Tapping chassis caused the picture to black out.I thought it was the vertical IC at rear,but noticed it did not seem too bad in tape mode.Intermittants are hard to pin down symptom-wise. I narrowed it down to the tuner/modulator (ENG36709G). Very hard to access bottom of main board,completely covered by plastic shell. With my trusty Wizzard rotary tool (Dremmel) and my small circular saw blade I cut access holes under tuner and vert. IC. Removed tuner, opened and totally resoldered all lugs,pins,grounds.Reinstalled. Resoldered all vert output IC pins. Unit now is fixed.Tuner was most probably culprit. I have used my cutting tool to save major labor and hours of disassembly.Very descrete cuts on bottom,like ortho-scopic surgury. Phil Bader -- Philip Bader Jan Phyl TV Inc. (estab. 1976) 3420 Recker Hwy. Winter Haven, Fl. 33880 Fax (863) 299-8821 email: tjanphyl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ***************************************************************************** Classifieds! Buy or Sell! http://sell.tech-assist.org The Tech Address Book: http://www.tech-assist.org/secure/tip/contact.htm Add a Repair Tip Here, or Change/Remove your Email Address: http://www.tech-assist.org/secure/tip/main.htm Lost Password: http://www.tech-assist.org and select "Lost your Login Info?". Email Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/techassist/