Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - Zenith TV/VCR Combo AC/DC

I purchased a Zenith TV/VCR Combo AC/DC unit for $25 with the only redeeming feature was the TV had a great picture. But..., no sound, no VCR, no Remote, and the word "DEW" appears on the screen in the lower left corner. Channel selector seemed to be working OK. My thought was I couldn't really lose a whole lot of $$ and thought this might be fun to try and repair as an experiment OR (Heaven forbid) take it in to a repair shop and spend $100 or so. Either way, I would come out ahead. I'd like to locate a repair manual and get some tips on what I should look for in troubleshooting. Model # TVBR0922Z, mfg'd 9/99.
Thanks.

There is a “Dew Sensor” in this unit. It can be anywhere so difficult to say look here etc. what you are looking for is a small white piece of bakelite with what looks like a grid on it maybe like the inside of a toaster. This will be a small white piece no more than a ¼” x ¼”. http://www.tritronicsinc.com/aboutus.html here for replacement part. It will probably be plugged in to the board and have two usually white wires running to it. Your biggest obstacle is getting the unit apart to fix it. These “Combo” units are expensive and this, even though it’s a Zenith (Zenith is a bad word here. They split for Mexico and now the crap coming out of there is not worth being a door stop. I actually had a stereo w/CD etc in on my bench a while back that was BRAND NEW. The CD player had already quit. I opened the unit and was met with a god awful mess. They had actually used strips of wire to patch several bad traces on the main board. Most companies reject a board with bad traces but not Zenith. Gave the unit back to the guy and told him to demand his money back!) it may be worth one repair.

Big Mike, Your right about it being the DEW sensor, you won't find the grid type like you would normally see on the vcr chassis. Their is a DEW circuit on the vcr circuit board on that model. I checked another Zenith TV/VCR COMBO (Sears/Funai vcr unit) Model #TVSA1340, 9/98. Either way it goes pilot5311 will need a schematic to service this problem and probably several other problems this unit may have. I checked my usual sources on a schematic for this unit, no such luck. I'll start checking again tomorrow.


Fred:)