Can't believe it has been two months since I posted! Such failure on my part but I have a few updates of things that have happened in these last two months.
A few weeks ago (conveniently during the Olympics -- which I have an unhealthy obsession with), our TV stopped turning on correctly. It would blink the green button as if it was trying to turn on, and then not end up turning on. We could trick it by pressing the on button for a long time (like 5 minutes) and then quickly toggle on/off until it finally turned on. So, we did that for a few times, until it just didn't turn on at all. So, after messing with the power cord, we got one more turn on in, and then proceeded to leave the TV on for about 3 days because I NEEDED to watch the end of the Olympics (there was ladies figure skating and I wasn't about to miss that!).
As this was going on, we googled a bit and found out that the problem was most likely busted capacitors in the power supply. After some searching, we found that we could buy a kit off of Amazon that had the replacement capacitors for our specific TV. We figured if the TV was actually done-zo, spending $16 now wouldn't make a dent in the price of a new TV so it was worth a try. Here, I have to mention that this TV is at least 10 years old, if not older. It's also a nice 40'', which now is not anything amazing, but 10 years ago, was pretty darn cool. So, while it's totally understandable that it would be dying, we figured it was worth fixing it if we could.
The kit arrived and looked just like a bunch of capacitors:
It has worked without a hitch for the last month or so. In the end, we spent $16 to fix an originally $1500 TV. Today, this type of TV sells for closer to $500-800ish, but either way, we saved tons of money on this. And we have a sense of accomplishment for getting it fixed ourselves. Yay!
A few weeks ago (conveniently during the Olympics -- which I have an unhealthy obsession with), our TV stopped turning on correctly. It would blink the green button as if it was trying to turn on, and then not end up turning on. We could trick it by pressing the on button for a long time (like 5 minutes) and then quickly toggle on/off until it finally turned on. So, we did that for a few times, until it just didn't turn on at all. So, after messing with the power cord, we got one more turn on in, and then proceeded to leave the TV on for about 3 days because I NEEDED to watch the end of the Olympics (there was ladies figure skating and I wasn't about to miss that!).
As this was going on, we googled a bit and found out that the problem was most likely busted capacitors in the power supply. After some searching, we found that we could buy a kit off of Amazon that had the replacement capacitors for our specific TV. We figured if the TV was actually done-zo, spending $16 now wouldn't make a dent in the price of a new TV so it was worth a try. Here, I have to mention that this TV is at least 10 years old, if not older. It's also a nice 40'', which now is not anything amazing, but 10 years ago, was pretty darn cool. So, while it's totally understandable that it would be dying, we figured it was worth fixing it if we could.
The kit arrived and looked just like a bunch of capacitors:
The kit came with instructions on how to take the TV apart so we followed everything and made it to the power supply. Unfortunately, since we were (or rather, I was) so excited, there are no pictures of this process. Pretty much it involved lots of unscrewing and taking apart. The hardest part was getting the 16-pin cables out of the power supply board -- but after some wedging here and there, we got them unstuck (and then I promptly labeled them to make sure we didn't mess anything up upon reassembly). The power supply board did have at least three busted capacitors, circled in the next two pictures (you can see they are busted because they're bulging up):
The next part was done by Nate because his soldering skills are much more up-to-date than mine, and he didn't want me getting close to any kind of lead. He took the power supply board to lab and took out all of the old capacitors and put in all of the new ones. The new ones looked shiny and new and, mostly importantly, flat:
Then we reinstalled the board into the TV (you can see my cable labeled "right" and "left" in the left picture below):
With all the cables back, we started to put the TV back together (we had a baggy of about 20-30 screws to screw back in):
Finally, with the back and stand back on, we put the TV back up and plugged everything in. We turned it on and it worked!! This is my face below upon seeing that it was working perfectly. Nate said that this is what makes the project complete.
It has worked without a hitch for the last month or so. In the end, we spent $16 to fix an originally $1500 TV. Today, this type of TV sells for closer to $500-800ish, but either way, we saved tons of money on this. And we have a sense of accomplishment for getting it fixed ourselves. Yay!
