Disposable Flat Panel TV's

[Petra]

If I had the electronics skills, it would be fun to try to fix it. I guess there isn't any risk of bricking something that is already bricked. Glad that worked for you though!

FFS, just fix it yourself! Unless you want to diagnose the board and only replace the failed components, just module swap the board. If you can use a screwdriver and plug/unplug wires, then you can swap the board.

[Sunday]

They are all disposable. What is interesting is growing up one of out neighbors had one of the first color TVs and I remember it cost $700.00 back in 1966 or so. That was a huge sum of money back then.

[Euphoria526]

I e had my Sony Bravia 42" led for about 4 years now

[Dubious_Beans]

Take the back off and pull all the tubes out.
Take them down to the local hardware store and test each one with their tube tester. Any that are bad or marginal should be replaced.
Replacement tubes can be found in the little cabinet underneath the tester for a couple of dollars each. Might as well by a box of 22LR while you're there at the hardware store.
Take the tubes home and reinstall in the TV and put the back on.
Turn TV on and wait a few minutes for it to warm up and it should be good as new.

Sheesh, don't they teach kids anything these days?

[stilly]

Look up planned obsolescence.

Yup.

QFT.

RCA was an expert in that. My g/fs tv broke one month after warranty expired. Cost $74 to fix from a tv shop.

RCA blows as far as I am concerned and the guy at the shop said about the same thing. Designed to only live a few years...

[AgentAK]

Take the back off and pull all the tubes out.
Take them down to the local hardware store and test each one with their tube tester. Any that are bad or marginal should be replaced.
Replacement tubes can be found in the little cabinet underneath the tester for a couple of dollars each. Might as well by a box of 22LR while you're there at the hardware store.
Take the tubes home and reinstall in the TV and put the back on.
Turn TV on and wait a few minutes for it to warm up and it should be good as new.

Sheesh, don't they teach kids anything these days?

You're not far off, but these days it's the capacitors that go bad almost 90% of the time. It's an easy fix if you can solder.

[Bobby Ricigliano]

They are all disposable. What is interesting is growing up one of out neighbors had one of the first color TVs and I remember it cost $700.00 back in 1966 or so. That was a huge sum of money back then.

I bought a 27" GE Tube TV at Best Buy almost 20 years ago. I gave it to a family member about 5 years ago, and it is still in their living room, watched daily and working fine.

[Dubious_Beans]

You're not far off, but these days it's the capacitors that go bad almost 90% of the time. It's an easy fix if you can solder.

Yep, bad caps are a very common culprit. I've got a Samsung monitor here to my right that I replaced several capacitors back in July 2012 and it's still working fine.

One of the visible symptoms of a bad cap is often a "bulgy top", where the top of the cap is slightly bulged instead of being flat.
Like this one. See how the top (at lower left) is slightly bulged instead of flat? That's NFG.

[Dirk Tungsten]

This comes to mind reading about all the cap failures in this thread:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

The article claims made that all of the bad capacitors should have been "used up" by 2007, but I still wonder if lots of them were sitting somewhere in the supply chain and still making it into electronics produced later.

[TitanCi]

Yep, bad caps are a very common culprit. I've got a Samsung monitor here to my right that I replaced several capacitors back in July 2012 and it's still working fine.



One of the visible symptoms of a bad cap is often a "bulgy top", where the top of the cap is slightly bulged instead of being flat.

Like this one. See how the top (at lower left) is slightly bulged instead of flat? That's NFG.

Thats exactly what I replaced. I accidentally called it a resistor. Mine had the bulgy top thing too.


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[The Last American Hero]

Any Sony units crapping out early?

My parents got an old skool toaster I make sure to remind them I like when I visit so they will put it in their Wills for me. How old? So old it doesn't have any brand name. Like a wagon wheel or something. About 30+ years ago I remember my Dad rewiring it with a little spool of Toaster Wire from hardware store. Only took about 4 minutes including cleaning out old crumbs.

[Dubious_Beans]

This comes to mind reading about all the cap failures in this thread:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

The article claims made that all of the bad capacitors should have been "used up" by 2007, but I still wonder if lots of them were sitting somewhere in the supply chain and still making it into electronics produced later.

[Xerxes]

The problem is there are no illegal immigrants who are smart enough to fix these cheap chinese electronics made in North Korean Slave labor camps..

All the lazy american citizens demand a middle class wage so when they spend 4 hours of their time diagnosing and fixing your TV they want $200 for their time, then they have to mark their time cost up 100% to pay for all the government mandated programs like social security, medicare, obama care, quarterly estimated taxes, disability, insurance, garbage fees, CLINTON MAKE ME RICH FEES, recycling fees, green house taxes, lead disposal fees, etc. Then they have to pay for the rent on the shop, the tools to used to fix the stuff, advetisement, then they have to pay for the parts, next thing you know its a $400-$600 bill, when you can buy new for $700 at costco.

Best bet is to do research and buy high quality.

Still going on my Sony 32" XBR from 1992, though due to the larger screens now it has been relegated to the bedroom. Similarly my computer desktop is 1997 vintage and my laptop is an HP from 2003 and my printer is a HP G85 still going strong. My pickup is a 1982 4WD toyota.

Or you can buy the cheap stuff that is disposable and from China. Nothing wrong with that as you can then afford to replace it in 3 years. Just stop complaining about buying the cheap Chinese stuff (so you feel good about how much money you saved) then expect it to last as long as the good stuff that you passed on because it was to expensive.

Sounds like you support Obama's executive decree to make illegal immigrants legal. Unfortunatley from my college economics course 101 by making this work force legal they will become lazy and want to be paid high wages else they will choose going on the dole and living off the taxpayers like every red blooded Americans right rather than working at a low wage.

Keeping these folks illegal will help support keep this black market of labor where these folks feel privelaged earning $10 an hour living in America where there is no Civil war or Narco Terrorists and they simply disregard all those pesky government mandated programs and will use the ER has their health plan and simply throw the lead soldered boards in the garbage instead of paying Al Gore to do Green Disposal where they trick you and simply send the mess to Bangladesh with a 1000% markup to keep costs down so you hire them.

Go figure, you just can't win!.

Maybe it is just better having the North Korean slave labor under their Chinese Plant owners making me a new TV every 3 years. At least that way North Korea will not totally fall apart with this small amount of foriegn hard currency returned to North Korea stolen by Kim supporters to buy Apple I-phones (Are you an I-TAX supporter, add a "I-" and add 50% to the price) assembled in China from parts made in Bangladesh from designs from Apple that were stolen using the US enforcement laws from legal Phillipino immigrants.

That way we don't have to worry about North Korean Nukes being lobbed at CA from pissed off North Korean elitist who are pissed off at us for fixing our TV's by paying illegal immigrants instead of buying Chinese TV's made from North Korean Slave labor who are no longer sending cash home so the Kim supporters can buy more I-Phones with Nukes purchased from pissed off Pakistani's that hate the Americans who decended on Afghanistan like a plague and ruined their plans to dominate the Indian peninsula with Nukes made from plans bought from North Korea who paid out of work Ukrainian Nuclear Scientist from the Soviet Empire collapse for their design and manufacturing plans.

I know I would rather buy a cheap chinese TV every 3 years than have to walk around the nuclear bomb crater every day on my commute to work as that would add several hours each way on my commute!

[wilit]

I bought a 50" Maxent plasma back in 2005. My friends all laughed and said, "Good luck with your no-name tv lasting longer than a couple of years." It's gotten heavy use and is still going strong 10 years later. My friend's Professional Grade Panasonic has had to be repaired twice in the same time.