My Samsung 40″ LCD died the other day. It was a sad day. No one had the heart to the tell the DVR, as it kept recording shows into the night that would never be watched. First I turned to Samsung for help. But, the TV was older than two years, so I was outside my warranty. Then I turned to the next best thing: Forums. What I found out shocked me. This was a widespread problem for this particular model, where after just about two years, the device would begin taking longer and longer to turn on, until eventually, it would just quit and die. Thank God for commenters (no, not you). There was one commenter who was an electrician who had the same problem that I had had. He explained that on the power board were a group of capacitors that were the sole problem. The bad capacitors were easy to spot due to their puffed-up tops. And for $4.00 USD they could be replaced with comparable parts from The Shack. Being a novice with a soldering iron, I could attempt the fix myself, or I was told that if that didn’t work I could spring for a replacement $180 power board, so I figured that $180 would be a lot of cheaper than sending out the TV to be fixed, and if the 4$ fix worked, then it would be a modern-day-miracle. And it was. When the TV turned back on, it was like rediscovering fire.
This is a rare example, and I wish that more problems would be as easy to fix, but unfortunately with ever increasing complexity comes the loss of tinkering. How often did you open your PC case, just to check it out, or did you ever open the hood of your car while it was running, with a smile on your face. Yet, I would never think of opening up my TV in this day and age, well, not until this happened to me. So next time, something like this happens, which it will, check your options first, maybe you are a born modder or tinkerer just waiting for something to break down.
Here are some before and after shots.
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- Bad Capacitors
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- New Capacitors
