HDR-CX105 Handycam Touchscreen (only) is non-responsive

[rjsdavis]

I know that this is a fairly common problem with handycam's. Ours is playing up, and it's full of footage which I'm confident I managed to offload and back-up before the screen stopped responding completely, but I'm in that place where you cannot press any of the icons on the screen and delete anything. 

So - the touchscreen buttons along the side of the screen all work fine. All of the buttons and functions on the main cabinet also all work fine. The only problem with it is the touchscreen itself, which had become tempremental over a period of time (this means that it became harder and harder to get a response from any of the screen buttons - so that you had to rub them quite hard with your finger to sort of "catch it just right" to eventually get the button to operate) (please note that although pressure was applied - it had to be to eventually get a reaction from the screen buttons!) the screen is now completely non-responsive. 

I've watched the YouTube video that pulls apart a CX105, and have seen others that indicate ill-seated ribbons at the back of the touchscreen could be to blame... I downloaded the service manual for this camera and started with easing out the two screws from the side of the touchscreen and prising off the rear cover. I undid and reseated all of the ribbons (4 iirc - including the main one between touchscreen and cabinet) and pushed the casing back together. I popped in the battery to test it before doing it all up properly, and I was in exactly the same position - the screen shows the picture fine. The hard buttons still worked fine. The touchscreen buttons were completely non-responsive. I had confidence that the ribbons were all in place as they should be, otherwise the screen display wouldn't work and nor would the hard buttons. 

Then I watched the YouTube video (finding that this guy really didn't know what he was doing at all!), but between this and the service manual, removed all of the screws and removed the major cabinet casing elements. I eventually tracked down the ribbon end from the touchscreen, which wiggles and folds behind the hinge of the touchscreen, and thickens into one of the two fat ribbon connectors on the very top of the main camera. Both of these ribbons were checked, removed and then reseated. I didn't fiddled with anything else - as I was at my amateur limit and then put the cabinet casing back together again. No screws left over unlike the tool in the YouTube video! 

Powered it all up - and once again, was in the exact same position. So, now I'm confused... I don't think it's a ribbon seating issue - given that the touchscreen itself simply doesn't respond to touch, could it be that the touchscreen itself is what's at fault? I've also tried pressing/touching the buttons with my Vaio touchscreen VGP-STD2 digitizer/stylus. This didn't get a reaction from the touchscreen either! 

So - I'm out of ideas... if someone from the Sony company posts a response, can you please not just say "send it in for service - can you please suggest something that will help to diagnose the issue please?

Oh - I also reset the camera using the hard reset button. That didn't make any difference either!  

[Mick_D]

Hi there, welcome to the Sony Community 

In many of these instances, the ribbon cable checks out ok visually, but is in fact broken internally at the point when it hinges with the screen. Replacements are fairly cheap and it sounds as if you've become pretty adept at taking the camera apart! Hopefully that will work for you. 

Cheers

Mick 

[rjsdavis]

Hello Mick

Thank you. This sounds like something that makes a lot of sense to me... 

I'm quite happy to get another ribbon and fit it - two questions though: 

1 - Am I right in thinking that it is the ribbon that travels from the back of the flip-out touchscreen, has a fold (that you can see move when you fold the touchscreen in and out) that sits behind the hinge of the touchscreen (where the ribbon is relatively narrow), and then feeds onto the top of the main camera itself into the left-hand of the two main ribbon junctions that sit side by side facing each other? 

2 - A ribbon breakage/failure makes sense - however, given that there is only the one ribbon that moves from the main camera unit to the touchscreen itself (that I've described just above), if that particular ribbon had an internal fault - wouldn't that stop the four buttons on the side of the touchscreen from functioning, as well as interrupting the display showing the picture on the flip-out touchscreen too? 

If it's not that main ribbon that is likely to be broken and causing the fault - do you know which one it is? 

Many, many thanks! 

Richard 

[Mick_D]

Hi Richard

The perennial issue with those ribbon cables is the repeated bending, the payoff for having a hinged LCD panel. The cable is composite of a number of individual wires, so cable failure often manifests in just one or two functions not working, as one or more of the individual copper strands in there breaks. Annoyingly, they can still make contact intermittently, and of course constant tweaking of the cable/panel to make this happen only serves to break more internal wires. 

That said, I'm not really sure exactly where the copper for those buttons travels to the camera CPU. I suppose it's a case of trial and error, with the likelihood of the main cable there carrying most/all of the 'touch' functionality. Certainly that's the only cable I've heard of being replaced for touchscreen issues. 

Let us know how you get on!

Regards

Mick

[rjsdavis]

Thank you again Mick.

Again, that makes sense that it's probably just one or two strands within a ribbon that has failed.

Last query from me is - do you happen to know how I can work out the part number for the ribbon so that I can order a replacement? 

Many thanks

Richard 

[rjsdavis]

I think I might have answered my question.. 

I think the long, multi-fold ribbon that goes from flipscreen to main board is: 

153           1-877-926-11                   FP-1069                 FLEXIBLE BOARD

Annoyingly though, as I was scouring through parts maps for that, I noticed that there are two smaller ribbons that stay within the flipscreen itself. They're shown on P31 (Block diagram) of the Service Manual, but not shown on P68 where it lists the "Repair Parts List", and that is the page for LCD Panel section. There appears to be one ribbon to the "2.7inch wide colour LCD unit", and a separate ribbon to the "Touch Panel". I can also see Part 158 (Switch Block, Control - which are the four buttons on the side of the touchscreen) have their own small ribbon. 

They are shown again more clearly on P37 (Frame Schematic Diagram) of the service manual, which more clearly shows which plugs on the PD-348 board within the flipscreen each of them go to.

However - I can't see a part number or label on any of the schematics or diagrams! Aaarrgghggh....  It just seems to me that as the control block, LCD screen and touch panel are three separate items, with three separate ribbons, it "might" just be the touchscreen ribbon which has failed, which would explain why the other two continue to work fine? N'est pas? Indeed - the more I think about it, the more likely it seems to be this small touchscreen ribbon is the likely candidate! 

I am referring to this service manual that I found here: 

http://www.exitequipment.com/files/doc/sony_sm/Sony_HDR-CX100-E-105E-106E-120_ServiceManualLevel2_v1...

[rjsdavis]

I was just wondering if there were any further thoughts before I started trying to source / order ribbons and/or any other parts? 

Many thanks

[bimaloy32]

OK, ive got a Small Sony HDR-CX105 handycam that has been used for an in-car camera, the only trouble is, its developed a fault now where the touch screen doesnt work!
Its not a problem for recording, because for what its used for its all just set up on auto and its a case of record and stop, thats it, and getting the footage off is ok, just hook it up via USB and copy the files from the camera
However, to delete the files when you have got them off the camera, you need to go into the menu via the touch screen ! which of course doesnt work. And you cant delete them via the computer as the camera is write protected !

Cheers 

https://audacity.onl/ https://findmyiphone.onl/ https://origin.onl/

[rjsdavis]

I still have the same problem. 

I think I've narrowed it down to a faulty ribbon, but I'm not familiar enough with the electronics, and the chap that was helping with the diagnosis above stopped replying... 😞 

[lmar700]

Hi,

It looks like your ribbon cable connecting the screen to the mainboard is damaged. I have made a video showing how to replace the ribbon. https://youtu.be/ZNEmfsylTYg You should be able to find the part on Ebay.