Freezer not cooling, fridge section normal.

Hi @cabecabranca

Does the refrigerator compartment reach normal operating temperature e.g. 37°F - 40°F

What is the temperature in the freezer compartment?

@jayeff Hello, thanks for replying. May have found one problem, purely by chance and not by a flash of genius, the condenser fan seems to have an intermittent connection. That fan seemed to run OK after finding that and the freezer section started to cool. Left it running overnight empty, no shelves etc. Set temps to the recommended -2F / 38F. Checking with a known good Fluke with temp probe shows when freezer displaying -2F it is actually about 10F, got the fridge set to 34F and measuring the temp at 40F, so guessing the thermistors may not be reading right. Going to leave it a while longer to see if the real temp keeps coming down, but guessing if the thermistor is telling the control it is at -2F when it is actually a lot warmer, then it aint going to try to cool it any more. I've set the freezer control now to -12F to see if it starts to bring it down any further. After about an hour the 'real' temp is 4F and the front panel indicates -12F

@cabecabranca

Faulty condenser fan wouldn't help that's for sure.

What info sheet are you using?

Just asking as the mini manual is GE p/n 31-51743 but I can't find it available anywhere online.

If you haven't got it (part number is on the sheet) then here's a link that shows where it may be located in the refrigerator or if not, you can get it.

It will give you the resistance values of the thermistors at certain temperatures i.e. 0°F, 37°F & 77°F so at least you can verify if they are OK and that it isn't a control board problem.

If you can access the thermistors, usually one lead connected to it will have +5V DC on it coming from the control board. Perhaps check if this "supply voltage" is OK and not less than this value as this may affect how the control board behaves. The other lead will obviously be less than +5V due to the voltage drop across the thermistor.

@jayeff Sheet is (probably) the one that came with it, I scanned it at the time but it is in pretty bad shape, we often run in the 80 - 90 % humidity range here and paper doesn't do too well. Thanks for the link, I should be able to get a replacement there. Looks like the freezer thermistor is toast, dug it out and resistance is way out around the 32 degree area. My data sheet says around 15 - 16 k ohms, this one is about 11.5k. 5v supply is normal. Seems that these are re-badged Samsung's, which may explain a few things and I have found a Samsung thermistor available locally, should be here in a couple of days. It's on test overnight again with the freezer setting set to as low as possible, so will see how it is in the morning. Thanks again

@jayeff Got a thermistor that is reasonably near, GE parts are very difficult to get here, got the equivalent Samsung one which measures pretty close to the spec. Put it all back together and have had it running a few days. But here's as funny thing, I powered down to put panels back etc and when I plugged it in, it wouldn't start, the display flashes with code F1b on the second from left digit, that is listed as "Freezer fan High" on the sheet I have. For some reason or other after a while it started and ran normally again. Today, stupidly and with utmost trepidation I powered down to replace a fridge lamp. And on powering up the same thing happens. Compressor doesn't start, I hear a click, which may be the compressor motor start or possible hi pressure. No idea where to go from here, when it does run it works perfectly so there can't be a major fault.. I tried GE for the mini manual, but it seems like most places are reluctant to send stuff outside the USA at the moment. Any ideas ?