Flat screen TV fix?

[Wageslave]

The LCD's themselves rarely ever fail unless they have been physically damaged. The main failure points on most flat screen TVs are either backlight failure, power supply failure ( it's stone dead, no power led or anything), or logic board failure ( erratic behavior, digital artifacting, or certain ports not working).

In your case, I would probably just replace the logic board and see if that fixes it. They are usually plentiful on eBay if you Google your TV'S model number.

I have fixed several computer monitors this way.

 

[jlcustomz]

I think most of us here have it in our blood to at least give many items a physical looking at internally before trashing.
When you start to see lines in the screens, the screens themselves usually are done for. Starting out shutting itself off sounds like a burnt part in the power supply.
Too bad high schools never gave a general electronics course. So many problems could be a little resistor , capacitor, or solid state chip that could be unsoldered & swapped cheaply.

 

[TURNA]

It cost me 23 cents plus shipping to fix a 42 inch samsung flat screen my job threw out

One little capacitor blew out. Been great working for 5 years so far.

But vizio products have to be the biggest pieces of crap I ever seen.

If you u tube it im sure its a common problem with the fix

 

[69hurstolds]

I don't trust any of these yo-yos that have electronic repair shops. By the time you get something looked at, evaluated, and repaired, it would cost you about the price of buying a new one. I get someone has to make a living, but still...

I'm not electrically inclined. I don't care to be. But WAY WAY back in time, in the early 80s, I went to a 6 month school in Orlando for the Navy. First week I was there, my whamo-dyne high-priced Alpine stereo started malfunctioning. I took it to one of the many radio repair facilities in the area (they did have a lot more back then). They said they knew what was wrong with it (elevator motor and gear assembly for the cassette) and would order the part and repair it for somewhere around 80 bucks or so plus the part cost. I said ok... well, the party was in the front of this establishment because the 3 girls around my age that worked up front in the office area were cute and I would purposely go by there every week for a status update and go to lunch with the girls (no cell phones then and did I mention the girls were cute?). It took them 4 months to fix it. First they sent wrong part, then they had a parts supply issue and had to wait (probably wasn't the only one with this problem). It wasn't that bad, they gave me a loaner and it didn't sound as good, but it was passable. I did end up going out with the girls many times during that time frame, so it wasn't a horrible experience from that side of it at all!! But in the end they fixed it and it worked.

Another time was in the early 90s. I had a $500 VCR (yes, good VCR's were not cheap back then) and it broke. So the local electronics shop said they could fix it for about $400 with parts/labor. WTF? Oh hell no. I think they just didn't want to deal with it.

Both times I wanted to get something repaired, and both times the experience with the actual part was not a good one (the Orlando girls were a great perk though).

So my advice if you want to piddle, is buy a new TV first (latest and greatest technology which will be obsolete in a year) for cheap and then piddle with the old one. Because if you accidently let the smoke out, you can always toss it or give it to a tech school that can practice on those things. I dunno. And if you accidently fix it, you have a spare or another TV to put somewhere else. Win Win.

 

[Bonnewagon]

So I moved it down to my work bench. Before I tried anything I did the "power cycle" thing again where you unplug it- hold down the power button for 10 seconds- and re-plug it and try to power it up. IT WORKED!!! Took it back upstairs and re-plugged everything in. Dead to the world again. Reviews of Vizio are pretty bad so I'm thinking a one-way trip to the e-recycle is in order. EDIT: opened it up and there are no obvious defects. Fuse checks out OK. I'm done. Thanks to all who responded.

 

[ssn696]

When I replaced a 15 year old tube TV after a lightning strike in the neighborhood finally killed it, I forked over for a smaller Sony Bravia five years ago instead of the much bigger Vizio or Samsung for the same money. Consider buying your next one at Costco. No hassle returns at any store.

 

[ed1948]

I've used YouTube to become an expert G Body Technician. YouTube has also helped me repair a flat screen Samsung power supply(capacitor replacement), Nikon DSLR camera lens bracket and a Dremel Tool. Before YouTube came along I blew up an expensive Panasonic tube TV trying a simple main circuit board resolder in an attempt to repair an intermittent black screen after gathering info from the net.

 

[mclellan83]

I YouTube lots of things, helped my fix my tenants dryer multiple times. Planned obsolescence isn't necessarly a bad thing these days, big screen TV prices were outrageous and only the rich had them. Now you get a big boy with a much better picture quality for pennies compared to what they were, but like they say you get what you pay for. Many people opt for the Vizio's and other cheap brands then get disappointed in picture quality/relability. I almost am rooting for my Samsung 1080p plasma to go so that I can get one of the newer setups, I bought it off a girl on craigslist quite a few years ago when my Sony SXRD went. It didn't come with a stand or remote but got some free eye candy when picking it up. So I had to come up with a way to mount it in my entertainment center. I was pretty happy with the floating look but it is now bending bridge of the entertainment center. So one day I almost expect to come home and find it on the ground with the bridge and glass everywhere. I really started getting the itch when I upgraded my old Denon receiver to a new 9.2 setup.

 

[GP403]

a lot of times it is just a stupid capacitor in the power supply. easy peasy fix. other times its just not worth the time to debug it, unless you're wanting to do it just for fun. Check your caps for popped/domed tops, leaky fluid, or worse scorching or literally exploded. Lots of times it can be cold solder joints, which depending on how big they actually are might be easy or not.