The Y-Sustain Board and the X-Sustain Board. These two circuit boards are probably two of the most bizarre boards that you'll find in a TV. And if you've been keeping up with our previous entries, these boards are usually only found inside a Plasma TV. You won't find these boards inside an LCD TV or an LED TV. For that matter, it won't be found in the OLED TV, the Curved TV, or the Ultra 4K TV's (Smart or otherwise) either since all of those TV's are based on the LED TV architecture. And if you've kept up with consumer electronics news on any level, you probably also know that the Plasma TV as a TV technology has been discontinued as of last year in 2014.

So suppose for a moment that you've opened up your Plasma TV and you're bearing down over this beast and you're wondering to yourself, "Gee, which one of these is the Y-Sustain and the X-Sustain?" The Y-Sustain Board will almost always have a pair of buffer boards or one really long rectangular shaped buffer board attached to it. In some instances, the Y-Sustain Board will have the buffer boards integrated together with the Y-Sustain and typically, this board will also be rectangular in shape. Now, in addition to that, those buffer boards will have dark orange or dark brown ribbon cables attached to it. These ribbon cables, by the way, are directly attached to the TV panel itself which wraps around to the front of it and they are extremely fragile. They are made as a one-piece together with the TV panel.

Ordinarily, the Y-Sustain Board is found on the left hand side of a TV. The X-Sustain Board, on the other hand, typically will not have any additional boards attached to it and this board is ordinarily found on the right hand side of the TV. In addition to that, there will be dark orange or dark brown ribbon cables from the TV panel that will be directly attached to it. Occasionally, the X-Sustain Board may not have any ribbon cables from the TV panel that is directly attached to it. In this case, there may be a separate board called the X-Buffer Board that serves as a filter or bypass between the actual X-Sustain Board and TV panel itself and this board will be one that will have ribbon cables from the TV panel attached to it.

Bear in mind now that even though we've said that the Y-Sustain Board is typically found on the left hand side of the TV and the X-Sustain Board on the right, occasionally, they may flip flop and be found on opposite ends of each other. Wherever they are found inside your TV, they will have ribbon cables from the TV panel attached to them as previously explained above. So far as the shape is concerned, the Y-Sustain Board will almost always be rectangular in shape while the X-Sustain board will sometimes be rectangular in shape and other times, it may be squarish in shape. Occasionally, it may be a small square with an additional filter board directly attach to it which completes the "other half" wherein the ribbon cables from the TV panel will be attached to it. 

Here's an example of a rectangular shaped Y-Sustain Board "LJ92-01797A". Do you see the three white connectors at the bottom? A rectangular shaped buffer board, the "LJ92-1798A" will be attached to it. In this example, it just happens to be the case that this specific TV model (A Samsung PN42D440A2DXZA) uses one buffer that is unusually long as opposed to a pair. In other instances, like this example, "LJ92-01490A & LJ92-01400A & LJ92-01492A," the buffer boards come in pairs. And lastly, this example, "LJ92-01516A," the buffer board and Y-Sustain Board will be integrated together as a one piece. Can you make out which portion of the board make up the buffer board and the Y-Sustain Board respectively? If it's not that obvious to you, the top half of the board is basically the buffer board portion while the bottom half with the larger heatsinks, capacitors, resistors, etc, make up the Y-Sustain Board.  

Here's an example of a square shaped X-Sustain Board "LJ92-01796C". This X-Sustain Board is typically found in a Samsung PN43D450A2DXZA Plasma TV. Do you see the two black connectors at the bottom? Those connectors will have the ribbon cables from the TV panel attached to them. And here's an example of X-Sustain Board that is rectangular in shape "LJ92-01199A". This X-Sustain Board is found in a number of TV models, the most popular of which is found in a Samsung HPR4252X/XAA Plasma TV. Do you see the same type of black connectors as noted in the previous example? Ribbon cables from the TV panel are also attached to them. Lastly, here's an example of an X-Sustain Board "LJ92-01482B" with an X-Buffer Board "LJ92-01527A" that acts as a filter between the X-Sustain Board and the TV panel. Neat Fact: The X-Buffer Board rarely ever breaks. On the flip side, the buffer boards attached to the Y-Sustain Board are usually the first to go out and the most common buffer board to go bad (assuming they come in pairs) is the lower buffer board.

Now, having said all of that, the examples we used above all happened to have been Samsung Y-Sustain and X-Sustain Boards but this would be true of Y-Sustain and X-Sustain Boards found inside an LG, a Panasonic, a Hitachi, and many other brands who all used to make Plasma TV's. They will all have some such similar shapes, similar connectors, and similar components: transformers, resistors, transistors, condensers, coils, large heatsinks, etc. 

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