TV Repair

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  • MDFF2008

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 12, 2008
    24,735
    Anyone know anyone in the Baltimore area who does TV repair? My friend asked me if I know anyone. She said Best Buy won't work on anything over 50 inches.
     

    engineerbrian

    JMB fan club
    Sep 3, 2010
    10,148
    Fredneck
    E waste or Electronic recycling is the new TV repair. Get rid of it and upgrade to a new television for what a repair would cost.
     

    KJackson

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Apr 3, 2017
    8,614
    Carroll County
    Depends on what is wrong. I was able to fix my 50" Samsung for cheap. There are only 3 boards in it and I was able to buy the whole set for $50. The expensive part is the screen.
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,500
    God's Country
    Depends on what is wrong. I was able to fix my 50" Samsung for cheap. There are only 3 boards in it and I was able to buy the whole set for $50. The expensive part is the screen.

    Sometimes the problem is indeed something simple like a power supply board or tuner. Often when a model has a flaky component which fails often, you'll see a lot of discussions online. If the part is indeed low cost and easily replaced that info will turn up in those discussions as well. However I've also spent $80 on a replacement board for an over 5yr old Toshiba flat screen. Only to have another board fail shortly thereafter.
     

    MDFF2008

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 12, 2008
    24,735
    I was thinking it's probably not worth fixing in terms of cost.

    She said the screen is black but there is still sound.
     

    rseymorejr

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 28, 2011
    26,015
    Harford County
    I was thinking it's probably not worth fixing in terms of cost.

    She said the screen is black but there is still sound.


    Probably the video board. Same thing happened to a Vizzio that we have. I knew it wouldn't be worth it to pay to have it fixed so I laid it out on the dining room table and took the back off. I looked at all the circuit boards and found a burnt spot. Found a replacement online for about $90 and it's been good as new ever since (about 5 years and counting)
     

    traveller

    The one with two L
    Nov 26, 2010
    18,262
    variable
    Even with the low price of new screens , it can be worth spending the $60 or so diagnostic fee a TV repair guy charges. I had one screen repair done for $60.52. $60 for his fee, 52 cents for the single burned out transistor he replaced in the power supply card.
     

    BlueFin

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 3, 2007
    1,175
    Montgomery Village
    Ask your friend to Google the problem first. Very easy to open the back panel of these things and parts just readily available. Might be something that you can remove and replace.
     

    Mightydog

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    I was thinking it's probably not worth fixing in terms of cost.

    She said the screen is black but there is still sound.

    Ask her if anyone’s played with the remote and menu settings. My 97 year old MIL use to call us about her tv being either too dark or no picture, or something else. Come to find out that when she wanted to change channels she used the tv remote that we had put away and not the cable box remote. She just kept pushing buttons until she totally screwed things up.
     

    fred55

    Senior
    Aug 24, 2016
    1,772
    Spotsylvania Co. VA
    Just my luck. This morning our downstairs Vizio has gone blank. I’ll pull the back off of it and look for circuit damage and either order parts or buy a new one... :lol2: fred55
     

    Mightydog

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Try unplugging it from power for a few minutes then plug back in. Sometimes my Panasonic won’t come on and I get a flashing light on the remote sensor. I unplug them plug back in and everything’s ok....until next time. Things 20 years old with only two hdmi inputs.
     

    Abuck

    Ultimate Member
    TV studio tech for 33 years, so I’ve fixed a lot of tv’s and monitors.

    Did anyone “do” anything to the tv lately? Change anything, menu, or cabling? Has it been moved recently? Operator error and physical damage were the first things I looked for.

    Is the screen black totally? Have you actually seen the screen? Often times the description of the problem doesn’t match reality. The colorful waterfalls type screen means something was pushed in to it.

    Do you see any menu characters or items? Tried a different input? Try a new HDMI cable? Having sound seems like the input is selected properly, but try different settings if you can. Leave it unplugged a while?

    If you have to open it up, look for anything obvious. Blown internal fuse, burnt component, blown capacitor, those were common. I used to keep a stock of flyback transformers for the analog Sony monitors, but things have changed so much.

    Look for bad solder joints. Those are very common. Especially around thermal cycling areas such as power supplies. With this being a picture issue, look at the cabling connectors. I’ve seen rows of them with bad soldering.

    Did you try hitting it? Lol Seriously, banging on the back (NOT the screen) a bit while its on and you are watching the screen, or slightly flexing the corners can point you toward an intermittent issue such as a bad connector or solder joint. I used to open them up and use a plastic tweaker to bang on the boards to isolate those issues.

    Other than that, if you don’t have someone that’s good with electronics, these things are considered consumable goods anymore. Just meant to be thrown away when they have issues. Years ago everything, even most consumer goods, came with schematics. Not anymore. If you can isolate the problem, yes, sometimes you can find a replacement board. Or screen. LCD screens have backlights that go bad.

    Google that exact model number and a description of the issue. Often times you aren’t the only one with the same issue, and you might find a forum with a solution. Depends how much time someone wants to invest in it.

    Good luck.
     

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