Very OT: “TV” Fixed It Myself And Saved $$$

[cshold]

My Samsung LCD digital TV decided 4 months out of warranty it didn’t want to start anymore. What to do, call a repairman at 2 to 3 hundred to fix it, buy a new one for not much more?? I decided to pull the back off to see what I could see, Yep there was the culprit, a bubbled up top of a capacitor starring back at me.
It took a $2.00 capacitor replacement in the power supply to fix it myself.

The bad one removed and the new one installed




works good as new again

[Hobie]

[J Miller]

I guess you didn't read the notice on the back: Danger, no user serviceable parts inside?

Congrats on fixing it yourself, now you can charge the $300 dollars to a fictitious repair man and when you get the money go buy a new lever gun

Joe

[cshold]

I guess you didn't read the notice on the back: Danger, no user serviceable parts inside?

Congrats on fixing it yourself, now you can charge the $300 dollars to a fictitious repair man and when you get the money go buy a new lever gun

Joe

LOL Joe,

I stopped paying attention to those labels years ago.
Heck for people like me there more of an invitation to come on inside.

[Pitchy]

Good on you.

[rjohns94]

good on you!! well done

[olyinaz]

Good on ya, but try as I might I can't spot the bad one in the picture! Which one is bad and how can you tell??

Thanks!

Oly

[cshold]

Good on ya, but try as I might I can't spot the bad one in the picture! Which one is bad and how can you tell??

Thanks!

Oly

The bad one is the one laying on its side on top of the heat sink.
The pic. was taken after I removed the bad one and soldered in the new one.
The top of a capacitor has an x built-in to it, a weak spot, this will bubble
up and split open at that spot when they go bad. This one did not
split, just bubbled up.

[Ysabel Kid]

Call me IMPRESSED!

[Alan Wood]

Now for the not so good news about that repair. Expect to have to replace other capacitors in that TV for just the same reason. Turns out a Chinese industrial spy in Japan stole the formula for the electrolyte too soon as in before the research had been completed. End result millions of Consumer Electronic items having bad Electrolytic capacitor problems. This has been hitting the PC market for years now.
Alan Wood

[olyinaz]

Good on ya, but try as I might I can't spot the bad one in the picture! Which one is bad and how can you tell??

Thanks!

Oly

The bad one is the one laying on its side on top of the heat sink.
The pic. was taken after I removed the bad one and soldered in the new one.
The top of a capacitor has an x built-in to it, a weak spot, this will bubble
up and split open at that spot when they go bad. This one did not
split, just bubbled up.

Ah so! Sank you.

Oly

[cshold]

Now for the not so good news about that repair. Expect to have to replace other capacitors in that TV for just the same reason. Turns out a Chinese industrial spy in Japan stole the formula for the electrolyte too soon as in before the research had been completed. End result millions of Consumer Electronic items having bad Electrolytic capacitor problems. This has been hitting the PC market for years now.
Alan Wood

Yes I’m indeed aware of that; heck there’s even a class action lawsuit against
Samsung for there faulty power supplies I could get in on. My plan is, as they
blow I’ll take the 10 or 15 min. and replace them. After I no longer can fix it myself
I will buy a new one. BUT NEVER A SAMSUNG AGAIN…

[Chuck 100 yd]

Back in the olden days (when the world was flat), we used to take the vacuum tubes out of our TV and take them down to the drug store where they had a tube tester. This D.I.Y. display had the tester and a supply of new tubes. We fixed our set several times that way.

[cshold]

Back in the olden days (when the world was flat), we used to take the vacuum tubes out of our TV and take them down to the drug store where they had a tube tester. This D.I.Y. display had the tester and a supply of new tubes. We fixed our set several times that way.

Yep! I do remember that myself...
I worked part time at K-mart back in high school for $ 2.30 an hour.
There was a tube testing machine in the appliance dept. and a
wall rack with a large assortment of replacement tubes.

[Grizz]

Back in the olden days (when the world was flat), we used to take the vacuum tubes out of our TV and take them down to the drug store where they had a tube tester. This D.I.Y. display had the tester and a supply of new tubes. We fixed our set several times that way.

Back then in the old days we took the tubes out of the tv, used the high voltage for the power supply to a single tube ham transmitter. loved that purple glow at 2am working 80m dx with the kn7... call sign. cw straight key.

Flat indeed

Grizz

[SteveR]

My TV went today, looks like the same problem except with a Magnavox-Phillips LCD TV. What I can find out on the interenet is the same problem, defective Chinese/Taiwan capacitors on the power circuit board.

Magnavox just settled a class action suit for a different model, time to stay away from Chinese and stay with Japanese made electronics, too bad the US doesn't make things anymore

Steve

PS
casastahle, do you still have those pics?

Thanks Steve

[Blaine]

I have a TU Samsung...Maybe I could find something. It seems to be a physical problem....banging it makes it work again

[gak]

My TV went today, looks like the same problem except with a Magnavox-Phillips LCD TV. What I can find out on the interenet is the same problem, defective Chinese/Taiwan capacitors on the power circuit board.

Magnavox just settled a class action suit for a different model, time to stay away from Chinese and stay with Japanese made electronics, too bad the US doesn't make things anymore

Steve

PS
casastahle, do you still have those pics?

Thanks Steve

Unfortunately, according to a local TV guy I've consulted, virtually all the current ones are Chinese, with the exception of Panasonic IIRC, which at least are Japanese-assembled. (This was 6 months ago) I'd be more than happy to be corrected. I've got a picture "tube" (screen) going bad on a 3.75 year 42" Magnavox-Philips LCD which up to that point was one of the best pics I'd ever seen. Great TV. Practically heartbroken--as much as one can be about such inanimate objects! The above TV guy also said--based on my description (and sent photos of the shadowy effect) nothing could be done. Only thing to do is buy a new one when it gets to being intolerable (not quite there yet). I believe him as he does not sell TVs, only repairs. My TV's hanging in there, worse with some backgrounds than others, but he says it's only a matter of time...and sooner than later. Also said, these days on average they're only good for 3-4 years anymore (versus 15-20 of the old school 4:3's.

[SteveR]

Thank you casastahle for posting about your TV and the bad capacitor's.

Just as I thought bad capacitor, the worse part was getting the plastic back cover off to get to the power supply.

Now I am waiting for replacement capacitor's for the power supply. I am taking the advise of others who said replace all of the capacitors on the power supply that were made by CapXon.

Steve

[cshold]

WOW! that was a flashback moment seeing this thread again.
Pictures are back up, and yes the TV is still working great.

[SteveR]

Thanks I see the pics are up.

Well my parts came in the mail and Friday I replaced all the bad caps, well put power to it and it didn't come on. Still has the blinking green light on power button, so I searched the internet some more, (lots of bogus info out there, if you don't know basic electronics don't trust what is posted out there), and I look over the board again. Then I found a burnt up what I first thought was a resistor, got the magnifying glass out, and it was really a zener diode.

Quick search on the internet, bingo, it seems when this cap fails it surges and burns up diodes and very, very, very, tiny resistors. So I had some switching zener diodes and replaced that, and was looking for one of those very tiny resistors, and I tested it, well it was good, burnt and all it held up!! I would have thought with the amount of burning it would be toast.

So long story short, got my TV working again. Thanks for the post casastahle, saved me a lot of money!!!

Steve