks for the help.

Matt